Grocery Stores Must Play by Eatery Rules

Pan Demetrakakes
Retail Leader Executive
New FDA regulation requires groceries that sell ready-to-eat food must provide calorie counts and other information.
New federal regulations requiring restaurants to provide calories and other nutritional information will affect all establishments, including grocery stores, that provide prepared food for immediate consumption.
FDA officials explained the new regulations, which technically spring from the Affordable Care Act, at a press conference Nov. 25. Basically, they require that calorie information be listed on menus and menu boards in chain restaurants, similar retail food establishments, and vending machines, all with 20 or more locations. They stated that it was important to include grocery stores because of the blurring of lines between food retailing and foodservice. Restaurants have one year to comply; vending machine operators have two.
“Grocery stores were clearly a complicated issue. Our intention was never to cover all foods sold in a grocery store,” Jessica Leighton, FDA senior advisor for nutrition science and policy, said at the phone-in press conference. “Our intention had to do with the fact that as grocery stores sell more and more restaurant-type foods, they are acting in some ways more like the restaurants we go in and get our foods from.”
The rule applies to food that is intended to be eaten on the spot, as the consumer leaves the premises, or immediately upon arrival at the consumer’s home, place of employment or other location. Leighton and FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg acknowledged that many grocery store managers might find the rule confusing with regard to deli counters and other areas that sell prepared food.
“I do believe that at the moment there are confusions about what is captured in terms of grocery stores, and that some of the concerns that have been raised in the press and elsewhere reflect a misperception that more things will be covered for required calorie counts,” Hamburg said.
The rule applies to unchangeable items that have been part of a fixed menu or menu board for at least 60 days. This would apply, for example, to a sandwich whose ingredients don’t change enough to affect calorie count or other relevant nutritional information, but it would not apply to a sandwich that is assembled on the spot according to a customer’s order.
“If every day there’s something different being offered, then it would not be covered under the law,” Hamburg said. “It isn’t simple and straightforward, but I think it is clear in terms of what foods are covered.” Leighton added that the FDA will be working with the grocery industry to clarify the effect of the final rule prior to implementation.
The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) came out strongly against the regulation before the Nov. 25 press conference, arguing that it should not apply to grocery stores in any way.
“”Grocery stores already provide an abundance of nutritional information well beyond calories and have done so for decades,” FMI President Leslie Sarasin said in a statement. “They should not be pulled into a menu labeling law and regulation designed for a different industry.”
As with restaurants, the rule applies only to grocery chains of 20 or more outlets. In response to a question at the conference, FDA officials said that independent stores affiliated with suppliers, cooperatives or other such umbrellas would not fall under the rule unless one individual or entity happened to own 20 or more such stores.