NYC Trans Fat Ban Takes Effect

Amin Chakma puts up new menus featuring calorie counts at a Subway restaurant, Friday, June 29, 2007, in New York. New York is the first city in the country to require certain fast food restaurants to list calorie counts next to menu items in type that is at least as large as the price. New York City ushered in a new era of healthy eating on Sunday July 1, 2007 as a ban on trans fat-laden cooking oils in restaurants took effect. But not all fast-food eateries were following another new rule requiring them to post calorie counts on their menus. (AP Photo/Dima Gavrysh) (Dima Gavrysh - AP)

Lowell Stephens, a manager at the Burger King, said the information had been posted in the restaurant for at least a year and a half.

"A lot of people know that it's there," he said. "They can read it any time."

But when the city does start cracking down, posting the calories on a chart on the wall won't be good enough.

"It needs to be at the point of purchase," Health Department spokesman Andrew Tucker said Sunday. "The point being that customers can actually see it when they're deciding what to order."

Starbucks was offering a compromise. The chain's 220 New York City coffee shops will offer nutritional information on spiral-bound flip books set up on the counters where customers get their milk and sugar, spokesman Brandon Borrman said.

Borrman said putting calorie counts on the menu would be problematic.

"The menu boards become very visually complex when you do that," he said.

Subway, which has marketed itself as a healthier alternative to other types of fast food, is complying with the regulation and began putting up new menus including calorie counts at its 340 New York City locations in the past few days.

"We've always been upfront about our nutritional information," said Les Winograd, a spokesman with the chain, which is owned by the Milford, Conn.-based Doctor's Associates Inc.

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Associated Press Writer David B. Caruso contributed to this report.