Ontario Gets Serious About Calorie Counts On Menus

At least one province in Canada looks likely to follow the path American chains already are treading. Ontario could become the first province in Canada to mandate big chain restaurants, c-stores and grocery stores post calorie counts on all of their menus.

The draft legislation would require establishments that sell dine-in meals to display the calories in food and drinks, including alcohol, right next to the price. Operators would have to post a statement about daily caloric requirements to put the numbers in context. Sodium content would not have to be displayed. The proposed rules would apply only to businesses that are part of a chain with 20 or more locations in the province.

Public health inspectors would have the authority to enforce the rules and issue fines.

An earlier proposal, which would have applied to restaurants with five or more locations and gross sales of $5 million, required restaurants to flag sodium content. It did not garner support in the legislature.