Restaurant Calorie Disclosure Obligations

In February 2014, the Ontario government introduced Bill 59 Healthy Decisions for Healthy Eating Act (the "Bill") that, if passed, would have required all persons who own or operate a food service premise that has a minimum of five locations in Ontario and gross revenue of over $5 million to post calorie and sodium content for each item on their menus/menu boards in the same typeface and font size that is used to list the price. The Bill specifically included a franchisor as a person who owns or operates a food service premise.

Under the Bill, food service premise owners or operators would also have been required to have available brochures containing more detailed nutritional information on each menu item, and flagging each high or very high sodium item.