I will admit that during my past couple of visits to New York City, I have been shocked, but somewhat excited, to see nutritional information posted on menu boards all over the city – even on food carts selling hot dogs and gyros in Times Square and Central Park. As someone who attempts to make healthy eating decisions (until a coworker brings Dunkin’ Donuts to the office for breakfast), I personally love the idea of posting this information for consumers, and found that I definitely compared items when ordering.

Menu labeling regulations have now been extended across the country by the government and the FDA with the passing of Section 4205 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, titled “Nutrition Labeling of Standard Menu Items at Chain Restaurants.” These regulations require restaurants with 20 or more locations to label nutrition information on menu boards and disclose it in written form. The requirements have been a huge issue and area of debate recently in the restaurant industry, and lately I have been curious to hear the opinions of everyone in the Radiant community.

This week, we had a great discussion on Radiant’s Facebook page about the pros and cons of menu labeling regulations. For the most part, Radiant fans are also fans of menu labeling. One fan made a great point that informed consumers make better buying decisions. Others stated that at the end of the day, people will still make decisions based on taste and someone questioned why the regulations only target 20-plus site operators and not independents.

Ironically, after this discussion began, Technomic posted some new statistics around consumers’ opinions of menu labeling. According to their study, throughout the past year consumer orders have been affected by nutritional data disclosed on menus or menu boards. Out of those surveyed, two-thirds report that access to this information impacts their ordering decisions either “greatly” or “somewhat.” In a previous survey one year ago about this same issue, only half of consumers had the same responses.

I still can’t help but wonder how this legislation will affect restaurant operators. Is it fair for them to have to post nutritional information? What financial implications are there? It seems as though consumers are excited about menu labeling, but what do restaurants think? Please share your thoughts!

Tags: FDA, menu labeling, menu labeling regulations, nutrition facts, restaurant nutrition

This entry was posted by Mary Catherine Brutz, Marketing Communications on Friday, August 6th, 2010 at 9:18 am and is filed under Hospitality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.