FDA could drop restaurant calorie labelling after stalling yet again

From: FoodBev

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rolled back plans to introduce calorie labelling on restaurant menu items for another year, heightening speculation that it might abandon or water down the controversial proposals.

Under the plans, announced in November 2014, establishments that serve prepared food – including restaurant chains, large vending operators and gas stations – would be required to publish calorie count information on menus.

The measure is designed to empower consumers to be more aware of the risks of fatty and sugary foods.

But the latest postponement is the fourth time that the plans have been pushed back: the original compliance date was set as a year after the legislation was announced, but that was soon changed to December 2016, followed by May 2017, and now 7 May 2018.

In a statement, the FDA said that postponing the compliance date would allow it “to consider how we might further reduce the regulatory burden or increase flexibility while continuing to achieve our regulatory objectives”.

It raises serious concerns about the restaurant industry’s readiness to implement change, and the willingness of the FDA – now under a different administration – to implement a controversial policy that would affect some of America’s biggest brands.

Analysis: Will it ever happen?

Questions have to be asked of a piece of legislation when its compliance date is pushed back for the fourth successive time. Restaurants and foodservice outlets in the US were expecting this legislation in November 2015, but now won’t be required to show the calorie content of their menu items by next May at the earliest.

We know that the Trump administration isn’t shy in rolling back Obama-era policies; Sonny Purdue, the newly confirmed secretary of the USDA, announced this week that low-fat flavoured milk would return as a beverage option in school meals and a la carte programmes, having previously been removed from menus. And calorie labelling for restaurant menus was an idea closely linked to the Affordable Care Act, which was anything but popular among Republicans. Tellingly, the USDA has said that it was trying to ‘reduce the regulatory burden’ on operators. Is that our clearest sign yet that these proposals might never be enacted at all?

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