Blimpie, Please Put Your Nutritional Info Back Online

The new caloric information law in New York City has begun to show itself in restaurants—yesterday we decided against a fudge brownie at Starbucks because it was over 400 calories. A reader named Spoon wrote in to let us know that Blimpie, however, still hasn’t bothered to put its nutritional information back on its website. They took it down last summer in a failed attempt to skirt the NYC law before it was rewritten. Now, ten months later, they’re still keeping consumers in the dark and incorrectly blaming it on New York City.

Here’s the disingenuous “explanation” on their nutrition page:

Nutritional Information for Consumers in New York City
We regret that we can no longer publicly post nutritional information on our website. This development is a result of the New York City Department of Health’s decision to pass a regulation requiring restaurants that already publicly provide caloric information, to post product calories on their menu boards – using the same type size as the product listing.
 
We fully support the intent of this regulation; however, due to the amount of menu items we carry, there simply isn’t enough room on our existing menu boards to comply with the regulation. As a result, we will no longer be able to provide nutritional information on our website or to residents and customers of our New York City stores. We regret this inconvenience. If you have questions about this regulation, please contact the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and refer to Health Code Section 81.50.

Until Blimpie finally decides to be forthright about its food, you can find out how many calories are in their items on various third-party websites—here’s an example.
 
“New York City Proposes New Menu Labeling Regulations”

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