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Calorie counts on menus may not change consumer behavior

 
Expect to see more calories on menus in chain restaurants after the FDA released its long-awaited final regulations on labeling. [Associated Press]
Expect to see more calories on menus in chain restaurants after the FDA released its long-awaited final regulations on labeling. [Associated Press]
Published Nov. 26, 2014

Does knowing a calorie count stop us from buying that Big Mac?

Not likely, restaurant experts say.

But the proof will be in the proverbial pudding.

On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration released its long-awaited final regulations on menu labeling for restaurants. Called for under the Affordable Care Act, the regulations require chain restaurants with 20 or more locations under the same brand to include calorie counts on menus, menu boards and drive-through displays, and to provide other nutritional information to customers on demand.

Americans eat and drink about one-third of their calories away from home — calorie counts that were heretofore largely a mystery. Now, more than 200,000 restaurant locations nationwide will have to comply with the requirements by November 2015, according to the National Restaurant Association's president, Dawn Sweeney.

The regulations are voluntary for restaurants that have fewer than 20 locations. The rules also will apply to alcoholic beverages, something not included when the rules were originally proposed, and to vending machines, amusement parks, movie theaters and prepared foods in grocery and convenience stores.

Although the regulations are more sweeping than many industry experts anticipated, they are nothing new, said Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst for the NPD Group.

"We've been down this path once before with the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, which put nutrition fact labels on every food. Every food manufacturer in America had no idea what was going to happen and went through a period of uncertainty," he said. "Calories are the most important thing that consumers want to know."

Armed with that information, does it change consumer behavior? Balzer says no.

And Alan Lucas, longtime owner of St. Petersburg's Moon Under Water restaurant, agrees.

Lucas has firsthand experience with customers and calories. Three years ago he designed proprietary software to offer nutritional analysis of all menu items on a touch-screen terminal available in the restaurant.

"We stopped it about six months ago. We found that people weren't using it and it was taking up space. People are not really interested," he said. "It doesn't change consumer behavior one bit. … It's the bureaucrats that are pushing this. I'm a real example that it doesn't work."

Caspers Co., which owns 53 McDonald's in the greater Tampa Bay area, tells a similar tale. In September 2012 all McDonald's voluntarily converted menu boards to include caloric information, anticipating that it would soon be required nationwide.

"We wanted to be ahead of the curve. Has it changed ordering behavior? Not much," said Bob Conigliaro, vice president of community relations for Caspers. "It doesn't appear that our product mix has changed a whole lot."

For a massive enterprise like McDonald's, an undertaking of this sort is mitigated by economies of scale. Mike Kappitt, global chief marketing officer for Tampa-based Bloomin' Brands, says compliance is largely about "switching out one set of creative (printed material) for another . . . We've been ready." But how will this affect smaller players in the $660 billion restaurant industry?

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According to Warren Solocheck, vice president of client development for the NPD Group, smaller operators will be hit harder because of the expense of analyzing menu foods and changing out menus and menu boards. He thinks the regulations will be a disincentive for some restaurants to change their menus frequently or seasonally.

Betsy Craig, founder and CEO of Colorado-based MenuTrinfo, disagrees. She says restaurants have loads of options for how to analyze calorie counts on their menus.

"They can do it themselves and it won't cost a ton of money, or they can hire a registered dietician, or go to a college that has a nutrition or food science department, or hire a company like mine. If it's a one-store operator you're looking at the $1,000 range initially and then $100 a month to do it, not a lot of money if you partner up with the right person," she advises restaurants. "Stop freaking out."

Clearly the new requirements are aimed at stemming obesity in the United States and providing greater transparency — the jig is up for restaurant chains that decline to give nutritional information.

"In the short term people will be surprised about what's in their food," Balzer said. "But the truth of the matter in this country is we're no longer getting heavier. We're fat, but we're not getting heavier."

Contact Laura Reiley at lreiley@tampabay.com or (727) 892-2293. Follow @lreiley.