New FDA rules will put calorie counts on menus next year

Counting your calories will become easier under new government rules requiring chain restaurants, supermarkets, convenience stores — and even movie theaters, amusement parks and vending machines — to post the calorie content of food "clearly and conspicuously" on their menus.

The Food and Drug Administration plans to announce the long-delayed rules on Tuesday. The regulations will apply to businesses with 20 or more locations and they will be given until November 2015 to comply.

The idea is that people may pass on that bacon double cheeseburger at a chain restaurant, hot dog at a gas station or large popcorn at the movie theater if they know that it has hundreds of calories. Beverages are included, and alcohol will be labeled if drinks are listed on the menu.

"Americans eat and drink about one-third of their calories away from home and people today expect clear information about the products they consume," said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. She said the effort is just one way that Americans can combat obesity.

The menus and menu boards will tell diners that a 2,000-calorie diet is used as the basis for daily nutrition, noting that individual calorie needs may vary. Additional nutritional information beyond calories, including sodium, fats, sugar and other items, must be available upon request.

The rules deal a blow to the grocery and convenience store industries, which have lobbied hard to be completely exempted since the menu labels became law in 2010 as a part of health overhaul. Even before the new rules were announced, Republicans in Congress had expressed concern that they would be too burdensome for businesses.

The law came together when the restaurant industry agreed to the labeling in an effort to dodge a growing patchwork of city and state rules. But supermarkets, convenience stores and many other retailers that sell prepared food said they wanted no part of it. The restaurant industry pushed to include those outlets as they have increasingly offered restaurant-like service.

The FDA issued proposed rules in 2011 that included supermarkets and convenience stores but excluded movie theaters. The final rules being released Tuesday include all of them.

The restaurant industry, along with nutrition and consumer advocates, has said that any business that sells prepared foods should be included. If a rotisserie chicken is labeled with a calorie count at a takeout restaurant, it should be labeled at a grocery store, they argued.

Representatives for the supermarket industry have said it could cost them up to a billion dollars to put the rules in place — costs that would be passed on to consumers. They said the rules could cover thousands of items in each store, unlike restaurants, which typically have fewer items.

To assuage some of their concerns in the final rules, FDA excluded prepared foods that are typically intended for more than one person to eat and require more preparation, like deli meats, cheeses or bulk deli salads.

But a sandwich for sale at the same counter would have to have a calorie label nearby, and the majority of prepared foods in the grocery store will have to be labeled — from the salad bar to the hot food bar to cookies and birthday cakes in the bakery.

The pizza industry, led by delivery giant Domino's, has also vigorously fought the rules, saying there are millions of ingredient combinations possible. The FDA attempted to mollify some of their concerns by allowing pizza restaurants to label pizza calories by the slice, as they had requested, but would still force the labeling on menu boards in take-out restaurants.

The delivery pizza industry had asked to post information online instead, saying that only a small percentage of customers walk into their stores and about half order online.

As in the proposed rules, the final version still exempts airplanes, trains, food trucks and other food served on forms of transportation.

The idea of menu labeling is to make sure that customers process the calorie information as they are figuring out what to eat. Many restaurants currently post nutritional information in a hallway, on a hamburger wrapper or on their website. The new law will make calories immediately available for most items.

New York City was the first in the country to put a calorie posting law in place, and other cities and states have followed since then. Several restaurant chains have already put calories on menus and menu boards nationwide.

A sampling of what will be labeled with calorie information — and what won't — under the new rules:

— Menu items at chain restaurants, including drive-through and take out boards

— Drinks on menus, and soda dispensers

— Some alcoholic beverages on menus

— Most prepared foods in supermarkets, convenience stores

— Concessions at movie theaters, amusement parks that are part of larger chains

— Displays of food, such as pastries, at coffee chains like Starbucks

— Food prepared on site at large retail outlets, such as Target and Costco

Foods that won't be labeled with calorie information:

— Menu items at independent restaurants with fewer than 20 outlets

— Seasonal or daily specials at chain restaurants

— Anything that isn't on a menu at a chain restaurant, such as a bread basket or drinks at the bar

— Food on airplanes, trains

— Food on food trucks

— Deli meats, cheeses and bulk salads at grocery stores