FDA Menu Label Proposals

When your family’s meal plan calls for a night out at a restaurant or your afternoon slump at the office requires you to hit the vending machine, do you consider the nutritional content of your choices?  

Last month, the FDA released two proposals for nutrition labeling regulations that will preempt current state and local laws. You can read the entire proposals for both the menu & food establishments and those for vending machines, but according to the American Dietetic Association Times the major points include:

• Menus, menu boards, drive-thrus & online menus would include calories per serving
• Menus would also be required to include suggested daily calorie goals
• Additional nutrition information must be available upon request
• Vending machine operators with 20 or more machines would be required to follow the regulations
• Calories must be posted at point of purchase of vending machines if not visible on the packaging
• Calories for vended items would be listed per entire package, not per serving

The FDA is seeking comments on the proposals through July 5th. The FDA site provided these instructions for submitting comments.

To submit your comments electronically to the docket go to www.regulations.gov:
Choose “Submit a Comment” from the top task bar  
Enter one of the following docket numbers in the “Keyword” space  
FDA-2011-F-0171 (vending machine) 
FDA-2011-F-0172 (menu) 
Then select “Search”  

What do you think?  Does your state currently require the information?  If not, would the labels affect your choices? Or just become more “noise” out there? I’d love to hear your thoughts.