By PAUL  FRUMKIN

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NEW YORK (July  09, 2007 ) —Even as the July 1 deadline for adopting New York City’s requirement to list calorie counts on menu boards and menus came and went, some of the country’s largest restaurant chains were not in compliance with the controversial rule.

National brands including McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, White Castle and Quiznos Sub said they had no immediate plans to list calorie counts on their menus as required by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in a regulation passed late last year.

However, other major chains, including Subway and Au Bon Pain said they were complying with the regulation.

Chuck Hunt, executive vice president of the New York City chapter of the New York State Restaurant Association, said some chains were hoping the lawsuit filed recently in federal court by the NYSRA claiming the health department overstepped its authority would either convince the court to overturn the rule or result in some sort of compromise. As a result of the pending lawsuit, the health department said it would not begin citing and fining restaurants for being out of compliance until October.

By PAUL  FRUMKIN

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The health department ruling requires that all restaurants already offering calorie information on the Internet, food wrappers, tray liners or in brochures must list the information on menus and menu boards. It is estimated that the ruling affects about 2,000 foodservice outlets, or about 10 percent of all New York restaurants.

In late June, the American Medical Association threw its weight behind New York City’s ruling, recommending that fast feeders and other chain restaurants nationwide post nutritional information on their menu boards. The AMA said the information should be easy to understand and include the amount of calories, fat, saturated fat and sodium for each menu item.

“By calling on fast food and chain restaurants to provide information on the nutritional quality of food products and menu offerings and encouraging healthier food choices, we hope to improve the diets and health of Americans,” said Dr. Joseph P. Annis, an AMA board member, during the group’s annual meeting in Chicago, where the recommendation was adopted.

McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King and White Castle are among the national chains that say they have no immediate plans to comply with a New York City mandate to list nutrition information on menus and menu boards.

Despite mounting pressure, operators maintain that menu boards would be difficult for patrons to read if they were to include additional information, such as calorie counts.

Irwin Kruger, whose company, ISK Manhattan Inc., operates seven franchised McDonald’s outlets in Manhattan, said menu boards with calorie counts would not be in place in July.

“We have nothing to hide,” Kruger said. “We’re happy to provide nutritional information in the stores in brochures or on the Web. That’s nothing new for us. But this recent demand [to add calorie counts to menu boards] is not practical and serves no purpose. It’s clearly impossible for us to list that much information on menu boards.”

McDonald’s, meanwhile, said all of its 254 locations in New York had complied with the city’s July 1 ban on partially hydrogenated oil by replacing all cooking oil with a trans-fat-free canola blend.

Wendy’s International maintained that because it removed nutritional information from its New York City stores and the Internet prior to Feb. 28, 2007, it is exempt from the regulation and would not be posting calorie count information in its 53 New York outlets. The health department contended that Wendy’s was not exempt because the chain did not remove all nutritional information from its website.

Denny Lynch, a spokesman for Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy’s, said it has provided nutrition information to customers for almost 30 years and would like to continue to do so. However, he said the New York regulations were not workable. Wendy’s offered to hang posters listing nutritional information in all New York stores as an alternative means of compliance, but the health department rejected the solution, Lynch said.

“We continue to have a dialogue with them, and hope we can reach a common-sense solution,” he said.

For its par, Milford, Conn.-based Subway said it intended to comply with the regulations and new menu panels would be in place at all New York branches by July 1. The chain unveiled new menu boards that list specific calorie counts for 6-inch sandwiches. Listings for foot-long subs reveal a range of 450 to 750 calories.

Au Bon Pain, the Boston-based fast-casual bakery-cafe chain, notified the New York board of health that it intends to comply with the new regulations, but it will not have the new menus in place until October, said Ed Frechette, the chain’s senior vice president of marketing. Frechette said Au Bon Pain plans to update its New York menu boards in time for its next major menu overhaul in the fall, a move that has been approved by the board of health.

In addition to listing calorie counts on its menu boards, Au Bon Pain will post a calorie range for products in its refrigerated bakery cases. The chain also will continue to offer computerized kiosks that display nutrition information in its cafes.