September 11, 2015 – ARLINGTON, VA – Food Marketing Institute (FMI) President and CEO Leslie G. Sarasin released the following statement today upon receiving draft guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the food retail industry’s challenges to implement a chain restaurant menu labeling rule.

Sarasin said, “We certainly appreciate FDA's attempt to clarify a cumbersome regulation that was not originally designed for the supermarket industry. This guidance is a helpful start to what we hope will be an ongoing dialog about the most appropriate ways of addressing implementation questions being raised by food retailers. 

“As we and Members of Congress have reminded FDA, chain restaurants and supermarkets are fundamentally different – and on issues as diverse as their business operations and their service offerings. So, we look forward to working with the agency in shaping guidance for a labeling process that makes sense both in a grocery store setting and to provide meaningful information to food retail customers.

“We are in the process of reviewing the guidance document with our food retail members. At the same time, we will continue to work with FDA and pursue our legislative objectives with Congress in order to clarify and/or address the outstanding concerns.”

To learn more about grocery industry’s specific, outstanding concerns on the chain restaurant menu labeling rule, click here.