Restaurants designed around the concept of customers’ self-selection of ingredients such as sandwiches may be unable to comply with menu labeling in a non-confusing and accurate way. According to National Restaurant Association research, the make-up of a sandwich consisting of just five items or toppings (such as bread, meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato), can be ordered in 120 different ways. A sandwich comprised of 10 items or toppings could provide 3,628,800 combinations. Furthermore, an individual presented with 15 items for a sub or sandwich has literally billions of possible combinations. As you can see, the possible sandwich combinations of breads, meats, condiments and toppings would make such a labeling scheme completely confusing to consumers and inaccurate for other. More confused consumers should never be the unintended consequence of well meaning ideas to better inform consumers.

Without information, how's an unsuspecting gal supposed to make informed choices at restaurants? Most of the chains already have nutrition nitty-gritty available on their websites. It certainly makes sense to put that info where customers can actually see it while they decide what to order.

No one likes surprises at the end of the meal, or when we hop on the internet to discover that our appetizer had almost an entire day's calories. We expect to see prices on the menu--why not basic nutrition information too?

Besides the calorie-conscious (not a small constituency), the residents most likely to be cheering in the streets when this bill passes are people with medical conditions. Rejoice, DC residents with hypertension. Help is on the way.

Just another reason to love Washington, DC! And Phil too, of course.