New York Precedent

“Consumers want the information, so we need to find a consistent way to convey them,” DeFife said in an interview before the final rule was released.

New York City, for example, found that about 15 percent of people surveyed as they exited restaurants said they used the calorie counts.

The rules could lower how many calories Americans get on the plate when they order out. “Restaurants will have an incentive to create healthier dishes, smaller portions,” said Marlene Schwartz, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. “I believe that there is some evidence that that indeed has happened.”

Large chain restaurants introduced new food and beverage options last year that, on average, contain 60 fewer calories than their traditional menu selections in 2012, according to research released in October from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

McDonald’s Corp., the world’s biggest restaurant chain, began posting calorie counts on its menu boards in 2012 and said it would test healthier items, such as egg-white breakfast sandwiches 350-calorie sweet chili chicken wraps and more produce side items.
 

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