Eateries Fend Off Nutrition Labels (1/2)

Eateries Fend Off Nutrition Labels Starting next year, you'll be able to see the fat, calorie, carbohydrate and sodium count of a McDonald's cheeseburger or Chicken McNuggets right on the wrapper. Will other restaurants follow McDonald's lead? Maybe not. Legislators in at least 12 states, as well as a U.S. senator and congresswoman, want to require restaurants to put detailed nutritional information on their menus. But the industry isn't warming to the idea. Casual dining chains such as Tampa-based Outback Steakhouse and Orlando's Darden Restaurants, owners of Red Lobster and Olive Garden, would have to post their menu items' fat and calorie count just like fast-food chains. Restaurants appear to be fighting back. The National Restaurant Association and state groups, such as the Florida Restaurant Association, have helped to stall or kill each of the menu labeling bills. Outback helped finance a research institute, the Center for Consumer Freedom; hat attacks menu-labeling bills and other legislation critical of the restaurant industry, according to the Center for Media and Democracy, a Madison, Wis.-based nonprofit group. Finally, the restaurant industry has been backing proposals to give restaurants immunity to so-called obesity lawsuits. So far, legislators in 21 states, including Florida, have created laws that protect restaurants from lawsuits claiming that their food has made customers fat. It's hard to dispute that Americans are getting fatter. In fact, 30 percent of U.S. adults -- more than 60 million people -- are classified as obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some consumer health advocates and legislators think restaurants are partly responsible. In Maine, state Rep. Sean Faircloth, D-Bangor, says he was shocked one day when he watched kids file into a children's museum in Bangor. The youngsters, he said, looked overweight, out of shape and headed for health problems. So in 2003, Faircloth introduced a bill in Maine's Legislature that would require restaurants to list the number of calories of each food item in their menus. The bill died after it faced huge opposition from that state's restaurant industry. Jim Mitchell, a lobbyist who helped fight Faircloth's bill, said a coalition of restaurants helped pay to defeat it. Mitchell said he recalled speaking with Outback Steakhouse officials, but he did not know which companies, specifically, was part of the coalition. Such bills have been introduced in at least 11 other states, according to the National Restaurant Association. So far, six of the bills have been defeated, including Maine's, and six more are still pending, the restaurant association's Web site says. In each house of Congress, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., are pushing for mandatory menu labels. Generally, only chains with 10 or more restaurants operating under the same name would be affected by the state and federal bills, so mom-and-pop restaurants would not be affected, said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the health activist group Center for Science in the Public Interest. Even sit-down restaurants should list their nutritional information, Wootan said. It's not a subject that restaurants want to talk about. Outback Steakhouse did not respond to interview requests for this story. A spokesman for Darden Restaurants said that company declined to comment. At the moment, the fast-food chains appear to be the most transparent with nutritional information. For example, both McDonald's and Miami-based Burger King have detailed tables on their Web sites listing the fat, carbohydrate, sodium and calorie counts for menu items. Burger King also posts the information on a bulletin board in most restaurants, company spokeswoman Lauren Hammann said. So, why do restaurants loathe mandatory labels?