Subway Posting Calorie Counts On Menus Nationwide Ahead Of Final Federal Regulations

Image courtesy of Mandy Jansen

It seems someone has gotten a little bit impatient: instead of waiting for federal regulations requiring chain restaurants and other businesses to post calorie counts on menus and displays to finally go into effect, Subway is going to go ahead and slap those numbers on its menu boards nationwide now.

The rule was supposed to go into effect in 2015, but was pushed back to 2016 last July. And then, at the end of March, the Food and Drug Administration once more pushed back the deadline for certain food establishments — including chain restaurants, vending machines, pizza chains, amusement parks, prepared supermarket food, — to post calorie counts, this time, to 2017.

But Subway is done waiting, and is forging ahead and posting calorie counts nationwide. It’s all happening right now, actually: Subway says the new menu boards with calorie counts are already debuting around the country, reports the Associated Press, with the goal of having them installed at all 27,000 U.S. stores by April 11.

Subway and other restaurants have been existing under the impending final guidance and enforcement of a 2010 rule that says food sellers with 20 or more locations have to post the information.

“I think consumers are looking for this, and with all the delays, they’re confused as to why it’s not out there,” Lanette Kovachi, who leads Subway’s global nutrition efforts, told the AP.

Subway isn’t the first to give up on the FDA’s final regulations, however. Panera Bread started posing calorie info in 2010 and McDonald’s did the same in 2012.

Subway posting calories nationally as regulation lags [Associated Press]

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