Senate Bill S6458

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S6458

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the public health law, in relation
to the posting of caloric value, carbohydrate, fat and sodium content
of food items

 PURPOSE OF BILL :  To provide certain nutrition information to
customers of chain restaurants and food establishments.

 SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS :  1. Requires chain restaurants and
food establishments to provide calorie, saturated and trans fat,
carbohydrate, and sodium information for typical food items on a
standard, printed menu. For establishments with only menu boards, only
calorie information is required to be listed but the other information
should be available.

2. Franchisors or corporate owners are responsible for the nutrient
analysis based on the Commissioner's standards and need to provide the
information to individual restaurants or establishments for listing on
the menus and to the Commissioner if requested. The nutrient content
listed should be within 20% of a representative item. Chains have the
option of labeling the medium size or range of sizes when the same
item is offered in different sizes.

3. Chain restaurants and food establishments are defined as one of at
least 10 establishments nationally and one of at least 5 in New York
              

State doing business under the same trade name and offering
predominantly the same food and menus. Supermarkets are exempt except
for sections within the store that the Commissioner determines are
chain restaurants or food establishments.

4. Health inspectors are only required to check for the menu listings;
the Commissioner can ask franchisors or corporate owners for
documentation of the accuracy of listings. Violations for individual
establishments result in civil penalties for failure to list
information and violations for franchisors or corporate owners are for
failure to document the accuracy of menu listings or failure to
provide them to their businesses.

 EFFECTS OF PRESENT LAW WHICH THIS BILL WOULD ALTER :  Adds a new
Section 1352-d to the Public Health Law.

 JUSTIFICATION :  Obesity rates in adults doubled over the last twenty
years. The percent- age of seriously overweight children tripled in
the past two decades.  The NYC Health Department found that nearly
half of elementary-aged children are overweight. According to the NYS
WIC Association over 32% of the children age 2-5 who are participating
in New York State are overweight or at risk of being overweight. This
leads to illnesses such as diabetes in young children. Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) research estimates that one in three U.S.
children born in 2000 will become diabetic in their lifetimes because
of obesity. A study commissioned by the CDC found that $75 billion is
spent nationally each year on obesity-related medical costs, half of
it with public dollars through Medicaid and Medicare. It was estimated
that $3.5 billion of New York's Medicaid spending is due to obesity,
by far the highest level of any State.

During the time when obesity has been rising, Americans are
increasingly eating meals away from home and food businesses spend
hundreds of millions of dollars encouraging children and their
families to do it even more. In 1970, Americans spent just 26% of
their food dollars on foods prepared outside their homes but today
spend almost half of food dollars eating out. The average American
consumes about one-third of their calories from foods from restaurants
and other food-service. establishments. Portion sizes have been
increasing and studies show that people tend to eat greater quantities
of food when they are served more. It is not uncommon for a restaurant
entree to provide half of a day's recommended calories, saturated and
trans fat, and sodium. Children eat almost twice as many calories when
they eat out compared to home. A recent Surgeon General's report on
obesity recommends increased nutrition information on foods eaten away
from home.

Since 1994, consumers can get nutrition labeling on packaged foods at
the supermarket. However, they are now getting more and more of their
food from restaurants and other food service establishments than years
ago and they cannot tell that a sweetened.coffee drink at one chain
may have as many fat and calories as a cheeseburger with fries at
another. Food industry critics of government efforts to fight the
obesity problem claim that it is up to parents to choose healthier
foods to eat. Chain restaurant nutrition information could empower
parents, and children, to do a better job.

This proposal would only apply to large restaurant chains of 10 or
more stores nationally with at least 5 in New York. The chains would
have to offer predominantly the same food and menus. These chains have
standardized menus and. offerings which make it easier to provide
nutrition information for the products as offered on the menu or menu'
board. The responsibility for analyzing the foods rests with corporate
headquarters. The labeling requirement for those chains would only
apply to items listed on the printed menu as they are typically
prepared and offered for sale. One-day specials or special orders by
customers would not have to be analyzed and labeled. Many chains have
this information on their websites now and they want to serve items
the same way each day from store to store for quality control so
customers get what they expect. This proposal does not mandate what
food restaurants serve or how they cook it.

Some health experts believe this generation of children will be the
first in history to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents
because of the obesity epidemic. Everyone, including food businesses,
needs to be part of the solution or we will all pay the consequences.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS :  None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :  180 days after becoming law and provides for
necessary regulations to be implemented prior to that date.
 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :  S. 3787 of 2007/2008 A.5520 of 2003 - reported
referred to codes A.5220-A of 2004 - ordered to third reading rules
cal. 421 A.5664-A 2005 - reported referred to codes
 SUMMARY OF AMENDMENTS :  Puts responsibility for nutrition analysis
on franchisors and corporate headquarters. Limits responsibility of
health inspectors to checking for presence of menu or menu board
listings. Limits violations for individual restaurants to failure to
list information; limits violations for franchisors and corporate
headquarters to failure to provide information to their establishments
or failure to document the accuracy to the Commissioner.