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Regulation postponed again until 2018, but some already comply

NEW YORK - Calorie counts are popping up on some restaurant menus and for prepared foods at supermarkets, whether you want to see them or not.

A federal regulation requiring food sellers to post the nutrition numbers by Friday was postponed again this week until 2018, after years of delays amid opposition from pizza chains, convenience stores and grocers. But many chains had been scrambling to comply and say they don’t plan to alter course right now.

“We were running hard toward the Friday deadline,” Keith Dailey, a spokesman for Kroger, said in an email.

Kroger Co., which operates chains including Ralph’s and Fry’s, said it plans to be “mostly” compliant by this week. Albertsons, which owns Safeway and Vons, also said shoppers will find calorie counts for prepared foods like cut fruit, salads and muffins. The company’s Jewel-Osco chain is also sticking with plans to do so, the Chicago Tribune reported earlier this week.

At Whole Foods in New York this week, calorie counts were posted on most hot food and salad bar items, and the chain said it’s still committed to this week’s deadline.

While New York City and some other places already require restaurant chains to post calorie counts, the federal rule would make the numbers more widely available and require places like supermarkets and convenience stores to do so as well. It applies to chains with 20 or more locations and was initially passed in 2010 as part of former President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.

The National Restaurant Association supports the standard because it wants to avoid dealing with a patchwork of local laws, and because the federal rule includes other establishments that serve food. See MENUS, Page 4E