Sorry long, but has me a bit peeved.... It has been a law in California that the Nutritional Info be available for any restaurants with 20 or more chains. This has worked great for us. Well shortly after January 1, 2011 I noticed that some of the restaurants that we had been going to no longer had the Nutrition Info available. They stated "It's on the menu now"..... really, the only thing I see is the calories which do not help me in my situation. I mention that I need the nutrition info andd they respond by stating "We no longer have to provide that". Well I finally had time to look into this today and here is what I found: http://ocfoodinfo.com/downloads/Menu-Labeling-Guidelines-Info-Bulletin.pdf Orange County published this document that states they are no longer required to give the nutritrition information. I have been reading through this bill (SB 1420) and I can not find anywhere where it states that once the requirements to put the calories on the menu are implemented that you no longer have to give the nutrition info. Link to the bill: http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_1401-1450/sb_1420_bill_20080930_chaptered.pdf I have contacted the County of Orange to help get clarification on this. If anyone has any additional info that I can share with the County I would love to forward it to them so that the law is implemented correctly
I scanned the statute, which seems to refer to "nutritional information" (which includes calorie and carbohydrate information) and "calorie content" separately and has different requirements for the availability of each. It looks like many of the post 1/1/11 requirements relate to calorie content: standard menu - calories on the menu, indoor menu boards - calories onthe menu board, display tag - calories on the display tag, drive through with menu board - nutritional information in a brochure.
I know here in Washington they post the calorie content on the reader boards but have brochures with the nutritional information including carb counts so I always pick up one of the brochures and use that. I can see how that sucks for you though especially when a restaurant doesn't have a brochure to hand out and only has a reader board. It seems there has been a change in California Law with regards to the Federal Law coming out.
I scanned the statute (Health and Safety 114094). It appears that the full nutritional information information had a sunset provision in the law for 12/31/2010). Thereafter, the law appears as if it got less stringent and only requires calories information of most restaurants except those that have a drive through component of some sort. It reads: (4) On and after January 1, 2011, every food facility that has a drive-through area and uses a menu board to display or list standard menu items at the point of sale shall, for purposes of the drive-through area only, disclose the nutritional information for each standard menu item in a clear and conspicuous manner on a brochure that is available upon request, and shall clearly and conspicuously display a notice at the point of sale that reads: "NUTRITION INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST" or other similar statement that indicates the disclosure of nutrition information upon request. If a food facility subject to this paragraph discloses nutritional information in the manner described in subparagraph (B) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (b), the food facility shall be deemed to be in compliance with this paragraph. So the lesson is stick to a drive through? Jeez: is that stupid and totally against the original intent of the law (which was to assist with limiting obesity). I will definitely look into it more and see what the legislative background was on that particular part.
Along with obesity the bill was put in place to help people with chronic illnesses. If you look under Section 1 (f) it is stated there as another reason to have this bill in place. I know eating at home is so much easier, but it would still be nice to know that when we do decide to go out and eat at a restaurant, the information will be there. I use my iPhone to look up most stuff or the calorie king, but what if someone does not have access to those. I will pursue looking into this and will keep anyone interested in it updated. Thanks!
