WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration's requirement that restaurants start posting calorie counts beginning this December is raising concerns across the political spectrum.  Earlier this week, a group of 32 Republican and Democratic senators – including Lamar Alexander (R-TN), the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee which oversees the FDA, and Patty Murray (D-WA), the panel's ranking member – signed a letter calling for a one-year delay in implementation of the labeling regulations.

Under the menu labeling regulations issued last year, retail chains with 20 or more locations must post caloric information for standard menu items on menus or menu boards or, for self-service items and foods on display, on signs adjacent to the items. They also must provide additional written nutrition information to consumers upon request. Covered retail food establishments are required to comply with those regulations by December 1, 2015.

“While we recognize the benefit of improved access to nutritional information for consumers, we are concerned that the lack of clear and consistent guidance from the agency will make it difficult, confusing, and burdensome for businesses, particularly smaller businesses, to implement the new requirements,” the senators wrote, pointing out that the FDA has yet to issue guidance for complying with the requirements.

Further, the senators’ letter continues, “We are concerned that there are still outstanding questions regarding the details of how the final rule will be applied to certain covered entities, specific types of restaurant-type food, standard menu items, menu boards, and other key areas covered by the final rule.”

Late last month, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act (H.R. 2017), a bill NACS supports. The legislation, sponsored by Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) is a thoughtful, well-crafted approach to requiring convenience stores and other retail food establishments to provide nutrition information to their customers, addressing concerns that food retailers have with the FDA regulations.

While NACS would welcome a one-year delay, H.R. 2017 also includes that provision and the legislation is a much stronger and more effective response to the problems convenience retailers will face under this rule. NACS encourages you to contact your member of Congress to urge them to co-sponsor this legislation.