NYC to Enforce Calorie Counts for Grocers

Industry leaders are criticizing a decision by New York City officials to expand calorie-count postings to supermarkets and begin compliance enforcement despite the Food and Drug Administration postponing action pending further review.

“The Food Marketing Institute expresses its surprise by and frustration with the city of New York’s announcement that city officials will begin targeting grocers and other food retailers on Monday, May 22, for ‘menu labeling’ compliance,” said Leslie Sarasin, president and CEO of the Arlington, Va.-based retail trade organization. “The announcement violates both the compliance date and the preemption provisions of the federal ‘menu labeling’ statute and regulations, which have been formally postponed and are undergoing review by the FDA until May 2018 due to substantive regulatory and enforcement concerns.”  

New York officials announced Thursday that they planned to expand its requirement that restaurants post calorie counts to include grocery stores that sell prepared meals, the New York Post reported. 

Enforcement will begin in August, after an educational campaign, the Post reported.

“We are concerned that by continually adding layers to menu labeling, we will see a dramatic increase in customer confusion,” Kevin Dugan, of the New York State Restaurant Association, told the Post.

Sarasin added, “These significant concerns get amplified by the city’s unexpected action, which did not include any prior or formal notification to food retailers and provides only a single business days’ notice prior to enforcement; a situation exacerbated by a lack of training materials, oversight procedures and discussions to resolve problems.”                                                                                                     

For several years, the supermarket industry has sought “common sense flexibility,” such as liability protections for good-faith compliance efforts, allowing the use of a central menu board for a salad bar, and creating a regulatory environment that preserves the opportunity for selling locally-made and locally-sourced foods, Sarasin said.

“These are sensible modifications that can easily be incorporated, and that will allow grocery stores to provide information to customers in a more efficient and accurate, less costly manner,” she said. “ We ask for FDA, city officials and other entities to begin to employ a thoughtful, constructive approach to resolve some of the tremendous challenges associated with application of chain restaurant style ‘menu labeling’ in a grocery store environment.”