Statement of CSPI Nutrition Policy Director Margo G. Wootan

Among all the things leaders in Congress could be doing, they’re trying to deliver a big favor to the pizza industry, which wants its in-store menu boards to get a special exemption from menu labeling.

Besides placating Big Pizza, the so-called Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act, reintroduced in the House and Senate, would let restaurants manipulate serving sizes to make calorie counts look better, allowing them to list calories for half a muffin or tiny slices of pizza, and weaken enforcement and consumer protection.  It would also allow supermarkets and convenience stores to move calorie labels to inconvenient locations, where customers won’t have seen them until they have chosen their items.

An anti-science and anti-health Congress combined with an anti-science and anti-health Trump Administration represents an unprecedented double threat to the protections consumers have won in recent years.  Americans should call their members of Congress and tell them to stand with consumers and against lobbyists for the food industry.