Commissioner's decision could prompt a delay of one to two years before the federal rule making process is finished
A McDonalds drive-thru menu in New York printed with calorie counts for each food item in a 2008 photo. Calorie counters beware: Some chain restaurant food and frozen supermarket meals can be more fattening than the nutrition labels indicate, according to researchers. TRENTON — When Assemblywoman Connie Wagner went to McDonald’s in Paramus for lunch today, she left disappointed.
Wagner got the hamburger, french fries and chocolate milk shake she ordered. But there were no postings of calorie counts required under a law she co-sponsored to require chain restaurants to feature them on indoor and drive-thru menus.
Had the state Department of Health and Senior Services implemented the law this week as lawmakers intended — a year after then-Gov. Jon Corzine signed it — she would have known her meal weighed in at about 1,060 calories, according to the McDonald’s website.
"I’m baffled," said Wagner (D-Bergen). "I don’t understand. How does the executive branch have the right to ignore the law?’’
Health and Senior Services department spokeswoman Donna Leusner confirmed Commissioner Poonam Alaigh has delayed implementing the menu labeling law. The federal health care reform law also require restaurants with 20 or more outlets to reprint menus with calorie counts, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to propose those rules in March. Waiting a little longer makes sense, she said.
"Instead of confusing businesses and the public with two sets of rules, the department is trying to be business-friendly by at least waiting to see what the FDA proposes in March,’’ Leusner said. The "federal regulations will preempt the new state law," she added.
But the commissioner’s decision could prompt a delay of one to two years before the federal rule making process is finished.
"Our original intention was we wanted New Jersey to be out there in the forefront," Wagner said.
Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), the upper house sponsor, said he is investigating legal options. Vitale asked Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex) to convene a hearing of the Legislative Oversight Committee and require Alaigh to explain her decision. Vitale said he also may take the unusual step of writing the rules himself and asking the health department to approve them.
Vitale acknowledged Gov. Chris Christie’s administration inherited the law. "Whether you like the law or not, it doesn’t matter. You don’t get to say no," he said.
The menu labeling requirements would be similar to those enacted in New York City in 2008.
The 25,000-member New Jersey Restaurant Association opposed the legislation, calling it an unwanted government intrusion, according to Deborah Dowdell, the group’s executive director. Now that the federal government has required menu labeling everywhere, it just "make sense" to follow the FDA’s lead.
Dowdell said lawmakers should focus on things that are most pressing, "creating jobs, reducing taxes and improving the educational system ... It may not happen according to the original time line but menu labeling is going to happen.’’