This is simply because the FDA has not issued critical guidelines yet that will help the food industry perform menu labeling. Since new businesses are being affected by this along with the ongoing confusion, the FDA has agreed that food establishments like restaurants may wait for another year before being required to show calorie amounts on their menus.
Last November, this is the reason the administration had proposed a rule which made it compulsory for all chain restaurants, pizza parlors and movie theaters to show calories for all the food items on their menus.
The FDA (Food & Drug Administration) is also delaying regulations under Obamacare which require restaurants to show calorie information to as late as December of 2016. This happened once businesses complained that they didn’t have enough time to adhere to such complex standards.
Food establishments have now been given time till December 2016 for adding calorie counts on their menus. They will also have to provide additional information on nutrition such as sodium, sugar, fat, etc. on request.
A number of industries have complained that they have no idea of how to implement these requirements.
Vending machines too need to display calorie related information although this was only supposed to come into effect from December 2016 from the start.
According to critics, while this delay wasn’t fatal, it did create reason to worry as the food industries would now have more time for lobbying against this step.
In order to ensure this process keeps on moving, the FDA has planned to issue a draft guidance this August which will answer most of the frequently asked questions received by the agency to help establishments comply with the new rules.
The deputy commissioner for food at the FDA, Michael Taylor commented that they agreed that more time was required so that the FDA could provide more guidance on these rules. The CEO of the association, Dawn Sweeney said, that they have been supporting this nationwide, menu labeling standard from the beginning.
