The U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld the New York City Board of Health's menu labeling law, rejecting the New York Restaurant Association's challenge to the 2007 regulation. The rule requires restaurants with at least 15 stores in a chain to prominently display calorie information on their menus.
According to The New York Times, a three-judge panel of the appellate court rejected the restaurant association's arguments that the rule was pre-empted by federal Food and Drug Administration regulations and that it violated the First Amendment rights of restaurants.
The panel found that Congress intended to exempt restaurant food from the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 and left the question of whether to require the posting of information like calorie counts to state and local governments. The judges further ruled that the First Amendment was not violated.
National Restaurant Association executive vice president for Public Affairs Beth Johnson issued the following statement in response:
"The only way to ensure consumers get the nutrition information they want and need is for the federal government to establish a uniform national nutrition standard that requires chain restaurants to provide consistent, detailed nutrition information in writing in their restaurants.
"The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in favor of the New York City menu labeling mandate does not help more consumers get more nutrition information. Rather, it makes a confusing patchwork of state regulations even worse. As a growing number of cities and towns move ahead with different versions of menu-labeling mandates for restaurants, America's consumers face an increasing array of locally mandated nutrition data. Some people may get access to more information, but no one is getting all the nutrition information they need to make smart food choices when dining out."
The association is in support of the LEAN (Labeling Education and Nutrition) Act.
The Act is based on the success of the federal Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) and proposes expanding it to restaurants. NLEA was enacted over a decade ago to provide consumers with nutrition information on packaged foods and beverages. The LEAN Act expands NLEA to require point-of-sale nutrition data on standardized menu items sold by chain restaurants. This gives customers in chain restaurants the same comprehensive nutrition data about menu items that they have gotten used to reading on packaged food labels, Johnson said.
