We’ve argued before that menu labeling legislation, currently under debate in Congress and several states, would open a new door to frivolous litigation — brought courtesy of the gang of trial lawyers who want to cash in on the nation’s expanding waistline. One expert explains that restaurants cook meals to order, so a chef who has a heavy hand with oil or doles out generous portions could be exposed to a misinformation lawsuit: “The fear is if we say it’s 180 calories and you take it to a lab and it’s 185. It’s more art than science.”
Chefs aren’t the only ones afraid of calorie-counting fundamentalism. On “Dateline NBC,” the editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit magazine imagines the future of restaurant dining, where food cops have taken over and every menu item is labeled to death: “Maybe we won’t have cell phones any more. We’ll just all be sitting at the table with calculators.”
