Meanwhile, Over At The City Council…

A proposal working its way through the City Council will require chain restaurants to display nutritional information in restaurants:


The bill had a hearing in City Hall yesterday before the Committee on Public Health. If it became law, fines would be as high as $500 per violation.Chains with 10 or more locations nationwide would be affected: Applebee’s and the Capital Grille, Olive Garden and Domino’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Auntie Anne’s, Red Lobster. And so on.Not surprisingly, nutritionists, nurses, and public-health officials favor the idea, and they gave statistics to support their side.”More than 120 million Americans are either overweight or obese,” testified Amy Margulies, a registered dietitian. “More than 15 million have some form of heart disease. And in 2004, Americans spent 10 times more on eating out than they did in 1974.”But then there was Larry Dore, a teacher from Roxborough in Center City yesterday for jury duty. He was coming out of a Dunkin Donuts with a small coffee (with cream and sugar) and a feeling of indignation. The bill, he said, sounds ridiculous.”You know when you’re going in what you’re going to get,” he said. “And it isn’t fat free.”His was not as unfortunate a menu selection as Andrew Hennessy’s.A lawyer from Bryn Mawr, Hennessy walked out of the same Dunkin’ Donuts with coffee and two doughnuts: chocolate glaze and coconut. This was lunch; he had skipped breakfast.”I’m not opposed to the legislation,” Hennessy said. “But I’m not sure it would alter my eating habits.”Patrick C. Conway, chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association, reminded the committee that restaurants provided jobs and economic growth for the region.As proposed, he said, the regulation would cost too much, and be well nigh impossible to carry out because each dish can vary in so many ways - and each calorie count can change.

As Mr. Conway knows, posting laminated signs on the walls of fast food restaurants is expensive. Audacious, man!

A proposal working its way through the City Council will require chain restaurants to display nutritional information in restaurants:

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Meanwhile, Over At The City Council…