The law requiring chains to display calorie info doesn't seem very effective at ice cream parlors. The muckrackers at, um, Good Housekeeping just finished a sting operation on five ice cream shops in NYC, buying 50 scoops from Cold Stone Creamery, Haagen-Dazs, Baskin-Robbins, Carvel and Ben & Jerry's. What they found may shock you. more ›

Parents are planning a city hall “bake-in” in protest of new regulations that ban homemade treats from their kids' school bake sales. The city's rationale is that brownies and cookies made from scratch carry an uncountable calorie load, whereas Doritos, packaged cookies and other food items on a list of permissible items, disclose their nutritional content. "We don't really want to be told what to buy, especially when it's junk food from Kellogg's," one mom told the Daily News. more ›

Months after it barred schools from holding most food fundraisers, the city says bake sales can go on—as long as no homemade treats with undisclosed calorie counts grace the fold-out tables. The new regulation, designed to combat ever-increasing childhood obesity, limits bake sales to "fresh fruits and vegetables, or one of 27 specific packaged items" that include low-fat Doritos, Nutri-Grain Cereal Bars (blackberry only) and Linden’s Cookies (butter crunch, chocolate chip or fudge chip cookies in two cookie packs) among other things. The city has also recently slapped health regulations on school vending machines and is considering a "Meatless Monday" school lunch program. more ›

Earlier this month, a study examining fast-food consumers in poor NYC neighborhoods found that the city's law requiring chain restaurants to post calorie info might not be making a difference in what people order. Looking at customers' receipts, researchers found that many had actually ordered slightly more calories than the typical customer had before the law went into effect. But a more comprehensive study of the law, released today, tells a different story. more ›

A new study by several professors at NYU and Yale has taken a close look at the purchasing habits of fast-food consumers in poor NYC neighborhoods with high rates of obesity. Researchers were curious to find out if the law requiring chain restaurants to prominently display their calorie information was influencing customers' choices, and what they found was probably not what the Health Department had hoped for when implementing the rules in 2008. more ›

Your tax dollars have enabled the Health Department to conclude a groundbreaking study on the calorie counts of beverages at Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts. And what they found might shock you: Calories in blended coffee beverages are high. The report is the prelude to another study due out next spring, which is expected to show if New Yorkers were affected by rules requiring chains like Starbucks to display calorie counts. Back in 2007, the average customer consumed 12% of a 2,000-calorie a day diet on beverages alone. more ›

The NYC Health Department reports "widespread compliance" when it comes to chain restaurants displaying calorie info, as required by a 14-month-old law. But at least one eatery isn't about to be bullied into telling diners how fat the Corned Beef sandwich is making them: The Hillstone Restaurant Group, which operates 30 restaurants across the country, is going to court to defend its right to calorie privacy. The LA-based group, which owns Houston's, has two locations in Manhattan—they were formerly called Houston's until the company changed the name to Hillstone to evade the calorie disclosure law. Oddly, the chain hasn't bothered removing the signs outside that still identify them as Houston's locations. V.P. Glenn Viers tells Crain's the whole "chain" label is insulting and doesn't apply to the classy Houston's Hillstone: "We don’t operate like any other chain, and that’s intentional." The restaurant plans to defend itself in court next month, which will be the first challenge of its kind to the law. The DOH has issued violations to 336 of the 2,691 establishments that fall under the regulation, but most were issued soon after the law went into effect and involved minor technical issues. more ›

While aggravated Brooklyn residents near McCarren Park have launched an organized campaign against the insipid jingles incessantly blaring from parked ice cream trucks, parents in other parts of the borough are taking aim at Mister Softee not for how he sounds but for what he sells to their children. Well, two parents anyway; a Bensonhurst mom tells the Daily News she takes her 7-year-old daugher to Seth Low Park for exercise, but an ice cream truck parked there is tearing her family apart: "I’ve had fights with my daughter in the past about it. You kind of feel like it’s pushed on you. It’s one thing if they’re just in the neighborhood, but to be here by contract [with the city], they might as well be selling drugs." (They've been known to do that too!) more ›

As the Department of Health starts moving toward a new restaurant inspection system requiring eateries to display letter grades, the Times tags along with one DOH inspector as he gives a deli buffet in the Financial District the white glove treatment. Inspector Corey Williams explains, "Nobody is glad to see us... You name it, and I’ve seen it. I’ve even seen managers panic and try to take moldy food out the back door while I’m watching." Also lots of rats, both living and dead. During the inspection, owner Peter Kim tells the Times, "My heart is racing. They are so strict. They cost me, $2,000, $3,000, easy, each time they come." Luckily, Williams finds no vermin and Kim squeaks by with a score of 21, the equivalent of a B grade under the new system, which goes into effect in July 2010. That's assuming the restaurant industry, which put up such a fight over the calorie rules, doesn't stop it. One of the industry's main complaints is that although the letter grades must be displayed immediately, restaurateurs still have to wait three weeks to challenge a finding. more ›

So that happened. It seems like only yesterday we were having a good laugh about how the $175 burger with the gold leaf flakes at Wall Street Burger Shoppe made the $81 hamburger at The Old Homestead look like rancid dog food. Now all we care about is when the next 69 cent sandwich sale will go down at Swich. 2009 is going to be the year when we learn to cook! (That's where Danielle Sucher weekly recipes come in.) But before we elbow our way onto the rapidly-expanding bread line that is 2009, let's look back in hunger at some of the top food stories this year. more ›

Not satisfied with making sure New Yorkers know exactly how fat they're going to get off food at chain restaurants, the Health Department is taking its calorie crusade underground with a new educational campaign that launches today. The posters confirm your worst suspicions about fast food and also expose deceptively harmless snacks, like a perfectly innocent-looking apple raisin muffin, for the high-calorie frauds they are. That cute little muffin packs 470 calories—nearly a quarter of your daily allowance, which officials put at 2,600 calories a day for adult men, and 2,000 for adult women. (Sorry, ladies.) more ›

Gotham Gazette has an in-depth look at potential pitfalls in the city’s new law requiring chain restaurants to prominently display calorie info on all foods and beverages. Namely, the Health Department does not conduct systematic testing to ensure that restaurants are not miscalculating – or misrepresenting – their data. more ›

Now that an appeals court has ruled that the city can start requiring chain restaurants to prominently display their calorie information, Nathan’s has begun tossing up their stats just in time for summer at Coney Island. Kinetic Carnival notes that the Nathan’s basic hot dog has just half the calories packed into a Big Mac from McDonald’s. more ›

In a lawsuit that’s had more back and forth than John Goodman at an all-you-can-eat Marriott breakfast buffet, a federal appeals court has ruled that, yes, city restaurants with 15 or more establishments nationwide must start displaying calorie information for all foods and beverages. In the meantime, the city has agreed not to issue any fines for non-compliance until July 18th, by which time judges are expected to rule on the National Restaurant Association’s appeal. more ›

The incoming president of the Obesity Society has resigned amidst controversy surrounding his work on behalf of the restaurant industry. Last month Dr. David B. Allison (pictured), a professor of biostatistics and nutrition at the University of Alabama, drew fire from colleagues when he submitted an affidavit questioning the city’s new rules requiring chain restaurants to prominently display calorie information on their menus. more ›

The incoming president of the Obesity Society has filed a 33-page affidavit questioning the city’s new rules requiring chain restaurants to prominently display calorie information on their menus. Dr. David B. Allison (pictured), a professor of biostatistics and nutrition at the University of Alabama, cites a study indicating that dieters who get distracted by calorie information are more likely to overeat. And even if the daunting calorie details prompt diners to go for lower calorie items, they'll just end up overeating later because their healthier choice won't really satiate them. more ›