Restaurants are being told to list calorie counts on their menus. Schools are banning bake sales, and cities are outlawing new fast-food restaurants in some neighborhoods.
State and local governments, concerned about the growing cost of obesity and diabetes and the ever-higher cost of healthcare, are acting more like food police. And more regulations may be ahead.
Decades of federal inaction in fighting the nation's obesity epidemic and regulating dangerous food ingredients such as artery-clogging trans fats are behind these local and state efforts, said Michael Jacobson, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
The Obama administration, with large majorities in Congress and headed by a president who made healthcare a centerpiece of his campaign, could launch a new era of food regulation, he said. "The Obama administration clearly believes strongly that government has a major role to play in many arenas, including protecting the public's health."
Jacobson and other proponents of more oversight of what and how the nation eats want to see the Food and Drug Administration split into two agencies, with one focusing on food and the other on drugs and medical devices.
They say the FDA commissioner traditionally has been preoccupied with drug regulation and has allowed food oversight to flounder. Critics cite what they characterize as the agency's weak, slow and inept efforts this year when melamine was found in contaminated infant formula in the United States and a months-long outbreak of salmonella poisoning in produce sent 286 consumers to the hospital.
Greater regulation of food production, preparation and consumption -- whether on the local or national level -- is controversial.
"The government might have good intentions, but can't average citizens make up their own minds on what to eat? This is an example of nanny government," said Bill Whalen, an analyst at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
Despite some criticism from food manufacturers and restaurants, state and local officials are setting the pace and defining the agenda. New York City, Philadelphia and California have banned trans fats.
Several local health departments -- including Los Angeles County -- want the federal government to reclassify salt as a food additive, a move that would pave the way for greater regulation.
