Restaurants want more leeway in how they post calorie counts

The restaurant industry has asked the federal government to tone down and delay some of its proposed rules for displaying calorie counts on menus.

The industry wants the Food and Drug Administration, which is developing the rules, to allow a variety of approaches for letting consumers know how many calories are in the food they are considering buying.

For example, said Dan Roehl, lobbyist for the National Restaurant Assn., the current proposed rules would require pizza chains to post the calories for an entire pizza. Roehl said the restaurants should instead be able to post the calories by how much are in a portion — in this case, a slice.

The industry also wants flexibility in how it presents the calorie content of dishes based on what sauces, cheeses or other items are put on top. For example, if a burger chain has a sandwich that can include bacon, cheese and avocado, the FDA’s current proposal would require the chain to post the calories, from the lowest amount to the highest, based on the consumer’s various options.

The restaurant association and another trade group, the National Council of Chain Restaurants, said in that case restaurants should be able to post the calorie count for such a dish in a variety of ways, including the average.

The organizations also want the FDA to delay implementation of the rules until a year after they’re finalized, rather than the six-month period that’s currently proposed.

The rules, passed as part of the massive healthcare overhaul last year, would apply to any restaurant chain that has 20 or more locations operating under the same name nationwide.

In one area, the restaurants called upon the FDA to tighten the proposed rules — they want movie theaters and snack bars in big warehouse stores that are exempted from the law to be required to comply as well if they have more than 20 locations.

sharon.bernstein@latimes.com