When we posted our Ultimate Fast Food Nutrition Guide a few months ago, a couple readers pointed out that Checkers/Rally’s, the chrome and neon double drive-thru hamburger joint, has refused to provide nutrition information to customers for years.

Checkers/Rally’s, whose fatalistic slogan “You Gotta Eat!” apparently justifies its menu of triple cheeseburger Nascar meals, double Philly cheese steak burgers (that’s a double cheeseburger with a cheese steak on top) and thirty-two ounce medium sodas, has over 800 locations across 28 states, more than such chains as Boston Market and Roy Rogers. Unlike most fast food restaurants, which make nutrition information available on their website or in store, Checkers/Rally’s is oblivious to such concerns (see picture above). Worse, inquiries by customers have been met with the same canned response:

“Thank you for your interest in the nutritional value of our menu items. We are currently reviewing our nutrition information due to several recent menu changes. We do not have a set date for the release of this information. You can find general information on this topic at http://www.Nutrition.gov or Food and Nutrition Information Center http://www.fns.usda.gov/fns or Healthfinder-Gateway to Reliable Consumer Health Information http://www.healthfinder.gov.
Thank you,
Checkers Drive-In Restaurants”

We emailed the company’s PR person and asked why it didn’t make this information available, but received no response.
For those wondering if some law requires Checkers/Rally’s to make this information available, the answer is, probably not. According to the FDA, restaurants are generally exempt from any requirements to publish nutritional information. The exception to this rule is that whenever a company makes a health claim, such as low calorie, less fat, and so on, they are required to make available nutritional information sufficient to back up this claim. These types of health claims are becoming more common in fast food advertising, but are noticeably absent from Checkers/Rally’s; perhaps this is intentional?

A Labeling Guide for Restaurants and Other Retail Establishments Selling Away-From-Home Foods [U.S. F.D.A.]
Checkers’ Nutrition Info Missing: What Is Checkers Hiding?
Checkers Drive-In (Nutrition Information Is Not Available)

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