(Annapolis, MD) The Restaurant Association of Maryland applauded the recent decision of Delegate Doyle Niemann (D-47, Prince George's) to withdraw his legislation that would have required all chain restaurants in the state to display nutrition information on restaurant menus. House Bill 601 was withdrawn yesterday after receiving little support from fellow legislators and as a result of staunch opposition by the Restaurant Association of Maryland. This legislation would have applied to all chain restaurants with 15 or more locations nationwide, operating under the same trade name and offering predominantly the same menu, regardless of ownership.
“With the help of our membership, we conveyed industry concerns to lawmakers early in the legislative process. By the time the bill was scheduled for a committee hearing, we had managed to significantly weaken support for the measure” said Melvin Thompson, Senior Vice President of Government Relations for the Restaurant Association of Maryland. “Legislators clearly understand that chain restaurants are not opposed to providing nutrition information to customers. We simply want flexibility in how the information is displayed and nationwide uniformity through a federal approach.”
The legislation would have required calories to be displayed next to each menu item for establishments that use menu boards. The measure would have also required that saturated fat (and trans fat), sodium and carbohydrate information be made available upon customer request. Tableservice establishments that use printed menus would have been required to display calorie, saturated fat (and trans fat), sodium and carbohydrate information next to each menu item.
“This legislation would have required restaurants to add more text on a menu board that is already crowded with information. It would have interfered with our ability to give our customers the simpler, easy to read menu design they prefer and have come to expect,” said Jim Plamondon of The Plamondon Companies, the Frederick, MD-based franchisor of Roy Rogers Restaurants.
The Restaurant Association of Maryland strongly opposes a patchwork of state and local regulations that require the display of nutrition information directly on menus because of the significant burden it creates for multi-state chain restaurants. Instead, the Association prefers a federal solution that will create a nationwide policy while allowing restaurants some degree of flexibility in how such information is displayed. The Restaurant Association of Maryland supports the Labeling Education and Nutrition Act (LEAN) currently before Congress which would require chain restaurants with 20 or more locations nationwide to provide nutrition information in one of several useful formats. This federal legislation also recognizes the need to provide such nutrition information prior to the point of sale and significantly limits where such information may be displayed. The restaurant industry has made passage of this legislation a top priority.
Nearly all chain restaurants currently provide nutrition information to customers in some format and many independents have begun to provide similar information when customers express interest. The Restaurant Association of Maryland is currently exploring opportunities that would make it easier for its members to provide and share nutrition information with customers in a manner consistent with the overall operations of the business, if they so choose.
“Any nutrition labeling requirement should allow restaurants to retain some flexibility in selecting the format that works best for their particular business concept and customer preferences. The bottom line is that one size does not fit all. If the true goal is to provide consumers with more information, then efforts to restrict that information to whatever happens to fit on menus or menu boards are misguided,” added Thompson.
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