Should retailers and restaurants post calorie info no matter what the FDA decides?
Photo: WIkipedia/Ildar Sagdejev

Should retailers and restaurants post calorie info no matter what the FDA decides?

While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is holding up rules requiring businesses that sell prepared foods to post signage with calorie counts, chains including Jewel-Osco and Krispy Kreme have decided to display the information anyway.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Jewel-Osco, which has been training employees and working on making signage changes for about a year, decided to move ahead in the name of transparency and to help its customers make more informed nutritional decisions.

Ken Cruikshank, a sales and merchandising manager at Jewel-Osco, told the Tribune that the chain ultimately decided, despite the FDA’s delay, to proceed because “it was the right thing to do.”

The FDA is looking at possibly rewriting the calorie count rules, which were to go into effect this year after being passed as part of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. The rules, which have been delayed three times since first being issued in Dec. 2014, would require restaurants with 20 or more locations, along with other foodservice providers such as convenience stores and supermarkets, to post the information. A number of chains, which currently display the information for consumers to view, don’t appear likely to remove it following the FDA’s action.

The American Pizza Community, a lobbying group supported by Domino’s, opposed the enactment of the rules, claiming they would “impose excessive burdens on thousands of small businesses without achieving meaningful improvements in educating consumers.”

The group said it supports menu labeling that “provides consumers with information and enables small business owners to comply with flexibility while continuing to thrive and create jobs.”

Margo Wooten, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, rejected the argument that opposition was intended to protect the interests of small businesses.

“Republicans are just as likely as Democrats to suffer from diabetes, heart disease and other diet-related health problems,” Ms Wooten said in a statement. “Yet the Trump Administration is myopically putting Big Food’s interests over the interests of American consumers.”

BrainTrust

"Providing information about the food you sell is a plus in any circumstance."

Lee Kent

Principal, Your Retail Authority, LLC


"Imagine knowing that there could be 1,000 calories in the hot fudge, triple-scoop ice cream sundae. Does the customer still buy it?"

Art Suriano

Chief Executive Officer, The TSi Company


"Clearly, businesses that provide this information regardless of FDA requirements will be seen more positively than those who do not. "

Ricardo Belmar

Retail Transformation Thought Leader, Advisor, & Strategist


Discussion Questions

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Would foodservice companies — convenience stores, restaurants, supermarkets, et al — that post calorie counts see a business benefit from displaying that information? How do you think companies should react to the FDA’s decision to delay calorie count labeling requirements?

Poll

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Mark Ryski
Noble Member
6 years ago

If you sell food, you should be required to provide information to consumers on what they’re eating. I understand the concerns food retailers have regarding the time, effort and cost of complying with this type of regulation, but public health and safety should come first.

Max Goldberg
6 years ago

Consumers want information and transparency. Retailers that post calorie counts and other nutritional information will be seen in a more positive light than those that don’t. If a company has already done the research and has the information, it should consider posting it.

Lyle Bunn (Ph.D. Hon)
Lyle Bunn (Ph.D. Hon)
6 years ago

Specific calorie numbers should be posted if it encourages the menu selection (i.e. salads, healthy choices), but this information can be presented in different ways to serve consumer information needs. For example, a percentage of the recommended daily calorie intake in the context of daily energy needs. A burger might be 20 percent of the energy need for a busy work or fitness day, 30 percent for a busy mom, etc. In the way that beverage upsizing can be presented as, “at today’s temperature, 60 ounces of daily fluid intake is recommended” or an airport-sized beverage could display the text “hydrate before your get on your flight.”

Dynamic menu and promotion boards make this type of messaging easy and serves everyone concerned.

Dr. Stephen Needel
Active Member
6 years ago

I don’t think this can hurt a food service company. By this point in time, nobody should be shocked at the calorie counts of a Big Mac or the lack of nutrition in a Krispy Kreme — it’s not why you go there. To the extent that the talk about desired transparency is true (and there’s lots of bad research out there supporting this), then posting information will be a necessity from the customers’ viewpoint.

Lee Kent
Lee Kent
Member
6 years ago

Providing information about the food you sell is a plus in any circumstance. Smart retailers will do it regardless of the rules. I have been surprised, in my readings, just how many people really don’t know what is healthy and what is not. When consumers are provided with more information, they will be able to make smarter, more informed choices.

And that’s my 2 cents.

Gene Detroyer
Noble Member
6 years ago

Before you answer this question, just imagine what packaged food labeling would include today if decades ago rules for labeling didn’t become a requirement. Not only would consumers not know what they are buying and eating, but the food companies would fill their products with unhealthy and likely toxic ingredients. The labeling tries to keep them honest.

So why shouldn’t all food have labeling? Transparency is key and the consumer has a right to know exactly what they are buying.

With regard to the claim “they would impose excessive burdens on thousands of small businesses without achieving meaningful improvements in educating consumers.” My comment is, if you can’t tell the customer what you are selling them, you should not be in the business.

Brandon Rael
Active Member
6 years ago

There is simply no going back for food service companies. It’s their responsibility as ethical and consumer-focused organizations to have full transparency with their customers. Our society has navigated down an irreversible path of having information at their fingertips. To keep the trust, confidence and faith of their customers, food service companies should retain this by being open and honest.

There are far more negative implications for companies to hold back information with the digital revolution in full motion.

Art Suriano
Member
6 years ago

As someone who five years ago lost 80 pounds and managed to keep it off by a change in lifestyle, I welcome as much information about what I’m eating as possible. However, I can see the opposing argument because until I learned the better way of life, I was less interested in knowing what I was eating if I enjoyed it. We need to be careful on what we force retailers and restaurants to print because there is a cost and what they print could impact their business. Imagine knowing before the purchase that there could be 1,000 calories in the hot fudge, triple-scoop ice cream sundae. Does the customer still buy it? Even I, now 80 pounds lighter, will indulge in such a treat now and then. No harm in that, provided it’s only a few times a year. People need to learn to take responsibility for themselves and that is a growing trend today. So if retailers and restaurants are forced to print calorie information on everything the question is, will it really help those who are the way I used to be? Maybe some may take notice, but those who are already health-conscious with their apps full of food information are also concerned about sodium and sugar and a variety of other ingredients, so I’m not sure how much it will truly be a benefit.

Adrian Weidmann
Member
6 years ago

The question is “should” versus “will.” It is very expensive for restaurants to get accurate calorie information and it is questionable whether shoppers actually pay attention and make healthy choices based upon posted calorie numbers. If the Trump administration is willing to undermine the EPA and our natural parks and animals and healthcare they certainly don’t care about posting calorie information for consumers. Big business will drop this to save money and time to sell more unhealthy products at a higher margin.

Kenneth Leung
Active Member
6 years ago

Consumers want more information about what they are consuming so I think restaurants and retailers should post calorie information anyway, especially for casual dining food. The fact is that people aren’t surprised that they are consuming a lot of calories when they dine out, but they should have the information. It’s different for fine dining as I don’t see Michelin 3-star restaurants needing to post calorie counts. That’s where common sense needs to take hold (though that is getting uncommon these days given the litigious environment).

Bob Phibbs
Trusted Member
6 years ago

I think, to Art’s point, this is more a generational requirement than anything. When you’re 20 a Carl’s 5,000 calorie burger is fine — remember their attempt at low-cal? It bombed spectacularly so they went back to extra bacon, etc. As a Boomer, I find that when the calorie count is presented and I’m surprised it isn’t as much as I feared — I buy it. That’s about 50 percent of the time so those who don’t put calories could just as easy be losing sales.

Ricardo Belmar
Active Member
6 years ago

This is about transparency and consumer choice. There is no justifiable reason to avoid clearly stating to consumers what the ingredients are in their food. Will all consumers understand this information and know what to do with it? No, but that is a different problem to solve. Consumers need to be educated into understanding how to use calorie count and other labeling to make good, healthy choices for themselves. If the food providers don’t provide the information however, then no one can make good choices for themselves.

Clearly, businesses that provide this information regardless of FDA requirements will be seen more positively than those who do not. Consumers can always voice their opinion with their wallets!

Ralph Jacobson
Member
6 years ago

I truly respect and am not at all surprised that my Alma Mater, Jewel-Osco is leading the way, as they always do, this time in a customers-first approach to transparency. All this labeling does is provide more usable information for shoppers. I think it’s the right thing to do, just like my great friend of years gone by, Ken Cruikshank stated in the article. 😉

Steve Montgomery
Steve Montgomery
Member
6 years ago

Much has been written about informing the consumer about the caloric count and how is will impact consumers’ choice of food. While is not popular to say, many people don’t care and they just want food that tastes good to them. That doesn’t mean the information should not be posted, but having it posted is unlikely to make a major shift in what people elect to buy. Those that care will have the information and those that don’t will ignore it.

Craig Sundstrom
Craig Sundstrom
Noble Member
6 years ago

Generally, I support things that increase consumer’s knowledge, since a market economy is predicated upon informed choices, but…every once in a while one has to look at how information is used, and the costs/benefits of providing it. This IMHO straddles the line. Do we really want people standing in line to take even more time to decide while they perform math? Isn’t the info already available, and isn’t this effort an implicit admission that people – some of them, at least – aren’t really interested in making use of it?

The basic problem, of course, is that many people want to eat c$%^, and there are people willing to sell it to them.