Blog

Is your restaurant required?

November 28, 2010 by Betsy Craig — pres, menutrinfo.com

Is your restaurant required by law to post nutritional information?

As restaurant owners and managers you are accustomed to customers’ inquiries for the ingredient and nutritional information on your menu. Until now, answering these questions was purely at the discretion of management. However, recent changes in state and federal laws may have you asking:

Am I legally required to post nutritional information on menus?

The short answer: Maybe.

Before you get too frustrated, we are happy to help you determine your requirements with a few easy questions.

Is your restaurant part of a chain of 20 or more establishments?

If you answered yes, you are legally obligated to provide nutritional information on your menu (including drive-thru menus). With the passage of the Affordable Care Act in March 2010, section 4205 included a requirement that establishments with 20 or more locations provide their customers menu information. You can read the FDA press release here.

If you answered no, you’re not off the hook yet. Keep reading.

Is your restaurant or one of them located in any of the following locations?

Albany County, NY
Arkansas
California
Chicago, IL
Connecticut
Delaware
Davidson County, TN
Florida
Hawaii
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kentucky
King County, WA
Lane County, OR
Los Angeles County, CA
Maryland
Massachusetts
Minneapolis, MN
Minnesota
Missouri
Montgomery County, MD
Multnomah County, OR
Nashville, TN
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
New York City, NY
Oklahoma
Oregon State
Rhode Island
Rockland County, NY
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
San Francisco, CA
Santa Clara County, CA
Schenectady County, NY
South Carolina
St Paul, MN
Suffolk County, NY
Tennessee
Texas
Ulster County, NY
Vermont
Washington
Westchester County, NY
West Virginia

If you answered yes, you may be currently required to provide nutritional information. Each of these locations listed has passed or is reviewing legislation requiring restaurants to provide nutritional information on menus. If your restaurant is included, please contact us and we will be happy to assist you in determining if you are currently or will be soon required to post information.

Still all no's?

You’re not off the hook. While this list is current as of today, new legislation is being introduced all the time. And there are certainly countless reasons to offer your customers the information prior to being legally obligated.

About Betsy Craig

To date MenuTrinfo is responsible for menu nutritional information at over 100K US restaurants, food allergy and gluten free ANAB accredited training for hundreds of thousands of food service professionals. AllerTrain is the chosen food allergy training by NEHA providing continuing educational credit hours for those that take and pass its course. Finally, MenuTrinfo delivers food allergy confidence and allergen transparency to today’s food allergic consumer through its onsite division offerings, AllerCheck, Certified Free From allergens for spaces and food products which is an ISO 17065 certification and expert consultation and incident response support when needed.

Connect with Betsy: