More restaurants serving up nutrition data for consumers

If you’re trying to cut down on your daily sodium, will that quarter-pound cheeseburger push you over your limit?

Customers at a franchised McDonald’s Corp. restaurant in Richardson, Texas, can find out with a new interactive touch screen that displays nutritional information on all standard menu items.
The display, described as the first in a U.S. McDonald’s, satisfies consumers’ hunger for nutritional data now. It launches as the federal government continues to mull guidelines for how all major restaurant chains should feed customers the facts about fats, calories and cholesterol.
“I am trying to take the lead and be transparent,” said Jonathan Chan, who owns three Dallas-area McDonald’s, fast-food restaurants including a redesigned outlet that houses the new display system. “Consumers are really very interested in this information.”
The 2010 Affordable Health Care Act included a requirement that all restaurant chains with 20 or more locations post calorie counts on the menu or menu board, including in the drive-through lane. It also requires food service operators to make other nutritional information, such as fat, sodium and cholesterol content, available upon request.
Many chains have nutrition information available in brochures and online — Starbucks Corp, for example, has brochures at its Lansing-area coffee shops with nutritional information and the Applebee’s chain has listed dietary information for some of its menu items. Other chains, such as Panera Bread Co., have added calorie information to their menu boards.
But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is still mulling how to implement the law, parsing over details such as font size — whether the calorie count should be at least as big as the price — and whether food service operations in convenience and grocery stores should be included. The FDA had hoped to finalize the rule by the end of 2011.
“However, the agency received several hundred comments on the menu labeling proposed rule,” said spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey. “I have no timeline on when (the final rule) will be completed.”
Chan said his aim was not to get a jump on the feds. “The intent was to get the information in front of the consumers and show we are proud of what we sell,” he said. “They look up ‘Egg McMuffin’ and see it is (only) 300 calories. I think people were surprised.”

Chan’s new system includes a wall-mounted 42-inch plasma TV that runs a new application designed specifically for the restaurant by Iowa-based QA Graphics. Chan declined to reveal the cost but said because it’s the first, the initial cost will end up being higher than costs going forward. The screen shows nutritional information for each standard McDonald’s item sold in the restaurant. It also can tally nutrition facts for the whole meal.
Cynthia Vidamo, 42, a home health worker, checked out the touch screen recently after she finished a “splurge” brunch of pancakes, eggs, a sausage biscuit and orange juice.
“Oh, wow,” she said, after discovering that her meal had more than 45 grams of fat and more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium. “That’s a lot of fat and sodium.
“This is interesting,” she added. “This is really helpful.”
Many major chains already include nutrition information on their websites. Nutrition data for Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald’s has been on tray liners since 1994 and on McDonalds.com since 1996.
It’s on menu boards only in McDonald’s where such displays already are mandatory such as New York City, a spokeswoman said.
Several communities and states have implemented menu labeling requirements without waiting for the federal law. The moves got strong backing from consumer groups that have been pushing for information in more restaurants that diners can access before they order. Initially, restaurants pushed back, arguing that wide menu variation and consumer special orders made it nearly impossible to accurately list all food facts.
Today, “the restaurants have pretty much stopped whining about that,” said Margo Wooten, director of nutrition policy with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer watchdog group. She noted that the law only applies to the “standard items usually offered for sale, not any unusual variation.”
Chan said in the three months his display system has been active, he’s not noticed a big change in people’s ordering habits, adding “if they want a certain item, they’re going to get it.”

Wooten said a study in New York City showed that when given nutrition information, consumers ordered 100 fewer calories for lunch. Another study at Starbucks found that consumers cut the calories in their orders by about 6 percent, she said.
Extrapolated out to the wider population, and assuming consumers made similar changes at other chain restaurants, she said “that would mean a 30-calorie, per person, per day decrease.”
Even without the federal mandate, some food industry observers are seeing technology-based displays, such as Chan’s, gain steam.
“People are increasingly comfortable with technology today,” said Erica Bohm, a vice president with HealthyDiningFinder.com, which highlights healthier menu options. “For the restaurant, it makes it easier to communicate changes. Increasingly people will begin to get that information electronically.”