ObamaCare menu mandate creates headache for restaurants



By Peter Doocy
• Published February 25, 2014
• FoxNews.com
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/25/obamacare-menu-headache/?intcmp=latestnews

Tucked deep in the Affordable Care Act is language requiring all restaurants with at least 20 locations to list nutritional information alongside each and every item on their menu.

That edict is now creating headaches for small business owners across the country, particularly pizza chains.

Take Domino's. There are 34 million different pizza combinations available at the chain, when all crusts and cheeses and toppings are factored in.

Now imagine walking into a Domino's and navigating a menu board with 34 million different options on it.

Executives say figuring out the small print will be a big burden.

"Our company, like many pizza enterprises, is individual small business franchisees, so these are people that own three or four, or one or two Domino's pizza stores," said Domino's spokeswoman Lynn Liddle. "To have to redo the menu boards every time something changes on a calorie count would cost them several thousand dollars."

Liddle said the FDA has suggested offering a calorie range for different pies, instead of listing each and every possibility -- but she said that isn't helpful, since 90 percent of their business comes in over the phone or online. And none of those people ever set foot in the store, where the menu board would be.

Domino's has posted some nutritional information online for 13 years, and would like that to satisfy the FDA.

Some supporters of the Affordable Care Act are starting to agree.

"What the FDA did, I think, was really an overreach," Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., told Fox News.

Sanchez backs legislation that encourages the FDA to allow certain restaurants -- especially places that deliver frequently -- to provide information online or through an app, or offer information for a variety of toppings and combinations.

The Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act of 2013 has bipartisan support in Congress.

Roughly 80 percent of customers who visit restaurants with calorie counts on the menu actually notice the nutritional information, according to a November report by the Drexel University School of Public Health. The Drexel study also found that 26 percent of those diners order differently because of the listings -- on average, trimming 151 calories per meal.

The FDA has not yet responded to questions about when these regulations might take effect, or what might happen to small businesses unwilling or unable to comply.

I think most people don't even pay attention to nutritional information listing when ordering at restaurants. How can you be sure its accurate anyway.

My Dr's have given me strict orders to eat a lot of whatever I want. They want me to gain weight because I am under weight from what I should be. My body has no problems with any type of food. Sugar and salt are a non-issue for me. So I am now eating all the time..lol

You are building strength I can understand why you have no limitations, but there are many people who have to watch ingredients very carefully plus be able to understand the hidden additives. People with food allergies have to know what they are eating. I do think this is to the extreme and will be very costly to many businesses, all I see is more deception hidden deep in this train wreck of a so called medical mandate.

Yeah some people have to watch what they eat very carefully and probably shouldn't be eating at restaurants if they need to know major details about the foods ingredients. I eat at home and know what I'm eating, I choose some things that are nutritious and others that are for snacks and not so nutritious. Its a conscience decision I make. If I eat at a restaurant I would not hold them responsible for my medical eating requirements, assuming if I had any. I think anyone that has them should eat at home if they feel uncomfortable eating at restaurants. The normal healthy human being can eat anything a restaurant would serve without harm to them, and I think that is the only requirement they need to provide. Safe food for the normal healthy human beings. No nutritional facts on the menu should be required. If people need to know that before every meal then go home and make it yourself. Restaurants are for people that need no special nutritional requirements, not for people with food allergies or need to avoid certain ingredients. Eat at home for cryin out loud.

The medical field or government should leave restaurants alone and not require petty nutritional facts that the restaurant owners may not be sure about. Why should they be required to care? There concern should be on taste and cleanliness. If you have a special need its not the restaurants responsibility. 

Hey I'm starvin', anyone up for McDonald's?  

I agree but things like dyes used in food are becoming more of a problem for children just like peanut allergies, something so simple as frying with peanut oil can send a person with the allergy to the hospital. The local schools here do not allow anything containing peanuts on any school campus. A friends son was rushed to the hosp. with a reaction to #5 red dye in Skittles. You certainly have to know what your body can tolerate .

Yes you sure do need to know, and with all my medical problems when I get a green light to eat anything I want I tend to show that fact off a little bit. I don't have much else to brag about health-wise.

My bad perhaps.

I hope you are eating plenty of fresh fruit and veggies, getting your proteins and a balanced amount of fiber and vitamins also. It all is very important in building up your system, even sitting outside in the sunshine is beneficial. Plenty of water to hydrate your body.

Hundreds of Foods in U.S. Contain Hazardous Chemical: Report
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hundreds-foods-u-s-contain-hazardous-chemical-report-n39846

Nearly 500 foods found on grocery store shelves in the United States, including many foods labeled as "healthy," contain a potentially hazardous industrial plastics chemical, according to a report issued Thursday by a health research and advocacy group.

Azodicarbonamide, also known as ADA, was found as an ingredient in breads, bagels, tortillas, hamburger and hot dog buns, pizza, pastries, and other food products, according to a report by the Environmental Working Group, based in Washington.

Some consumer groups have called for the removal of azodicarbonamide from use in foods. Fast food chain Subway said earlier this month that it was removing the chemical from its products, but stated that ADA is a safe and widely used ingredient for many foods.

Azodicarbonamide is fully approved for use in food by the United States Food and Drug Administration and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. But ADA is banned as an additive in Australia and some European countries.

As a food additive, azodicarbonamide is used as a flour bleaching agent and as an oxidizing agent in dough to improve its performance for bakers. It is also used in plastics to improve elasticity and can be found in yoga mats and shoes.

The World Health Organization states that epidemiological studies in humans and other reports have produced "abundant evidence that azodicarbonamide can induce asthma, other respiratory symptoms, and skin sensitization" to people working with the chemical.

The Environmental Working Group said manufacturers should immediately end the use of ADA in food. U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, this month called on the FDA to ban ADA from foods.

The FDA states that azodicarbonamide can be used safely if the amount in flour does not exceed 2.05 grams per 100 pounds of flour or 45 parts per million.

-Reuters
First published February 27th 2014, 12:58 am

Raise your own foods,  don't eat out,buy fresh or frozen food from your community,
raise your own chicken,beef and fish..lots of work but it does work.

Many people are not in the position to raise their own, so they must rely on store bought items. We had gardens for years but as I got older and was working so much out of town it became to much to handle. Yesterday I was in a local grocery, mini watermelons, peaches, apples, strawberries, brussel sprouts mushrooms and cucumbers and avocadoes were all products of Chile, at least now they have to label out of country products which I totally stay away from.