Lesley Stedman Weidenbener reports that HB 1207 was reported out of committee. It would require that restaurant chains with more than 10 locations in the state make nutritional information available for their food, either on the menu or a separately published document.

Specifically, the restaurant would have to make available information for each food item on:
(1) Total calories; (2) Total fat in grams; (3) Total saturated fat in grams; (4) Total trans fat in grams; (5) Total cholesterol in grams; (6) Total sodium in milligrams; (7) Total carbohydrates in grams; (8) Total fiber in grams; (9) Total sugars in grams; and (10) Total protein in grams.

Republicans on the House Health Committee, except for Rep. Turner, voted against the measure complaining that this was one more regulation to burden businesses that were already hard pressed. Democrats said the bill was necessary because it was a necessary tool to help combat the obesity problem in Indiana.

I’m all for more information for the consumer. And I’m not sure how much of a burden it would be to post a menu with that information and maybe (thought it’s not mentioned in the bill) throw the information up on the restaurant’s website. (The way the bill is written, I don’t think there is an obligation to put it on each menu distributed – I think one of those large menu signs with the information would suffice). That said, I don’t know how many Hoosiers out there are really trying to watch what they eat but are getting blindsided by those fried snickers bars they thought might be healthy. I’m exaggerating, of course; there are plenty of products marketed as “healthy” that have mediocre to bad nutritional content. And can be tough to get much in the way of healthy food out at restaurants, with vegetable selections often being limited to iceberg lettuce. But I suspect a lot of out of shape Hoosiers aren’t really trying that hard.