Читать книгу Food Regulation - Neal D. Fortin - Страница 211

Section 4205 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) established requirements for limited nutrition labeling of standard menu items for chain restaurants, similar retail food establishments, and chain vending machine operators.⁴⁵ Section 4205 also provides that a restaurant or similar retail food establishment that is not a chain establishment may elect to be subject to section’s nutrition labeling requirements by registering every other year with FDA.

The public policy reasoning behind these requirements is summarized as follows:

More than two thirds of adults and about a third of children in the United States are overweight or obese. Overconsumption of calories is one of the primary risk factors for overweight and obesity. About half of consumers’ annual food dollars are spent on, and a third of total calories come from, foods prepared outside the home, including foods from restaurants and similar retail food establishments. Many people do not know, or underestimate, the calorie and nutrient content of these foods. To help make nutrition information for these foods available to consumers in a direct, accessible, and consistent manner to enable consumers to make informed and healthful dietary choices, section 4205 of the ACA requires that calorie and other nutrition information be provided to consumers in restaurants and similar retail food establishments … ⁴⁶

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In addition, state and local governments had been enacting their own laws requiring nutrition labeling on menus and menu boards to fill the vacuum in the absence of federal requirements. These state and local requirements vary significantly both in the requirements and regarding the establishments to which they apply. This lack of national uniformity created impetus for Congress to step in with a federal law.

FDA issued two food labeling regulations regarding calorie labeling on menus and vending machines. These regulations define the terms and details of which establishments are affected and how the requirements are to be carried out. These regulation titles are as follows:

 Nutrition Labeling of Standard Menu Items in Restaurants and Similar Retail Food Establishments⁴⁷

 Calorie Labeling of Articles of Food in Vending Machines⁴⁸