Pizza Chains Fight Calorie Labeling, Citing Endless Combinations of Toppings

When the Affordable Care Act was passed seven years ago, it affected more than just insurance premiums and pre-existing conditions. One of its provisions was Section 4205, the Provision for Nutrition Labeling Under the Affordable Care Act, which ruled that all "restaurants or similar retail food establishments with 20 or more locations" would be required to disclose and display calorie information for all of their menu items. Although many restaurants and chains have already complied, the provision officially goes into effect on May 5—unless Big Pizza can get Congress to change its mind.

The American Pizza Community (APC), a coalition of more than 20,000 pizza restaurants across the United States (including the big guys like Domino's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, and Little Caesars), is doing its best to delay the implementation of that rule, or to get Congress to scrap it entirely. The problem? The nature of pizza itself.

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The APC argues that there are so many different combinations of crusts, sizes, and toppings that it would be pointless to hang a "one-size-fits-most" calorie count on the walls.

"We did the math," Tim McIntyre, APC's chairman and the Executive Vice President of Communications at Domino's, said. "With gluten-free crusts to thick to hand-tossed to pan pizza, multiple sizes, cheeses, toppings […] there are about 34 million possible combinations.That is difficult to put on a menu." (McIntyre also pointed out that Domino's has had a Cal-O-Meter nutrition calculator on its website for the past 13 years.)

The APC is instead hoping to get Congressional support for an alternative bill, the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act, which would allow restaurants to post their calorie counts online, rather than having to create and pay for signage to place in-store. Big Pizza says this makes more sense because restaurants that receive more than 50 percent of their orders on the phone or online (like, say, your local Papa John's) would be exempt from having to display nutritional information in their physical locations.

The FDA, which would be in charge of enforcing the menu-and-calorie labeling regulations, says that there's no requirement for new menus or in-store displays, and that it isn't going to crack skulls if it learns that Little Caesar didn't count each individual pepperoni slice on its large pies. "The regulations allow a range of calories to be placed on the menu to address precisely this situation. Additionally, the agency plans to spend the first year on education and outreach, not on enforcement," FDA spokesperson Deborah Kotz told the Washington Post.

Supporters of the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act hope that it will somehow make its way into Congress' 2017 Appropriations Bill, which has to be voted on by April 28. But, seriously, does it matter either way? Pizza exists largely so you don't have to think about the calories in cheese, how much fat is in a Meat Lover's, or what you're holding by the crust and shoving into your open mouth. Big Pizza should know this better than anyone.

MUNCHIES has reached out to the APC for comment but has not yet received a response.