House votes to ease calorie disclosure rules for pizzerias, delis, grocers

WASHINGTON — The House voted Friday to make it easier for you to avoid the harsh truth of how many calories you're devouring as you scarf down that pizza.

House members voted 266-144 to gut a proposed Food and Drug Administration rule requiring chain pizzerias, delis, and convenience stores to list the calorie content of their meals on menus or menu boards prominently displayed on the premises. Instead, takeout restaurants and grocers could choose to disclose calories only on their websites.

The White House opposes the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act, saying it will leave Americans — who consume a third of their calories away from home — with less information to make healthy choices.

The food fight came down to a debate over the role of government in nutrition.

"We have a classic example of the administration overreaching with a top-down, big government approach," said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., speaking in favor of the bill by Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif.

Upton said Michigan-based Domino's Pizza would have to list the calorie content of hundreds of different combinations of crusts and toppings on a menu board to comply with the FDA's rule. Domino's already has an online calorie counter for their customers, most of whom order on their computers or smart phones, Upton said.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said pizzerias would only have to list the calories of standards menu items, such as a slice of cheese or pepperoni pizza, and not every possible combination.

She said the bill would allow restaurants to define a "serving size" in misleading ways. For example, she said, a takeout restaurant could list the calories of just one chicken wing instead of an actual order of wings.

"This unnecessary legislation would deny consumers critical information about the food that we eat," Schakowsky said.

Congress already delayed implementation of the FDA's menu labeling rules as part of a massive "omnibus" spending bill it passed late last year. The agency had set a deadline of Dec. 1, 2016 for chain restaurants, grocery stores that sell prepared food, and other businesses with 20 or more locations to comply with the new calorie disclosure requirements. The omnibus bill eliminated that deadline and set no specific date for compliance.

The Association for Convenience and Fuel Retailing lobbied for passage of the legislation that the House approved Friday.

"As written, the FDA’s rule is overly burdensome on the convenience industry," the association said in a press release Wednesday.

The legislation was opposed by the American Diabetes Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and other groups seeking to prevent diseases linked to obesity.

"We do not think that it is common sense to weaken a policy that would allow people to make their own, informed choices about how many calories to eat at a time when obesity rates are at a record high," the groups said in a joint statement.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., has introduced an identical bill in the Senate, where it is being considered by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.