Menu labeling requirements proposed April 1 by the Food and Drug Administration will require chain restaurants as well as bakeries, grocery stores, c-stores and coffee chains with 20 or more locations to clearly post the calorie count for each item on their menus.The new rules will apply to menus and menu boards in restaurants and…

On April 5, the Senate voted to repeal the health care overhaul’s 1099 tax reporting requirements. The House of Representatives earlier repealed the 1099 provision. The Senate voted 87 to 12 to approve the Comprehensive 1099 Taxpayer Protection and Repayment of Exchange Subsidy Overpayments Act of 2011. The legislation repeals the expanded 1099 reporting requirement…

The National Restaurant Association is applauding bipartisan bills introduced in Congress March 30 which would make permanent a 15-year tax depreciation schedule for restaurant improvements and new construction, leasehold improvements and retail improvements. Under S. 687 and H.R. 1265, restaurant operators, their landlords and other commercial-property owners could write off the cost of improvements to…

Child-targeted marketing by foodservice operators, and the toys that go with it, continues to run into trouble. A bill based on toy bans on the West Coast has inspired a similar proposal in New York City. The city councilman who introduced the bill last week said it would create an incentive for restaurants to cook…

For the first time in three years, a majority of operators reported they plan to make a capital purchase during the next six months, according to the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index data for February. The component for such intentions reached a 40-month high at 100.4, with 52% of those surveyed saying they plan…

Steel producers raised base prices for most stainless products 6% in March and the nickel surcharges for 304 grades rose nearly nine cents during the month, according to a report from O’Neal Steel. The company’s Market Informer newsletter was published in the March issue of Prime Times, the monthly e-newsletter from Prime Advantage, a buying…

Oh, those pesky gasoline- and food-price increases! Worried about how inflation of these critical commodities will affect their household income, and also less optimistic about continuing employment growth this year, American consumers sent the two major measures of confidence reeling in March. The Consumer Sentiment Index from Thomson Reuters/The University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers…

While consumers have plenty of worries about consumer-price inflation and the strength of the economic recovery, non-farm payroll growth hit 216,000 in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It was the first month employment grew by more than 200,000 since spring of 2010. Private sector growth hit an even stronger 230,000 level. According…

The Middleby Corp., which has acquired 15 companies over the past five years, has announced further expansion. On April 12, the Elgin, Ill., company announced it has acquired Beech Ovens, Pty. Ltd., a Brisbane, Australia-based manufacturer of stone hearth, tandoor and rotisserie ovens with approximately $10 million in annual sales. In a statement, Selim Bassoul,…

If you haven’t done so, get your form for Foodservice Equipment Reports’ new dealer survey in right now. The deadline was last Friday, April 1, but many of you were at the FEDA Annual Convention. And so were we. So please get it in now, as we will begin sorting the data this week. Remember,…