FDA regulation of nutritional value in restaurant menus

Health Concerns in the Food and Beverage Industry

The need of appropriate labeling

Good nutrition means eating food containing the right nutrients and calories that are needed for proper growth and functioning of the body. A healthy person is noted to be active, alert as well as happy. It is important for a nation to ensure that its citizens are well fed in order for the industries to work. A well feed nation is a happy and prosperous one. Issue to do with food safety and security must be addressed in order to realize good nutrition in all the citizens. In this paper we debate on an issue of health value, that is -should the FDA administer regulations on nutritional value offered in menus?

The need of appropriate labeling

There has been a growing public interest in healthy diets. This has meant that manufacturers as well as consumers are increasingly becoming concerned with issues on nutritional labeling as a critical source of identifying healthier food and beverages. Nutritional labeling is aterm which refers to any information on the food labels that relates to the energy value (calories), carbohydrates, proteins, fiber, fat as well as sodium.The type of preservative used is also usually contained on the labeling.

The provision of nutritional labeling or information is not compulsory in the EU or UK. This is unless the manufacturer makes certain nutritional claims about their product offerings. In the UK for instance, there are no guidelines on the issue of nutritional labeling. In some cases nutritional information is ether missing totally or is present in a form which is too complex to be comprehended by the general public.

Therefore, the ongoing discussion between the industry players, health groups and regulators has a focus on making nutritional labeling compulsory as well as making the current system simpler to read and understand. This would the enable the consumers to make their own independent judgments on the type of food that they would like to purchase.

Several proposals have been advanced by the health regulators and watch groups. They include the placing of warning on food and beverages with high energy density as well as linking of the calorie consumption to the energy output by effectively stating how much exercise would be needed to burn off the 'extra' calories in a given serving of a product.

It is worth noting that the food and beverage manufacturers are notorious of arguing that they are never directly responsible for the rise in obesity rates. They blame the consumer's personal eating habits. Well this is pure hogwash because they have the responsibility from the ethical viewpoint to the health of the consumers. They should therefore try to assist the consumers in making of the right choices through the use of nutritional labeling to warn or give necessary information on the nutritional content and dangers of eating certain foods.

Since the passage of the controversial Nutrition Labeling and Education Act in 1990, it has been noted that that there has been a debate on whether restaurants should be forced to provide nutritional information on their menu as well as menu boards (Greene 2010).This particular issue has been heavily contested by the players in the food and beverage industry due to the billions of dollars that consumers spend it eating away from their homes.

Economists are noted to debate whether this issue is a subject of pubic or private interest and debate. The supporters of labeling claim that this is a very effective tool in combating of obesity and other diseases related to dietary issues (Robert et al. 2009).

Consumers are entitled to know the correct nutritional information since this would help them in the making of the right dietary choices. The critics of the proposal however claim that personal choices are the main causes of dietary disease. Consumer behavior should be the ultimate force to decide on whether or not nutritional information is to be provided.

Conclusion

Since studies have indicated that the provision of a "learning effect" on the consumers, the FDA should FDA administer regulations on nutritional value offered in menus whereas, exposure to this statement keep consumers from consuming more calories. This is because this information has a salience effect" on the food and beverage consumers. If the nutritional information is placed on the menus as well as menu boards, then the consumers will have chance of seeing it every time they visit the restaurants. This information would then remind them of calorific values of the food and beverage offerings. Consumer may therefore become very sensitive to the calorific values and then use the information constructively in making healthy choices. It should therefore be the ethical duty of players in the food and beverage industries to ensure that the consumers are well informed.