Last fall, menu labeling provisions were a hot topic, with multiple local and state legislatures considering requiring calorie postings on menus and menu boards at chain restaurants. Some of them passed, including bills in Maine and Massachusetts as well as Albany County, N.Y.
With menu labeling provisions in the health-care reform bill before the U.S. House and in one drafted by the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, proposing local and state regulations seems to have lost its urgency as the country awaits the fate of the federal reform package. The County Council in Montgomery County, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C., however, sees that now is the perfect time to address the matter.
The council has resurrected a measure first proposed in 2007 that would require chain restaurants with 20 or more locations nationwide to post calorie information on their menus or menu boards, according to a story in The Gazette of Gaithersburg, Md. The council is expected to vote on the bill Nov. 17.
A representative of the Restaurant Association of Maryland addressed the council on the topic, voicing opposition to the local law. The association, along with the National Restaurant Association, supports a national menu labeling standard, such as that proposed in the health-care reform bill drafted by the Senate's health committee.
From The Gazette:
(Councilman George L.) Leventhal said he supports menu labeling because of the benefit to public health, especially in lowering the rate of youth obesity.A county bill would not burden chain restaurants, most of which already have locations in New York City, where they are required to provide nutritional information in menus and on boards, he said.
