Proposed FDA regulations to cost grocers, shoppers billions

As supermarket chains struggle to maintain profitability amid rising costs, proposed ObamaCare regulations will only add to their troubles.
Experts estimate the pending federal mandate, which dictates how store owners must label ready-to-eat foods, will result in a $1 billion expense within the first year of its implementation.
According to Erik Lieberman of the Food Marketing Institute, stores have two expensive options in adhering to the rule: purchase software to test food nutrition or use outside laboratories.
On top of the expense, he contends store owners will now be liable for any mistakes made in labeling.
“If you get it wrong, it’s a federal crime,” he said, “and you could face jail time and thousands of dollars worth of fines.”
Obviously, the Food and Drug Administration heralds the intrusion as a step toward a healthier America.
According to an statement from the agency, the new law “should help consumers limit excess calorie intake and understand how the foods that they purchase at these establishments fit within their daily caloric and other nutritional needs.”
With countless websites and other sources devoted to helping users determine nutritional information, this move strikes me as not only unnecessary but unfair to grocers who did not sign up to be agricultural chemists.
Of course, store owners alone are not going to absorb the immense additional cost of business.
The owner of one supermarket chain addressed the impact such legislation will have on consumers.
“When you incur a significant cost,” he said, “there’s no way that that doesn’t get passed on to the customer in some form.”
The Obama administration, apparently not satisfied with tax increases, inflation, and rampant unemployment, seek to enact this and other regulations that will not only stifle the free market but cost all Americans – especially the sacred working class – much more in the future.
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