The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released two documents that outline steps to help certain chain restaurants and vending machine companies comply with new federal nutrition labeling requirements. Section 4205 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the Act), signed into law by the President in March 2010 (also known as the health care reform legislation), set new federal requirements for nutrition labeling for foods sold at certain chain restaurants and similar retail food establishments with 20 or more locations. The Act also requires vending machine operators who own or operate 20 or more vending machines to provide calorie content for certain food items.
The documents released by the FDA include:
A final guidance for industry regarding the effect of the new federal nutrition labeling requirements on state and local laws.
A draft guidance describing implementation of certain provisions of the federal law. Some of these include posting the number of calories for standard menu items on menus and menu boards, including drive-through menu boards. This draft guidance is open to comments from the public through www.regulations.gov (click on Submit Comments; in the keyword field, enter FDA-2010-D-0370 and then “Search”). By March 23, 2011, the FDA is required by law to issue proposed regulations to carry out the provisions of Section 4205 of the Act.