Initiative will put nutrition facts on local menus

Chicken wings, beef on weck and butter lambs, we're looking at you.

But that reputation as an endless, calorie-laden buffet may be starting to change -- thanks to the introduction this week of a new initiative in Erie County that appears to be a first in the nation.

The project will target menus in 200 locally owned restaurants in an effort to make them healthier for diners by supplying nutritional information for certain food items.

Calorie counts, fat content, vitamins and salt -- among other ingredients -- will all be laid out in a user-friendly way for consumers to read before they place their orders.

The program appears to be unique in that it lays out such information in a large-scale way and involves both health experts and restaurateurs, national restaurant analysts said.

"As far as I know, it isn't happening anywhere else," said Maureen Keith, a spokeswoman for the National Restaurant Association in Washington, D.C.

The project has been developed as a collaboration between the county Health Department and the Western New York chapter of the New York State Restaurant Association.

In teaming health officials and restaurant owners with potent software called "Menu-

Calc," the product of a California firm, the project will allow the local restaurants to analyze menu items in their dining rooms in order to provide patrons with detailed nutritional information.

"We have to start somewhere," said Dr. Anthony J. Billittier IV, Erie County's health commissioner.

For a restaurant to do that kind of analysis on its own would be cost-prohibitive and too time-consuming, said Robert Free, president of the local chapter of the restaurant association.

"We can do it, but it's hugely laborious," said Free, who manages food service operations for the Buffalo Bisons. "You have to get out reference books, and it's tough to do. It's tough to budget that time. This new [software] program is fantastic -- it does all that work for you. It calculates everything for you and puts it in any format for you."

The initiative will provide the service free for the first 200 restaurants to participate, Free said.

Each dining business will be allowed to choose four menu items to have analyzed. The restaurants can later choose to add more items at their own cost, Free said.

"What I like about this is, it just gives people an option. It's not an endorsement of any particular menu item," Free said. "Maybe it will make people say, OK, I can have that fettuccine alfredo, but I can't have dessert -- or, I'm going to eat lightly for breakfast and lunch the next day."

Health officials said that's exactly the spirit of the program.

According to Billittier, the initiative is aimed at fighting some of the health risks that many residents of the county face: obesity or extra pounds, coupled with sometimes less-than-desirable eating habits.

"I truly hope people are ready for this, given our problems with obesity and our escalating health care costs," said Billittier. "Even if they're not ready, we have to encourage people to get ready, and to accept it. Many people currently don't even look at the labels on packaged food. The more they're exposed to it, the more and more people will look at it."

Billittier said that bad nutrition and obesity are more pressing than many other public health problems in Erie County, though they might draw less attention than subjects like swine flu and bed bugs.

The Health Department will thus try to couple the new menu initiative with educational efforts to make Western New Yorkers smarter about their eating habits, Billittier said.

"The bigger challenge is educating the public to know how to read these labels and what it all means," he said. "That job still lays ahead of us."

The menu program began to be discussed some 18 months ago with the county's receipt of a state community wellness grant.

In talking over ideas for ways to use the grant money, some county Health Department officials hit upon the idea of turning menus into sources of health and nutrition information for diners.

"This is brand new. Nobody's doing anything like this in the country," said Cheryllcq Moore, community coalition coordinator for the Health Department and one of the project's originators. "I think it's a good time for it now because food labeling is all over the news, and nobody understands it. Plus the holidays are coming up, and everybody is thinking about nutrition and the food they are going to eat and New Year's resolutions.

"We are trying to give people information."

The $25,000 total cost of the open-ended program will be fully funded by the state grant, Moore said.

The software program that will be used in the project,

MenuCalc, is a program based at the FoodCalc company in San Francisco, county health officials said.

The 200 Erie County restaurants that will participate in the project have not yet been selected.

The county Health Department is looking for interested restaurateurs to step forward.

Around the United States, the latest trend to affect food labeling came in the spring when, as part of the president's health care bill, new legislation was passed requiring chain restaurants operating 20 or more outlets to provide nutrition labeling for all menu items, said Keith, the National Restaurant Association spokeswoman.

The Erie County effort fits in to a changing national picture of restaurant dining in which restaurateurs are trying to provide customers healthier choices, more produce and locally grown options, and more nutritional guidance in general, Keith said.

"The industry is responding to consumer demands for healthier menu items," she said. "This is definitely where the trend is heading."

In the county Health Department, Moore said, she has already been fielding calls from around the country, as other municipalities and government entities look to see what Western New York is doing in this groundbreaking area.

"I've gotten calls from San Francisco. I've had calls from New York City's Department of Health," Moore said. "It's been interesting -- people are looking to see what we are doing here.

"This is the very beginning."