Health advocates, restaurants fight over Ontario menu-labelling bill

Health advocates are backing an Ontario private member's bill that would require fast-food restaurants that do more than $5 million business to limit trans fats and provide nutrition labels on menus.

But the restaurant industry has denounced the bill, proposed by NDP MPP France Gélinas. She said it's aimed at helping consumers fight excess weight and obesity.

"Bill 156 is the first provincial government effort to propose menu labelling measures" that have been adopted by some U.S. state and local governments, Bill Jeffery, national co-ordinator of the Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), said in speaking notes to a legislative committee Thursday.

The move is important, because even trained dietitians "are lousy at guessing the number of calories and the amounts of key nutrients like sodium in typical restaurant fare," he said.

But Stephanie Jones, vice-president Ontario of the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA), said in a release that  "Bill 156 is a huge step backward" in terms of labelling and trans fats.

She said restaurant chains have made big steps to provide more nutrition information to customers, "and the entire food industry has been working to reduce the level of trans fat in menu items."

Jeffery disputed that, saying the chains "have proven themselves to be much better at defeating nutrition labelling bills than delivering on their own promises to provide nutrition information to their customers." 

CSPI 2008 research showed that two-thirds of 27 restaurant chains "largely failed" to give consumers nutrition information, and none of  the 136 restaurants visited provided nutrition information on menus.

"One-third didn't even provide nutrition information on their own corporate websites, and those that did often used print less than one millimetre tall," he said.

He said trans fats are a health hazard, and welcomed jurisdictions  — New York City and British Columbia  — that are moving to get fats our of restaurant meals.

Jones said the CRFA has repeatedly called for federal regulations to limit trans fats in food because the entire supply chain should work together to find alternatives.

"Provincial or local limits on trans fat are short sighted," she said.

Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty has said that the federal government should lead the fight against obesity because it's a national problem.