Menu Labeling Will Be “Rigid, Simplistic, Expansive”

U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg pens an op-ed on how new menu-labeling regulations will hinder growth in industries that serve food.

September 05, 2013

WASHINGTON, D.C. – What can Washington do to help the economy grow? Not enact badly written menu-labeling regulations, said Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) in an op-ed piece in the Washington Times.

With Michigan’s unemployment rate hovering above 8% since July 2008, Walberg wrote that, “Washington has struggled to enact policies that would restore growth — lowering taxes, reducing energy costs and improving worker training — and instead enacted bureaucratic rules that ensnare the productive private sector.” This is seen particularly in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) menu labeling rules. “While the objective of increased information for consumers may seem reasonable, the actual regulations are poorly designed, promise to be both costly and ineffective, and will kill jobs,” Walberg said in the piece.

The agency’s plan “is rigid, simplistic, and expansive. FDA’s proposed one-size-fits-all rules do not adequately account for the diversity of restaurant types or the variety of food products. This rigidity is especially problematic for restaurants that do not fit the dine-in model,” Walberg wrote. Pizza restaurants have expressed concerns about the rules, given the millions of ways pies can be made. “FDA’s rules would force restaurants to provide a dizzying and intimidating calorie range display that will tell you very little about your actual order. To make matters worse, FDA also would force these companies to label by the whole pie, resulting in ranges up to 2,000 calories wide when the vast majority of consumers eat only a few slices.”

Walberg also said the agency “significantly overstepped its authority by suggesting that the mandate applies to grocery and convenience stores. This interpretation is inconsistent with congressional intent and would make the federal mandate even more intrusive than menu-labeling standards adopted in New York City and Seattle.

“The cost for these stores to comply is high. The first-year outlay for the nation’s grocery stores alone is estimated at $1 billion — and this when 95% of products on grocery and convenience store shelves are already labeled.” The congressman pointed out that Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives have introduced the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act, which includes a number of provisions to rein in and correct FDA’s flawed approach. The bill would limit the mandate to restaurants and grant covered entities the flexibility to comply in a way that reflects consumer demands and behavior. Together, these reforms could save billions of dollars and millions of hours, while actually improving how consumers access and process information,” Walberg concluded.

NACS supports the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act.

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