We’re going to be seeing more stories like this popping up as more cities and try to legislate what we can eat when we dine out. From New Jersey:
Currently, the National Restaurant Association is working with members of Congress on a nationwide uniform standard. Therefore, the NJRA does not understand why New Jersey needs to rush to place another mandate on the restaurant industry. Note that menu labeling has proven not to work when mandated in other states or voluntarily provided by some restaurants. (emphasis added)
While this bill is targeted today at restaurant businesses with 15 or more units in New Jersey operating under the same name (certainly a reasonable dream for today’s entrepreneurs!), this is the first step towards requiring this expensive and ineffective mandate for all retail food establishments.
Legislating human behavior hasn’t been very successful, so why should this program be any different? The NJRA (New Jersey Restaurant Association) outlines their argument in four bullet points which are basically
- Menus are advertising, not PSAs
- Labeling increases risk of litigation
- Analyzing is costly and doesn’t change behavior
- Consumption + lifestyle is the real problem
It’s an interesting argument, and not one that we’ve heard yet.
Some of you may have noticed that the site was under maintenance for brief period (okay, a day or so) recently. First, we want to apologize for the extended downtime. We upgraded the database and something went wonky during the upgrade. After a couple of late nights (or is it early mornings?) everything seems to be in tip-top shape.
All comments were initially lost when everything got up and running again. But thanks to the awesome comment tracking system from IntenseDebate , we were able to restore the comments in a matter of minutes.
So thanks for your patience, and thanks for sticking with us. We realize postings have been few and far between lately, but we hope to change that in 2010.
We try to stay apolitical here at Get Nutrition Facts, but with politics at the forefront of the news and daily living these days, it’s hard not to get involved. But continuing the calorie counts legislation that we have discussed a few times here, comes another gem from Examiner.com:
The provision contained in the federal health care bill provides for national uniformity for all chains and retailers with over 20 locations, and although originally opposed by industry, is now embraced because it sets a national standard, and preempts local laws that enact or continue to enforce standards against chain restaurants and other retailers.
Kentucky Fried Chicken is going to the edge once again. First they did it with Kentucky Grilled Chicken. Now they have redefined the sandwich- it no longer requires bread!
From the Consumerist, “The sandwich consists of two fried chicken fillets wrapped around bacon, cheese and Colonel’s sauce. It apparently tastes like you think it would.”
They do caution that it’s possible that this sandwich doesn’t exist (no mention on KFC web site), but foodgeekery.com allegedly has photographic evidence. It seems that the sandwich made its debut in Omaha, Nebraska, so if anyone out there can confirm this please let us know in the comments. If you have tried it, let us know what you think.
The sandwich is named ‘Double-down’, which opens up the possibilities for all kinds of snarky comments 
I wonder if its an homage to the 4th Earl of Sandwich, who allegedly invented the food item now known as a ‘sandwich’? It’s interesting because the 4th Earl of Sandwich was gambling when he famously requested his chef to make him something that he could eat without leaving the table. Maybe it’s a reference to double-bypass surgery or the amount of calories compared to similar food items.
Since it isn’t on the KFC site, no word yet on the number of calories. But as soon we find out, we’ll let you know. Anybody want to hazard a guess?
A commenter on the Consumerist mentioned Joe’s Gizzard City in Potterville, MI. Apparently they, (along with Guy Fieri from the Food Network), have invented a burger of epic proportions (literally and figuratively) known as the ‘Triple-D’. Joe’s describes it as “an awesome 1/3 lb. cheeseburger with pickles, onions, and a slice of tomato deep fried in Joe’s famous batter mix.” [emphasis added]
A deep-fried burger! Seriously?! The only thing missing is a fried egg, a la the Royal Burger from Red Robin.
