Don't eat at Wendy's

Regular readers here will know that in NYC Big Food is fighting legislation requiring them to put calories on menu boards.

Regular readers will also know one of Big Food's "arguments" is that it's toooooooo complicated to put calories on menu boards in a manner that would be both easy for consumers to understand and in a manner that wouldn't clog up the boards.

As part of the case, the Center for Science in the Public Interest had its artists create a rendition of what a Wendy's menu board might look like with calories on it. Click the picture above and you tell me if it's too complicated or too cluttered.

Anyhow, Wendy's sent out cease and desist letters to the court and CSPI stating that CSPI is misrepresenting their menu and breaking trademarks by providing it to the court.

This is the same Wendy's who has a ridiculous disclaimer on their own website that states that their Calorie information is not available in NYC with the hope that this will allow them to slime their way through a wormhole in the existing legislation that limits required calorie menu board laws to those restaurants who have pre-existing nutritional information,

"We regret that Wendy's cannot provide product calorie information to residents or customers in New York City. The New York City Department of Health passed a regulation requiring restaurants that already provide calorie information to post product calories on their menu boards -- using the same type size as the product listing.

We fully support the intent of this regulation; however, since most of our food is made-to-order, there isn't enough room on our existing menu boards to comply with the regulation. We have for years provided complete nutritional information on posters inside the restaurant and on our website. To continue to provide caloric information to residents and customers of our New York City restaurants on our website and on our nutritional posters would subject us to this regulation. As a result, we will no longer provide caloric information to residents and customers of our New York City restaurants."

I love the made to order argument as well given that Subway has already complied with the regulation and they're as made to order as you get in fast food. Talk about misrepresenting!

My recommendation - vote with your mouth. There are plenty of fast food outfits out there. Stop giving your money to one that apparently thinks you're stupid (too stupid apparently to discern between the price and the calories on a menu item), tries to weasel it's way out of adhering to the law and then tries to legally muscle out the non-profit good guys.

Don't eat at Wendy's.

(To see more "doctored" and "misrepresented" menus, including Starbucks and McDonald's at CSPI head over here.)