Not everyone may be completely happy with the health care reform bill that was passed but there are individual components that will be of benefit to significant portions of the American population. One of these is the provision for chain restaurants and in vending machines to add nutritional labels and calorie contents on their menus.

This provision will provide customers with a wide range of information regarding the food items to help them decide before purchasing.  Calorie information will also be placed on menus, menu boards and drive-thru boards.

Section 2572 of the landmark legislation requires that chain restaurants with 20 or more locations and owners of 20 or more vending machines display nutritional and calorie information.  Many chain restaurants have begun this practice but it may be a bit harder for vending machine owners.  It would be really hard especially if the vending machine offers a wide range of food items for sale and this could be problematic and costly.

This would definitely help consumers who regularly buy from fast food chains and vending machines.  But they will need to wait for the practice to be put in effect because the legislation requires the FDA to propose specific regulations not later than one year from now, and then there will be a time period for those regulations to be approved and put into effect.