Possible FDA Labeling Requirements in Restaurants
28 October 2003 - 6:16AM
PR Newswire (US)
Possible FDA Labeling Requirements in Restaurants No Need to Panic
for ChefTec Customers BOULDER, Colo., Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ --
Culinary Software Services' President Brian Bennett has moved to
reassure thousands of restaurants, foodservice operations and other
culinary professionals that possible new FDA nutritional
information requirements for commercial eateries should be seen as
an opportunity, not an obstacle. The Food and Drug Administration
is reportedly considering posting nutritional information in
restaurants in efforts to stem the U.S. obesity crisis. Although
there are no concrete plans to implement such a system immediately,
the potential impact on many restaurants without nutritional
analysis capability is significant. Bennett's upbeat attitude
towards the program, which has been proposed by deputy FDA
Commissioner Lester Crawford, co-chairman of an agency task force
on obesity, stems from the fact that every version of his popular
ChefTec software since 1997 has come packaged with a sophisticated
nutritional analysis element. At the click of a button, food
service operators can calculate the nutritional values of their
recipes based on USDA provided nutritional data. Nutrition Facts
labels conforming to the FDA format can also be printed for
packaging. Bennett claims "We saw this coming -- originally we
included nutritional analysis capability to ensure that our
customers could justify using terms such as low-sodium and
heart-healthy, but over the last couple of years it has become
obvious that at some point the likelihood was that they would need
to have nutritional information available for all recipes and menu
items." In fact, the only problems that Bennett sees ahead are not
regulatory in nature at all. "If you have ChefTec, you're ahead of
the game -- you can do everything that the FDA is proposing. My
only worry is that when customers see the number of calories in a
creme brulee, they'll be ordering low-fat sorbets for the rest of
their lives!" Basic ChefTec retails for $595; the full-featured
ChefTec Plus retails for $995. Both come with nutritional analysis
pre-packaged. About Culinary Software Services, Inc. Culinary
Software Services, Inc. is a leading provider of foodservice
software to the hospitality industry. Products include ChefTec(TM),
CorTec(TM) and BevTec(TM) for recipe & menu costing, inventory
control, purchasing & ordering and nutritional analysis.
Culinary Software Services won the IQ Award for Software Products
& Services in 2002 and ChefTec twice won the Innovator's Award
for Technology from the California Restaurant Association. Founded
in 1990, Culinary Software Services is located in Boulder,
Colorado. For more information visit our web site at
http://www.culinarysoftware.com/ . DATASOURCE: Culinary Software
Services, Inc. CONTACT: Jonathan Rice of Culinary Software
Services, Inc., +1-303-447-3334, Web site:
http://www.culinarysoftware.com/
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