Nearly 80 percent of New Yorkers surveyed found the new calorie counts in fast food restaurants “useful,” while 70 percent of them called the mayor “correct” to push for less salt in food, according to a Quinnipiac University poll, reported The New York Daily News. For the full story, click here.
Editor’s Insight: Surveys have given mixed results about how much attention consumers pay to calorie labels. Yesterday, VendingMarketWatch reported that a grocery shopping experiment showed consumers have a limited attention span for nutrition labels on food packaging, and that they read the labels far less frequently than they say they do.
Regardless of what studies find, vending and foodservice operators are going to be required to post calorie information at the point of sale under federal law. Operators need to be aware of what the rules are when the federal government announces them. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) missed its deadline for announcing its final rules on calorie disclosure this year. Agency officials say the rules will be announced in 2012. According to earlier FDA announcements, the industry will then have one year to comply with the rules. 12-23-11 By Elliot Maras
