On October 9, 2013, the Ontario Government advised that it was going to introduce legislation that requires large chain restaurants to place caloric and other nutritional information on their menus and menu boards. The Bill will be introduced in the winter of 2013/14 after consultations with parents and representatives from the food industry and health-care sector. The consultations will determine which restaurant chains should be subject to the proposed requirement to include caloric information alongside the price of the food offered. The Ontario Government has indicated that the legislation will be introduced to help Ontarians make healthy food choices by mandating nutritional information to create a more transparent food industry.

Franchisors in the food service industry should take note of the proposed legislation to determine whether the labelling requirements may be applicable to their business, and to prepare for a change to their business. If the Bill becomes law, affected franchisors will be obligated to make a number of changes (if they have not already done so due to their presence in other jurisdictions with similar legislation), including implementing a system to determine the caloric and nutritional information of the food they offer, and including the information on updated menus.

For a copy of the Ontario government press release, please see this link.

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