A fight over fast food menus

Exactly how many calories are in that double cheeseburger or those fries? Some say we should know the calorie count so we can make healthy choices.
But how we get that information has led to an all out war between fast food restaurants and the City of New York.

Eyewitness News reporter Nina Pineda has the story.

Walk into any of the 60 Wendy’s restaurants in New York City and you won’t be able to see how many calories are in the bacon double cheeseburger, the chili and fries or even the healthy Mandarin chicken salad.

Wendy’s voluntarily put nutrition information in all of its outlets worldwide. But only in New York did they removed the calorie content column, blaming a new city health regulation which ironically is designed to give fast food customers calorie counts.

The New York State Restaurant Association challenged the rule in court calling finding it ridiculous only restaurants which had been informing customers of calories would be subjected to providing that calorie info — not on posters or containers but next to menu items as prominently printed as the food itself.

Wendy’s executives claim their menu boards would look too crowded if they complied with New York City’s rule — every possible combo listed next to a calorie breakdown. We had a manager hold the choices up for customers six or seven feet away.

“It’s very, very tiny … I can’t see it at all,” one customer said.

“It’s really small,” another customer added.

More than 2,000 city restaurants complained the menu boards, which hang over their counters, would be crowded and confusing not to mention expensive to change.

Some restaurants rebelled by banishing calorie counts altogether. Quizno’s and White Castle deactivated Web pages with nutritional information. McDonald’s and Burger King will no longer list calories at their city locations either and therefore won’t be subjected to fines.

The Health Department reacted by stating “it’s unfortunate that some restaurants are so ashamed of what they are serving the public that they would rather go to court than share this information with their customers.”

Denny Lynch, of Wendy’s, says so far the city health department’s refused to meet with Wendy’s to find alternatives before July first when the rule goes into effect.

The state Restaurant Association’s lawsuit did succeed in delaying enforcement for three months giving city lawyers and the fast food chains time to prepare for the legal fight — one that for now has left thousands of customers with less nutritional information with the intent to give them more.

Eyewitness News
(Copyright 2007 WABC-TV)