Skip to Content

Dining Out Smarter with New Menu Labeling Rules

In 2011, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first proposed national menu labeling rules, which would require that chain restaurants and other food retailers provide calorie counts and other nutrition information to their customers. Today, seven years later, those rules finally take effect.

hero_image===
thumbnail===https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/voicesactioncenter/pages/17640/attachments/original/1525972759/510181.jpg?1525972759

This important milestone will make it significantly easier for parents and families to make healthier choices when eating out. The potential benefits to our nation’s health and economic well-being are substantial.

The FDA’s regulatory impact analysis estimates that these rules will cover approximately 300,000 food retail establishments nationwide, and will result in a total net savings of $8 billion to the healthcare system over the next 20 years. In addition, a Harvard study found that menu labeling in restaurants alone could prevent up to 41,000 cases of childhood obesity and save more than $4.6 billion in health care costs over ten years.

Read the full story to learn more about new menu labeling information and its connection to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

 

This post was written by Jennifer Ng’andu