Menu mania
Perhaps one of the ironies of the economic downturn is that instead of being grateful there were any restaurants left standing, diners got pickier. Any hard-earned dollar was going to buy them exactly what they wanted, or else.
It appears that picky eaters will receive some help in their quest for healthy dining from Section 2572 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka the health-care reform bill).
Section 2572 states that the nutritional value and calorie count for menu items in chain operations with 20 or more locations must be clearly available for diners to see. That piece of the act prompted local entrepreneur Betsy Craig to launch MenuTrinfo, a company that offers four services: calorie counts for each menu item, nutritional information (basic and in-depth), menu engineering and reverse ingredient lookup.
Section 2572 has also stirred up much online chatter about whether providing calorie counts, sodium counts, ingredient lists and the like amounts to too much information. It will just confuse diners. Really?
Of course, it is possible to overdo any service, but entrepreneurs like Craig are betting that heart patients on low-sodium diets, the gluten-intolerant and those with deadly allergic reactions to things like peanuts (among others) will greet the information with a great relief. Restaurant regulars can easily get acquainted with a menu and then eat with gusto, knowing that a trip to the ER is an unlikely dessert.
(Article Referenced: http://www.ncbr.com/article.asp?id=51928)
