LAS VEGAS -- The ominous menu-labeling mandates are still 13 months from becoming a reality. But we estimate it could take about that long for convenience-store retailers to master the tome’s worth of regulations and prepare for compliance.
According to the rules, c-stores with 20 or more locations will need to provide nutritional information for any restaurant-style food they serve. That includes calorie counts on menus and menu boards and other nutritional data upon request.
Simple enough, right? Yeah, we hear you laughing.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to move the original compliance date back a year to December 2016 is meant to help operators absorb the rather unwieldy rules, and an education session held at last week’s NACS Show in Las Vegas underscored its many sticky sections.
Doug Kantor, partner of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, led an education session on menu-labeling mandates on the first day of the show. He barely made it through the halfway mark of his presentation before being sidetracked by a flood of questions from the audience. How will my roller grill condiment station be affected? And my combo meals? What about my 30-head soda fountain?
What follows are a handful of the booby traps, land mines and other sneaky parts of the mandates, as highlighted by Kantor:
- The mandates apply only to standard menu items—a rule that actually works in the operator’s favor. This means that temporary menu items (appearing less than 60 days out of the year) and market tests (appearing less than 90 days out of the year) are exempt.
- Toppings are included within the rules, but condiments are not. What’s the difference? Toppings are items that are listed on the menu, that crew members add and/or that you charge for. So relish or onions at the roller grill? No need to include those calories in the counts—unless you’re charging for them.
- On the menu and menu boards, calorie counts must appear no smaller or less conspicuous than the item name or price in terms of font size and color.
- Combo meals “can be painful,” said Kantor. Even if all the items appear on the menu a la carte, you still must list the calorie counts under the combo-meal section of the menu. Combo meals with two options require a slash, more than two options can receive a calorie range, and multiple sizes can get a slash or a range.
- If you have a sign in your store “advertising” a menu item that’s separate from the menu board, you must include the calorie counts, because the FDA may consider that a “menu.”
- Buns should be included in calorie counts for roller grill items that are typically served on a bun. If the guest doesn’t take a bun for his or her hot dog, that would be considered a “special order.”
- If your grab-and-go section is separate from your menu board, it also needs calorie counts—even if it’s just a display. But then, it need not be on the menu board. Grab-and-go items can have the calorie counts on the packages themselves. (Head spinning yet?)
- Do not factor in ice when calculating calorie counts for beverages—unless it’s crew-serve with a formalized measurement. You must assume no ice is used, and that the customer is filling the cup to the brim.
- Also at the fountain: You can do ranges for flavors with similar calorie counts, but watch out for sizes, because calorie counts can depart from one another the higher up you go in volume. “You could be looking at a board with 60 different offers,” said Kantor.
- Advertisements at the pump need not have calorie counts—unless customers can order at the pump.
At the end of the day, avoiding land mines will depend on a careful look at your individual store layout, where signage sits in relation to where the food is and where people can order. Kantor expects regulators to be tough.
"Our history with them is not good.”
Click here to see the recent 53-page guideline to the regulations in its entirety.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.