The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced that it will soon publish a final rule to formally extend to May 5, 2017, the compliance date for the agency’s 2014 menu labeling regulation, which requires disclosure of certain nutrition information for standard menu items in certain chain restaurants and similar retail food establishments. This extension will align the compliance date with the enforcement date.

Section 747 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, signed on December 18, 2015, prohibited the FDA from using appropriated funds to implement, administer or enforce the menu labeling requirements until one year after the FDA issues final guidance for industry on the menu labeling requirements. On May 5, 2016, the FDA published the final guidance and announced in the Federal Register that enforcement of the menu labeling rule would begin on May 5, 2017.

While the FDA made clear that it would not begin enforcing menu labeling requirements prior to May 5, 2017, the FDA did not at that time formally make a change to the compliance date through rulemaking. Thus, the compliance date was officially December 1, 2016, as communicated in our November 29, 2016 Constituent Update. To bring the official compliance date into alignment with the enforcement date, the FDA is now announcing that it will issue a final rule to formally extend the compliance date to May 5, 2017.

This Constituent Update supersedes any previous FDA statements regarding the compliance date for the menu labeling regulations.

For additional information:  Menu Labeling Requirements