A bunch of the restaurants around here have the information listed...at least calories...and they don't seem all that long.

This should be a restaurant's choice -- not something dictated by the government.

Amy,

How do you feel about California's Proposition 65?

Or LA County requiring restaurants to display their health grade?

Across NC displaying the health grade right by the door is the norm. I'll admit, if I see anything less than a 90 I walk out. (In NC at least a restaurant can add 5 points to their score by sending someone in their staff to a health code training class)

So, Amy, I'm curious about where you draw the line.

Should the companies that make the canned and frozen food you buy
in the supermarket be free to leave out the ingredient list and
nutrition information? Make it their choice, rather than
dictated by the government?

My question: What does the law say about small, privately owned restaurants?

I live next to a village that has a diner that is open for breakfast and lunch only. It is more for the convenience for the local retirees to have a daily breakfast/lunch, but they are still for-profit.

Do they have to send food out for analysis?

I think it's only restaurants with over 20 outlets, which will mean that restaurants keep to 19 outlets if they can. The guy's point about change of ingredients necessitating a $30K menu change as a great point.

And no, I'm not for the mandate to force companies to put nutrition ingredients on food or to require restaurants to display a health grade.

Way back when, I worked at a family diner as a dish washer/ assistant cook.

We would make the 5 gallon pot of gravy a few times a week. We would hold it a maximum of 5 days. More than once I found mold on the refrigerated gravy. They would dig it off and throw it away, but use the rest.

Granted it was heated to 160 but still.

Typical government action, tag something like this onto a "healthcare reform" bill. Do you think the fatasses that like their pizza nice and thick and full of goodies give a damn about the calorie content? Government really needs to stay the hell away from our day to day lives. And besides, if the info can be made available for less effort and expense (ala internet) then why mandate a printed version that is costly to maintain?

I like the mandate. This way I can make informed choices.

Also, I'll know if something is veg or not. I fucking hate it when the waiter tells me something is veg and it turns out to have fish oil in it (yes I'm looking at you, Pho pasteur).

Another oner one we did was catch unused rolls, buns, toast and bread and save it. It was allowed to dry out in the fridge to be used for stuffing.

Some forty years ago, I worked in the food service kitchen at the student union where I went to college. Not exactly a restaurant, but close enough. The kitchen was in the basement, and steam trays full of food were sent up from there to the dining area in a dumbwaiter. One of my jobs was to carry trays and pots to the dumbwaiter.

One day, I was carrying a pot of gravy when I slipped on a grease spot. I dropped the pot and the gravy went all over the floor. I started to get a mop, but the head cook said I shouldn't waste all the gravy. He had me skim the floor with a ladle, pick up "all the gravy that didn't actually touch the floor" and send it upstairs to be eaten.

I once worked a place where the salad bar had no utensils. My first day I asked where the tongs were and they said there were none -- use your hands. There was no salad-maker so the waitstaff -- after filling soda glasses & sloshing soup & wiping tables down -- were expected to put their filthy hands directly into the lettuce, olives, tomatoes, etc and make a "healthy" salad.

Didn't work in a restaurant, but did take a public health class in college where we had public health inspectors come in and talk to us.
My favorite tip I learned? Do not ever eat Hollandaise Sauce, or any other butter based sauce, in any restaurant. Restaurants - even the nice ones- use old and left over butter to make it. Know all those cute little pats of butter in the bowls on the tables that you don't finish off? They are in the sauce on the next breakfast's Eggs Benedict.
I wondered if this was really true, so I asked my sister's ex boyfriend who worked in an upscale restaurant in Boston. He confirmed, and that was the end of me and butter based sauces in restaurants.

Just wanted to say I went to Starbucks today. Things have changed since the calories went on display... the cupcakes they had before were 600+ calories. Now they are 400+. I don't know if they are using less sugar and fat, or if they just make 'em slightly smaller, but I think this is a good thing.

But do you really think any of this makes a difference to a woman who thinks she should be appreciated for herself, not her looks?

Ew!!!!

Ruby Tuesdays used to post their nutrition information on their menu. Worst. Idea. Ever. You just found out that your favorite meal had 1600 calories, 137 grams of carbs, etc.

OMG poor woman.

You know what I don't get? You know how sometimes there are talk shows with some hugely obese person who weights like 700 and can't get out of bed? And their caretaker (usually a relative) talks about how they eat a dozen eggs and three packages of bacon and a loaf of bread for breakfast or whatever...

If they can't get out of bed, how the hell are they getting those hugely inappropriate amounts of food? Don't you think the behavior of the caretakers borders on abusived?

I don't have a problem with product labeling in stores. I think that having a centralized standards body either run by or accredited by the government is a Good Thing (see: ANSI).

But requiring restaurants to put nutritional info on the menus is intended to harm them by reducing business. They were already required to make nutritional info available upon request.

There's a difference between the government requiring someone selling "carrot juice" to actually show the ingredients and verify that they are, in fact, selling what they say they are; and requiring restaurants to put a big scary number next to the burger to actively dissuade their customers from buying it.

... or they could cut back on portion size and make them normal again, like Starbucks did with their cupcake. I think it's great. A chocolate chip cookie doesn't need a five-inch diameter.

Of course this depends on the restaurant chain sending the same fine cut of beef, and same teensy portion for testing that they serve to the customer.

Perhaps I'm in the minority on this, but I would be fine with paying the same amount for smaller portion sizes. The average American restaurant meal is far more food than I can (or should) consume, and even when I bring it home, I generally don't eat it later. It sits in the fridge until it gets moldy, then it goes in the trash. I don't feel ripped off getting less food when I wasn't going to eat it all anyway.

NicoleK, how do you think they actually know what the calorie content of those muffins is? Did they send one to a lab to be tested? I doubt it.

Doggie bags provide me with a dinner or two after dinner. My trick is talking to my stomach: "Hello, stomach...howya doin? You kinda full up? Great. I think I'll put down that fork."

I do this, too. But for some reason the food ends up sitting in the fridge until it rots, so if restaurants want to serve less to start with, I'm all for that.

I'm not really jazzed about making smaller portions for the same price. I really like that I can have two or more meals from the price of one.

MonicaP, I'm not sure where you live, but maybe you could find a homeless person to give your leftovers to?? This is something I did when I was in New Orleans when I didn't have a fridge and knew I wouldn't eat the rest of my food.