Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Bill to require fast food chains to post nutritional content

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago filed Senate Bill 2682, also known as the Nutritional Content in Menu Boards Act, the said bill would require fast food chains, restaurants, and other food service establishments to post the nutritional content of their menu items in their stores.
The bill would require menu boards and menus in food service establishments to clearly post the caloric and nutrient content in each serving size or other unit measurement of the food (ex: total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, sugars, dietary fiber, total protein and any vitamin or mineral).
Senator Miriam said that putting calorie and nutrient information on menus would protect and promote the peoples right of health and it would introduce health consciousness among them.
Senator Miriam said that this bill would help consumers to make more informed choices as to which item is more nutritious and would hopefully prevent unhealthy eating.
The proposed law would also authorize the Department of Health to issue compliance certificates to food service establishments that would be renewable every three years.
I would really like this bill to be passed because being a college student I eat out most of the time, and I notice that it has somehow affected my health (in other words, tumaba ako), it would be really nice if the people could know what is in the food they would be eating so that they can make better and smarter choices. Passing the bill would also be great help to the people who are on a diet, because they can easily count the calories they intake even when they eat outside.

Sources:
http://www.philstar.com/archives.php?&aid=20081019170&type=2&

13 comments:

Mr.Wong said...

Tama yan haha sana nga maaprove e. May kasabihan nga e na "Lahat ng Masama Masarap" haha kaso may masamang dulot din yan e cyempre pag nanpatupad yan siguradong maraming mandadaya ng mga nutritional content nila para mas marami silang benta o kaya naman hindi nila ilalagay ang mga masamang bagay na nilalagaty nila para hindi matakot ang mga mambibili.

batmanjr. said...

i think that it will be good if this will be implemented so that consumers would know the health effects of their food intake, but i believe that this would not be good for fast food chains; we all know that eating fast food regularly is really not healthy. though many people still choose to eat fast food given this fact, maybe they'd be bothered a bit if they'll see the nutritional content of what they're about to order in front of the counter. but personally, i would want this bill to be approved so that people will be guided and be healthier in terms of food consumption. this would be a big help for the health conscious ones.

watermelon said...

the objective of this bill is nice and noble, but i don't think this bill will create big impact to consuming public. How can we expect the Filipinos will know the impact of cholesterol, sodium, protein, iron, calorie count and the like. So i personally think this bill is not so useful. Rather than deliberating and passing this kind of seemingly noble but useless bill, i hope congressman and senators will focus on passing bills concerning pressing issues in the society.

anonymous said...

What Senator Miriam Defensor did was just right. In this way, the consumers will be aware of th contents of what they eat. This a way of informing the consumers of the possible effects of it to our health. This can also lessen the chances of obesity. The consumers can also monitor their food intake once this takes place.

mundial17 said...

This reminds me of the documentary "Supersize me" on Mcdonalds Fast Food Chains in the US. I think that there shouldn't be any opposition to this. All what is asked for is that fast food chains display their nutrional facts. I don't think that's too hard. Its just like buying a bag of chips or C2. There's always a nutrional chart at the back. That's good for the consumers. For the fast food chains, what's so hard of giving a little extra information on their products?

blogger said...

This is really good because it will teach consumers to be more aware of what they eat. But what's bothering me about this thing is that what if the restaurant itself wouldn't tell you the truth about their food? I read a lot of articles/news about food manufacturing/restaurants serving foods that are really unhealthy one example is the double dead meat. They sell those kinds of meat because it will lessen the cost of their company but what about the health of their consumers? I just wish that most of the food chains here in DLSU care about their consumers.

cholo said...

i think that this will be beneficial to all consumers (us) since we will be more informed of what we try to eat. we will be able to watch what food we had taken in or what need to take. some might look so healthy but in reality it is not. with this bill, food chains will try to make healthier goods that their consumers are willing to buy. it will not only help their business to earn but at the same time people as well... i hope that this bill would really be followed...

neekymow said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
asdqwe said...

I strongly agree with Sen. Miriam regarding the passage of the Nutritional Content in Menu Boards Act. Personally, I'm very health conscious and I really look at nutritional labels before purchasing something. In that way, I could better keep track of my calorie intake per day. As much as possible I want a balance diet in my everyday routine.

Filipinos also has a high rate of having diabetes, passing this bill could possibly create the awareness among people of what's healthy food and what's not. They could easily distinguish it through the labels. I guess, with the implementation of this bill, health risk problems could be lessened.

myownserendipity said...

i think this is a great idea. a lot of people now are conscious about what they take in and it would be helpful to know just how much fats and calories we take in. if they dont want to post it, it should be available upon request of the customer. i believe that higher end shops like starbucks practice this. since snack foods in groceries are required to have nutrition facts, fast food chains should not be left a an exemption especially since the public frequent these places.

mouse said...

The objectives of this proposal are nice and good for us. People will be conscious with all fast food and it will affect fast food restaurants. But it is hard to accomplish this proposal because we usually know that fast food is not good for our health and cheap and maybe business of fast food might not want to have this kind of suggestion.

pinkdoodle said...

I agree. I think that this should be implemented to make the people aware of what they eat especially the young population. i think majority of the fast food eaters are not even aware of the content of these said goods. i think if the companies will just put nutritional content on their products people will be more conscious and thus be healthier. But on the contrary i think this will be bad for the food chains. this will make their market lower.

imarockstarr08 said...

i think this is a great bill that should be approved, just so people would be more conscious of what they are eating and to make them choose to eat better. cuz i think that if people don't know what they are taking in, like the amount of calories and the amount of vitamins and fats, etc. then they really wouldn't bother and in most cases, well actually all cases, wouldn't even admit to themselves that eating fast food regularly is not good. if the chains would show the nutritional content then more people would lessen their intake and opt to eat healthier. but at the same time wouldn't the fast food industry lose it's customers by posting nutritional facts? i mean think about it, in reality there is probably only like 20% of nutritional value in a burger.