Survey: Consumers Want Calorie Counts on C-store Foods

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A new survey shows most convenience store customers are in favor of calorie labeling, with 77 percent of U.S. adults stating they want labels for hot dogs, pizza slices and burritos sold and c-stores, according to a United Press International report. Washington, D.C.-based non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) released the survey.

The survey also found that 81 percent of adults prefer that supermarkets provide calorie information for prepared restaurant-type foods such as rotisserie chicken, sandwiches and soups; that 70 percent favor calorie counts on menu boards at movie theaters; and that 68 percent favor chain restaurants listing calories for alcoholic beverages.

"Americans just want to know what they're eating," Margo G. Wootan, director of nutrition policy at CSPI, said in a statement. "Menu labeling at chain restaurants will be enormously helpful. But it doesn't make sense to create loopholes for certain companies, when that's not what Congress intended and it's not what people want."

The Obama administration is currently adding the finishing touches to a regulation that requires calorie counts at chain restaurants and similar retail food establishments, according to the report. A regulation draft released last year exempted alcoholic beverages, movie theaters, hotels, stadiums and other venues that sell restaurant-type foods from compliance, although the 2010 law that established calorie labeling included them, stated Wootan.

In spring 2011, the NPD Group predicted menu labeling will not strongly affect long-term consumer ordering patterns.