Restaurant nutrition reporting and impact on surveillance

Comprehensive, standardized surveillance of the nutritional composition of restaurant foods is critical for researchers and policy makers seeking to understand the healthfulness of the restaurant food supply and measure the impact of nutrition interventions. To date, MenuStat (www.menustat.org) is the most comprehensive public nutrition database of United States (US) restaurant foods and beverages to our knowledge. However, gaps in reporting serving weights and specific nutrients in restaurant foods limit the generalizability of data. The US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) guidance regarding requirements to make nutrition information available at chain restaurants will improve the completeness of the data because more restaurants will report nutrition and there will be more information on dietary components, such as trans fat content. Still, important gaps will persist, including incomplete serving weight information, which is needed to comprehensively evaluate industry progress toward the FDA's proposed voluntary sodium reduction goals.