National Restaurant Association

On August 2, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wrote an op-ed in the New York Times with the title, “Welcome to the Recovery.” Despite the brash headline, Geithner was cautiously optimistic about the direction of the economy.

“Recoveries that follow financial crises are typically a hard climb,” he wrote. “That is reality. The process of repair means economic growth will come slower than we would like. But despite these challenges, there is good news to report.”

The good news, the secretary said, includes “booming” exports, private job growth (“not as fast as we would like”), a stabilized banking system, and a business sector that has “repaired its balance sheets” and is in “a strong financial position to reinvest and grow.”

Geithner conceded that such positive indicators were “cold comfort to those Americans still looking for work and to those industries, like construction, hit hardest by the crisis.” But he defended the Obama administration’s actions to combat the recession: the $787 billion stimulus package; the Trouble Asset Relief Program, or “bank bailout,” which was set in motion by the Bush administration; and the so-called “auto bailout” of Chrysler, General Motors, and Ford.

Though there is still a tough row to hoe, Geithner said, “we are coming back.”

Some restaurant industry players, however, are far less optimistic than the Treasury Secretary.Read more

Seventy-six million. That’s how many Americans each year get sick from something they eat. Of the 76 million, 350,000 end up in the hospital and 5,000 end up dead.

Seventy-six million people. Roughly one fourth of the total U.S. population, it seems a rather high figure, particularly when we’ve figured out how to swap, replace, and reconstruct human organs. One would think figuring out how to make a safe hamburger would be a cinch.

But understanding why, in an age of spectacular ingenuity, eating remains so dangerous an activity, it is helpful to look at another number: 72. This is how many years have passed since the passage of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act, the piece of legislation that still governs much of the nation’s food-safety system.

To be sure, the FD&C Act has been amended many times over the years to meet needs Congress could not have foreseen in 1938. But there is now consensus that the bill is a fundamentally inadequate protection against modern safety hazards like E. coli, Salmonella, and other dangerous pathogens that can contaminate the food supply, causing widespread outbreaks and damaging the reputation of the foodservice industry, particularly restaurants. As David Plunkett, attorney with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, says,

“We can’t continue to operate as if it’s 1938.”

The FD&C Act came in response to hazardous foodservice practices like “pouring coal tar and various other ingredients into products in order to make them look more attractive … to really fool the customer,” Plunkett says. It gave the FDA a “police power” to criminally prosecute companies engaging in such practices.

“That’s not the problem we’ve got today,” Plunkett says. “The contamination and the illness and the death is inadvertent. It’s not something that’s criminal.”

Hence the need for a new legislative framework to ensure food safety in the 21st century.Read more

With the release of an Institute of Medicine (IOM) report recommending the government regulate the amount of sodium in the nation’s food supply, the restaurant industry says it wants to take action—on its own.

“The industry supports a voluntary, incremental approach to reducing sodium levels in menu items, and would have concerns about any potential government mandate that creates a one-size-fits-all rule to ingredient standards,” the National Restaurant Association said in an April 20 statement, released the same day as the IOM report.

Across the industry, operators have bridled at possible sodium regulation, especially since it would force them to lower the amount of salt on their menus. Salt is the primary source of sodium and, many contend, flavor in foods.

“There is no need to have a government mandate,” says Paul Mangiamele, CEO of Salsarita’s Fresh Cantina. “What’s next, the government mandates what a customer can eat?”Read more

Now that health care reform has passed in Washington, despite opposition from the National Restaurant Association (NRA) and other business interests, quick-service operators across the country are trying to figure out how the bill will impact them.

But after a year of hyper-partisan legislative combat, many are confused about what is in the 1,990-page bill President Obama signed on March 23, and anxiety is running high.

“There’s an underlying fear about the unknown in the bill and how it’s going to affect us,” says Mike Stimola, CEO of Sandella’s Flatbread Café.

Stimola joins a throng of operators with lingering questions about the business ramifications of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

“What exactly is the burden to the business owners out there?” says Paul Mangiamele, CEO of Salsarita’s Fresh Cantina. “Will they be able to survive through the continued pressures on margins, sales, and retaining employees?”

Until these questions are answered, Mangiamele says, expect restaurants to buckle down, particularly in their hiring.

“People that would have been hired to start impacting the unemployment number now won’t be hired,” he says. “So they won’t get health care anyway because they won’t have a job.”

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