Writing a new menu labeling law “has gotten extremely thorny,” said the head of the Food and Drug Administration, as the agency tries to figure out who should be covered by it, according to an Associated Press report.
The 2010 health-care law charged the FDA with requiring restaurants and other establishments that serve food to put calorie counts on menus and in vending machines. The agency issued a proposed rule in 2011, but the final rules have since been delayed as some of those non-restaurant establishments have lobbied hard to be exempt.
While the restaurant industry has signed on to the idea and helped to write the new regulations, supermarkets, convenience stores, and other retailers that sell prepared food say they want no part of it.
“There are very, very strong opinions and powerful voices on the consumer and public health side and on the industry side, and we have worked very hard to figure out what really makes sense and also what is implementable,” FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a recent interview with AP. (CSP Daily News: www.cspnet.com)
