In 2010, Congress passed a law requiring certain restaurants to put menu boards in place which displayed the amount of calories that consumers could expect to face when ordering food items. Since then, the Food and Drug Administration has been attempting to work out the kinks of the plan, and they came up with a proposal that would require chains with 20-plus locations to be those that must post calorie counts.
However, a new report demonstrates that not everyone is happy with the proposal. A cadre of pizza chains has come out in opposition to the new plan, saying that it would be both cost-prohibitive and ineffective for their businesses. Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Godfather’s, Little Caesars, and Papa John’s have joined together as a coalition known as the American Pizza Community to voice their dissent.
They take issue with a number of things, not the least of which is the fact that pizzas can be customized in a seemingly endless number of ways, making calorie counts nearly impossible to calculate for all pizza types. They also say that having a calorie label for an entire pizza would be unfair, as consumers on average eat just over two slices in a sitting. One pizza store owner discussed the expense that would have to be incurred in order to continually replace menu boards as the items being offered get changed.
The FDA has stated that they will continue to fine-tune the new rule before final passage.