Court Delays Posting Of Calorie Counts

[Pandora]

These regulations need to be Country Wide. Now.

Yes I know we all have a choice to make all our own food, and it's certainly the better, tastier choice, but we should also have the power to know exactly what is In our food, and how much it's going to cost our thighs, arteries, rear ends and everything else we walk around with.

April 23, 2008, 6:44 pm

Court Delays Posting of Calorie Counts

By James Barron

A federal appeals judge on Wednesday delayed the enforcement of new city rules requiring calorie counts to be posted alongside prices in some restaurants.

The delay ordered by Judge Robert A. Katzmann is only temporary, until Tuesday, when he said a three-member panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals would hear oral arguments on continuing the delay. The regulations had been scheduled to go into effect on Saturday.

The delay was sought by the New York State Restaurant Association, which lost its challenge of the new rules in United State District Court in Manhattan last week.

In opposing any delay, the city said that putting off the new regulations “will likely have a negative effect on the public health.” City officials maintain that consumers will make healthier choices if they know how many calories are in each item on a menu. Officials also say that rampant obesity makes encouraging people to eat better is in the public interest.

Under the rules, which the city’s health department revised after Judge Richard J. Holwell struck down an earlier version last fall, any chain with at least 15 outlets nationwide would have to display calorie counts on menu boards, menus or food tags. The rules would apply to roughly 2,000 restaurants, or about 10 percent of the 23,000 in the city, the health department said.

Some chain-restaurant outlets, among them Starbucks, Subway, Quiznos and Chipotle, have already posted calorie counts (startling some customers.)

[freydis]

Personally? I'd like to see ingredient lists. That way I know before I eat it if it's going to give me a problem....