Section 4205 of ObamaCare mandates that any pizzeria with more than 20 outlets must post detailed nutrition information in their restaurants. The Tatler covered this insanity on November 20. The regulation makes no sense — most pizza customers never set foot in any physical store when ordering carryout or delivery pizza – and will end up costing millions of dollars and thousands of jobs. Add to that, how is a mandate forcing restaurants to post nutrition information regarding the 34 million ways to make a pizza relevant to bringing health insurance costs down?
The FDA has yet to hand down its final rules on how the regulation will be carried out and enforced. In advance of that, which should happen before the end of 2012, Steve Forbes and the Washington Times have both come out in favor of repealing Section 4205. Forbes accurately calls the FDA “food police,” while the Times notes that 4205 also hits grocery stores that offer bakery and deli type foods.
The signage overload is also headed for grocery stores that feature items like fresh bakery goods and food bars. Store owners must either slap up the signs everywhere or label each individual product. The problem is that suppliers, ingredients and recipes constantly change. If a store wants to offer something different, it will have to cough up around $500 to ship the product to a lab for testing and certification. This ultimately affects the products stores will be able to offer consumers. “It forces you into a central kitchen,” said Jennifer Hatcher, a senior vice president for the Food Marketing Institute, which represents 26,000 retail food stores. “It eliminates creativity and regional variation.”
And again, how can this kind of regulation possibly bring health insurance costs down? How can it help more Americans obtain health care? Wasn’t bringing health insurance costs down, not creating more bureaucracy, supposed to be the point of the health care law?
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