Nutrition labels at restaurants?

The other day I went to High Tea with my mom and sister. It was a pleasant experience, however as I was eating my large blueberry scone and my assortment of crust-less sandwiches, I got to thinking about what was actually ‘in’ my food. And then I realized that there was really no way for me to find out. Aside from large fast-food chains, I can’t recall a single restaurant that I’ve been to that lists the nutritional content of their menu items on their menus. I can’t even be sure as to what ingredients are included in the products I eat. Some restaurants such as Pickle Barrel have options on their menus for calorie and fat-conscious individuals, but that is the extent of nutrition information that is given to customers. Although the major ingredient contributions to the meal are generally listed, specifics about products are rarely provided. While I understand that this is necessary to preserve the restaurant’s claim to certain recipes, I often wonder how there hasn’t been a more concerted effort on the part of concerned parties (ex. people with certain allergies) to advocate for more transparent restaurant menus. I know personally, if I was a concerned parent of a child with a certain allergy, I’d be very interested to know what was in the food I ordered. For instance, Celiac disease which has such far reaching implications regarding diet, would impeded many people from enjoying restaurant meals if proper nutrition and ingredient information was not provided. I think another important consideration is that while some menu items may ‘appear’ healthy, in reality their composition may be the complete opposite. A salad for instance, may seem appealing but upon further reflection, it ma y appear to be loaded with fats, sugars, or have a high sodium content. I think that restaurants are capable of misleading their patrons simply because they are not required to be as thorough in reporting nutrition information as their fast-food counterparts. I think that transparency is important in restaurant menus simply because patrons have the right to know what it is they’re eating.

When I came home that day and decided to do some research to find out what others’ opinions were on this issue; I imagined it had come to the attention of many other before me. When I tried to search restaurants who listed nutritional information on their menus online, I had absolutely no luck. The more I thought about it, I realized that it’s become second nature for me to gauge the nutritional quality and content of a menu item at a sit-down restaurant based on the ingredients listed on the menu. But really that gets me nowhere because I don’t know the quantities of specific ingredients or additional ingredients not listed on the menu. My question is: why are restaurants exempt from providing nutritional information on their menus? In a society where there is an emphasis placed on health and wellness, I think it is important for restaurants to join the trend.

I found a study relating to this topic that was conducted in October of 2009, so it’s still relatively recent. Its findings were interesting to me because they bolstered my own opinions, but also surprised me at the same time. The study pooled the opinions of 402 respondents who had watched a news clip of restaurants that provided nutrition information. 84% of those questioned were of the opinion that restaurants should include nutrition information on their menus. This to me was unsurprising because I feel that in our society today, we’ve become very used to having access to in-depth information on a range of topics; nutrition information included. Hence, this majority number served only to strengthen my own assumptions that most individuals would feel more comfortable knowing the contents of their meals. In addition, 54% of individuals felt that having nutrition information on menus would influence their purchasing behaviour. Again, this statistic seemed straightforward to me. What I found particularly interesting was that only 51% of respondents felt that there would be no change in their decision to eat out/not eat out if nutrition information was provided on the menu. Given the previous statistic stating that nutrition information would influence the buying decisions of a majority of respondents, I found this finding to be surprising; the findings seem to contradict each other.

In doing further research, I came across an article about potential legislation in New Jersey mandating that nutrition information be displayed on menus in restaurants. What I found interesting here was that although restaurant owners were agreed that disclosing information to customers was a step in the right direction, their main concern was that they would have to overhaul their menus in order to incorporate the necessary information. Seriously? You’re concerned with printing new menus when what hangs in the balance is more disclosure and ensuring that your customers have the basic information that they’re entitled to when they dine out? I know that when making the choice to dine outside the home, you’re consciously giving up the right to mandate what is put in your food. However, given current social trends, I think it is restaurants’ social responsibility to be accountable for themselves. I know that although I won’t stop dining at restaurants because they don’t offer any nutritional info (I love my spinach dip waaayyy too much), I know I’d feel much more at ease if they did.

http://www.mediacurves.com/HealthCare/J7577-CalorieCounting/Index.cfm