Ontario’s Menu Labelling Requirements Guide

On January 1st, 2017, Ontario’s Healthy Menu Choices Act came into force. Food service providers with at least 20 locations in Ontario must clearly display calories for each food and beverage item on their menus. This legislation was made to help people in Ontario make healthier dining out decisions.

Who Must Post Calories

The types of food service providers with 20 or more locations in Ontario affected by this legislation include, but are not limited to: restaurants, quick service restaurants, convenience stores, grocery stores, movie theatres, public-facing cafeterias, bakeries, food trucks, buffets, ice cream shops and coffee shops.

What to Post on Your Menus 

You need to post two things: the number of calories in the standard food item that you sell and a contextual statement. The contextual statement gives your customers the average amount of calories required by people of different ages and genders. Below is the contextual statement you must post: 

• Adults and youth (ages 13 and older) need an average of 2,000 calories a day, and children (ages 4 to 12) need an average of 1,500 calories a day. However, individual needs vary.

Where to Post Calories and Context

Regardless of the type of menu display and where you post your menu, it has to show your customers the number of calories for each item that is listed or depicted. This includes menus on: paper, menu boards, websites, apps, self-order kiosks, drive-through boards, ads (other than billboards, radio and TV commercials) and promotional flyers.

How the Law Is Enforced

Inspectors from local public health units will visit all restaurants and food service providers covered by the law, and will also respond to any complaints about a business not following the law. This could lead to education, a warning, and then a fine if they continue not to follow Ontario’s menu labelling legislation. 

How to Post Calories on Your Menus

You can use this industry guide to help you produce and post calories on your menus. You can also download a guide specific to your type of business:

• Advertisements
• Cafeteria-style food services
• Convenience stores
• Grocery stores
• Movie theatres
• Fast-food restaurants
• Restaurants
• Self-serve items

If you’re not leveraging digital menu boards yet, you should definitely consider using digital menu boards to help you easily meet the requirements of Ontario’s menu labelling legislation. Netvisual’s easy-to-use digital menu boards solution allows you to instantly add, remove or update calories information on your menus across all your restaurant locations. Netvisual is a leading full-service provider of digital menu board and digital signage solutions for fast food restaurants, quick service restaurants (QSR), casual dining restaurants, restaurant franchises, cafés, coffee shops, bakeries, food trucks, ice cream shops, cafeterias, bars, supermarkets and grocery stores across Canada and the USA. Visit our Digital Menu Boards page to learn more.