Ordering a double cheeseburger with all the trimmings? You’ll soon get a side of guilt with that. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued sweeping new rules on Tuesday requiring that menus in some fast food outlets, chain restaurants and certain vending machines list the number of calories in each item they sell.
Menus and menu boards will also have to display the message: “2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice, but calorie needs vary.”
The rules, which are set to come into effect next year, will cover chains with 20 or more outlets, including sit-down and fast food restaurants, coffee shops, take-out and delivery foods, food ordered from a menu at a grocery store, and even popcorn and other snacks at movie theatres.
They will also include alcoholic beverages, such as cocktails, when they appear on menus; food trucks, food on trains and airlines, and bottles of liquor behind bars will be exempt.
Vending machines will be covered if their operator runs 20 or more machines, and will have to list the calories in a sticker or sign near the selection buttons.
Margaret Hamburg, the FDA’s commissioner, said in a blogpost on Tuesday that the new rules were especially important because “one-third of the calories Americans eat and drink come from food and beverages consumed away from home.”
Congress first called for calorie labels in the Affordable Care Act in 2010. The FDA proposed similar regulations to these in 2011, but they were not as wide.
“We believe that the Food and Drug Administration has positively addressed the areas of greatest concern with the proposed regulations and is providing the industry with the ability to implement the law in a way that will most benefit consumers,” a spokesperson for the National Restaurant Association said in a statement.
The new rules are a classic example of a “nudge” or “liberal paternalism”, according to Dan Acland, a professor of public policy and behavioural economics at the University of California, Berkeley. “These are policies that are non-coercive, and do not restrict people’s choices,” he said. “In fact, it’s increasing their choices.”
Margo Wootan, the director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said that portions are often large at restaurants. “People don’t know what they’re getting, and end up eating a lot more calories than they think. It is not uncommon for restaurant entrees alone to have 1000 calories, and once you add a side dish, a beverage or an appetiser, you could easily end up eating a whole day’s worth of calories in a single sitting.”
She said that studies have shown that not only does menu labelling lead to people making healthier choices, it also incentivises restaurants to revise their menus to reduce the calorie content of their food.
More than one third of all adults and 17% of children in the US are classified as obese, and the annual medical cost of obesity in America is $147bn, according to a study by the American Medical Association.
A UK-based study of students by the Obesity Society released in November showed that prominent and permanent calorie labelling in the student cafeteria led to an average of 7.7 pounds less weight gain compared to a control group.
