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Pizza restaurateurs: Start your calorie counters

When the FDA issues its Notice of Availability for menu labeling guidelines later this month, pizza restaurateurs across the U.S. will have one year to get all their ingredients analyzed and on the menu.

May 11, 2016 by Betsy Craig — pres, menutrinfo.com

Time is up for the pizza restaurant industry when it comes to the FDA's final ruling on menu nutritional labeling. When the FDA officially releases its Notice of Availability for menu labeling legislation guidelines (expected this month), pizza restaurateurs will officially have one year to get their menu items analyzed and revise their customer literature to reflect the details of that analysis.

Let's be honest, this was a long time coming. After all, it's been more than six years since menu-labeling guidelines were initially signed into law in 2010. So no more procrastination. Now is the time to get your pizza recipes in order and analyzed because the excuse of being unprepared or uninformed is no longer viable.

In releasing its final guidance, the FDA has made a few changes. Below are some of the biggest ones that pizza restaurateurs will have a particular interest in:

• Pizza slices: Unfortunately, the FDA didn't budge when it came to labeling pizza slices. If uniform, triangular cuts aren't offered, then calories must be listed for the entire pizza. That means a circular pizza cut into squares must list the number of calories for the full pizza, since the size of the square can vary (for example, inside pieces would be larger than t he smaller triangular outer pieces). We were hoping for some extra wiggle room for our pizza partners; however, at least now everyone knows where they stand.
• Pizza toppings: For those of you that put smaller amounts of each topping on a pizza with the more toppings someone orders, the FDA is requiring an additional statement for your menus, menu boards and additional nutrition information. While we always knew that you must list the calories for a one-topping pizza amount, you must also make that statement on your materials. For example, on your menu you would have, "Pepperoni: 200 calories for one-topping pizza." This must also be on your additional nutrition information.
• Variable ingredients in the same menu item: The FDA previously stated that any variable items explicitly called out on the menu (such as different flavors) must have individual calorie disclosures. However, it appears the regulatory agency has backed off a bit in its final guidance. As an example, the FDA says something like grilled cheese, which may come with cheddar, Swiss or Colby cheese, can be listed with a range of calories, rather than three separate calorie counts for each cheese type.
• Alcohol: Though alcohol must still be labeled, there was some gray area in the initial guidelines for beer on tap, regarding whether calories would need to be labeled on the tap handles. The FDA cleared this up and it will NOT be required to list the beer calories on the tap.
• Substantiating your information:If a health official comes into your establishment and requests all of the pertinent information to substantiate your posted nutritional information, we now know officially how long you have to do so. In the final guidance, this is defined as four to six weeks. I have often recommended a third-party provider for this menu analysis, and my opinion on this remains unchanged. Third-party providers have the technological tools necessary to provide precise and accurate menu analysis and also should be able to quickly analyze new menu items or ingredients as things change. These providers should also be able to provide the necessary certifications for backing up any labeling claims.
• Governing agency: The FDA is now the organization delegated to enforce menu-labeling guidelines and will likely call on state and local health departments to help govern the legislation as well. The FDA states in its final guidance that foods without proper nutrition labeling would be deemed misbranded and would be subject to the same penalties that misbranded packaged foods must abide by. The FDA will start the enforcement process by requesting voluntary compliance from establishments, then may condemn or seize food that is deemed misbranded. If the issue is not corrected the FDA then may take further legal action.
• Certifications: The FDA is requiring two levels of certifications, one from the corporate level stating the reasonable basis behind its nutritional values, and one from the individual store level to certify that they are abiding by the preparation methods used as part of the nutritional analysis.

About Betsy Craig

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To date MenuTrinfo is responsible for menu nutritional information at over 100K US restaurants, food allergy and gluten free ANAB accredited training for hundreds of thousands of food service professionals. AllerTrain is the chosen food allergy training by NEHA providing continuing educational credit hours for those that take and pass its course. Finally, MenuTrinfo delivers food allergy confidence and allergen transparency to today’s food allergic consumer through its onsite division offerings, AllerCheck, Certified Free From allergens for spaces and food products which is an ISO 17065 certification and expert consultation and incident response support when needed.

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