On Friday, December 2, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it will shortly be releasing a final rule to delay the compliance date for the Menu Labeling Regulation until May 5, 2017. This compliance date is now aligned with FDA’s enforcement date. In 2015 Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act (Omnibus) enacted into law which denied FDA the ability to use funds to enforce the Menu Labeling Regulation until May 5, 2017, thus postponing enforcement by FDA until that date. The legislation did not however change the compliance date of December 1, 2016. Please note that on November 29, FDA issued a statement that the compliance date of menu labeling was December 1, 2016 and the enforcement date was May 5, 2017. This statement was superseded by the December 2 statement. FDA has taken this action because certain states had authority to enforce the Menu Labeling Regulation on December 1, 2016, and California indicated it had plans to do so. Please see this Lieberman PLLC regulatory alert for additional information.
