Montgomery County customers may get a bit longer to plead ignorance about their favorite high-calorie fettuccine alfredo or double bacon cheeseburger.
A County Council panel recommended Monday that officials not enforce a new county law mandating restaurant chains display calorie counts on their menus until Jan. 1. Under the bill passed last year, restaurants were expected to comply by July.
The compromise was crafted to placate restaurant owners who say local action is unnecessary — a calorie display provision was part of the Obama administration’s health care overhaul — and that they needed more time to change their menus.
“Generally, our Montgomery County chain restaurant members do not understand why the county insists upon moving forward with regulations and enforcing local law in light of … the recently signed federal nutrition labeling law,” wrote Melvin Thompson, spokesman for the Restaurant Association of Maryland.
The organization says 640 restaurants in the county will be affected by the bill and forced to undergo expensive menu renovations earlier than in neighboring areas. The bill does not apply to grocery and convenience stores or movie theaters.
County leaders counter their plan is necessary to fight rising obesity and heart disease trends immediately — since it is not clear how long it will take to implement the federal legislation.
“I understand that there is a camp out there that says this won’t change what people choose to eat,” said Councilwoman Nancy Navarro, D-Eastern County. “But in the long run, I think it’s important to train children to pay attention to this kind of thing.”
The bill’s sponsor, Councilman George Leventhal, D-at large, said some restaurants have begun posting their calorie information in anticipation of both the local and federal policy.
However, initial studies on similar laws showed only slight differences in calorie intake after requiring such displays.
The county law was tinkered so as not to pre-empt the federal legislation, officials say. Earlier drafts of the bill applied to restaurants with 10 or more locations nationwide — as opposed to the current standard of 20 — and required fat and sodium measurements on the menus.
Montgomery was also the first county in the nation to ban trans fats in restaurants and among the earliest in the state with a smoking ban for bars and eateries.
