FDA Food Labeling New Guidelines – In the ongoing battle against the obesity epidemic, the FDA released a set of guidelines that will hopefully make it easier for restaurants to understand and implement requirements with food labeling on their menus.
The guidelines are based on a law that was signed by President Barack Obama in March, which would require eateries and vending machines to give a list of the calories, fat and cholesterol content in items on their menu.
This is a great idea, given the shocking calorie content of some of the item menus that are sold in restaurants across the U.S. For example, a turkey burger that is supposedly “healthier” than beef from Ruby Tuesday is a whopping 1,145 calories and 71 grams of fat, while a a chicken chipotle crispers entree from Chili’s is 2,040 calories and 99 grams of fat.
With people being able to get a clear view of what they will be putting in their bodies, it might help to fight the rising problem of obesity. It may also put pressure on restaurants to stop putting meals on the menu that hide such a ridiculous amount of unhealthy items.
But the FDA is giving these eateries time to implement the system into the menus, saying that they realize it will take some planning before they are able to get it done. Because of this, they will not be penalizing anyone until a certain time period has passed.
That time period has not been decided, however, and they are asking for comments from the public on how long they think the restaurants should be given.