By: Rachel Nannola
When you’re shopping at a grocery store, it’s easy to determine how many calories are in a food because it’s on the nutrition facts label. So why can’t we determine how many calories are in foods at restaurants just as easily? Well luckily, soon we’ll be able to.
The FDA has finalized a rule that requires restaurants or similar retail food establishments with 20 or more locations to provide calorie content for food items on the menu. It has taken quite some time for this to be finalized and won’t start being enforced until approximately May 2017. However, some restaurants are already showing calorie contents on their menu items to be proactive.
Some examples of where you’ll be seeing calorie content:
- Drive-thru windows
- Take out food such as pizza
- Foods you serve yourself
- Popcorn at the movies or amusement park
- A food item at a coffee or sandwich shop
- An alcoholic beverage if it’s a standard menu item
These restaurants will also be required to provide additional nutritional information, such as amount of protein, fat, carbohydrates, and sodium in some way to the consumers. Possible ways include flyers, posters, online, booklets, and more.
While we wait for these new changes to be enforced, you can usually still find nutrition information for most restaurants that have at least 20 locations on their websites.
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