Arlington, VA – Greg Ferrara, senior vice president of government relations and public affairs at the National Grocers Association (NGA), today released the following statement after the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to re-examine the menu labeling regulation that had been scheduled to be implemented on May 5, 2017:
“The menu labeling law, as originally passed by Congress, was intended to cover chain restaurants. But unlike chain restaurants, supermarkets operate in a variety of formats without standard menu items. Instead, many prepared food items sold in their stores are tailored to the community, and recipes, even for the same item, sometimes vary from store to store based on customer needs and demands.
“While chain independent supermarkets are committed to providing consumers with information, implementation of this regulation would be one of the most expensive regulations for the supermarket industry with estimates exceeding $1 billion. We applaud the Administration for acting swiftly to address the concerns of Main Street grocers and look forward to working with the FDA on important fixes to the regulation that will provide independent supermarkets with flexibility to be able to provide consumers with this information and protection from frivolous lawsuits as they work to implement this regulation in-store.
“We are also committed to continuing to work with our champions in Congress to pass the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act (H.R. 772 / S. 261) to ensure these reforms are codified into law.”
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