The House voted Tuesday to loosen Obamacare rules that require restaurant chains, supermarkets and convenience stores to make calorie counts and other nutrition information available to customers.
Under the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act, introduced by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., food retailers would no longer need to provide calorie counts and other information for every possible combination of food, such as the thousands of options that can be created with pizza toppings.
The rules, created by the Food and Drug Administration, mandate that the menu calories are posted on menu boards for people to see inside a restaurant. Retailers that oppose this say it's cumbersome and expensive to post information for food that is made to order, and there have been particular objections by those whose products are sold mostly through delivery. In these instances, customers mostly make selections over the phone or online, not in the store.
The bill, which passed 266-157, would allow food retailers to provide nutritional information on their websites, as long as most of their customers are ordering food online and having it delivered. It also would gut some of the law's criminal penalties against companies that fail to comply.
Supporters of the Obamacare regulation have said that the menu labeling rule is important to combat the country's obesity epidemic so that people can make better choices about what they eat.
Some Democrats accused Republicans of using the nutrition law as a way to gut Obamacare, which most Republicans in the House oppose.
During floor debate, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., said the bill would "undo years of progress" and "lead to greater industry and consumer confusion."
But several Democrats backed the bill. The FDA had clarified some of the guidance last year, but lawmakers said additional legislation was needed.
"The bill clarifies that establishments acting in good faith with not be penalized ... for inadvertent human error," said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.
The Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act has been criticized by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which supports the Obamacare rules.
"We deserve to know what we’re eating, even if Domino’s and House Republicans want to keep us in the dark," said Margo Wootan, the group's vice president for nutrition.
The FDA has extended the compliance deadline several times, including under the Obama administration, but the agency's commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, has said that the May deadline will not be extended again.
Many food providers already have made their nutrition information available, but a bipartisan group of lawmakers supported making some changes to the law to ease the burden that certain companies would face.
