Even though the federal government has delayed once again the rule that would require restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus, Subway is going ahead and will do so anyway.

According to the sandwich chain, its new menu boards that include calorie counts have already started to roll out around the United States, and by April 11, they should be displayed in all 27,000 stores opened in the country.

Restaurant chains have been waiting for the Food and Drug Administration to post its final guidance and enforcement of a rule that requires all food sellers with more than 20 locations to post the calorie information on their menus.

As the execution of the law has been postponed once again, Subway took the decision to forge ahead on its own.

Lanette Kovachi, the leader of Subway’s global nutrition efforts, said that the sandwich chain wants to give consumers what they’re expecting, even though the FDA rule has not come into effect yet.

Back in 2010, a rule was passed requiring major chains to post calorie counts on menus, a move that was part of a federal health care overhaul. This decision was supposed to help Americans make better dietary choices.

The FDA has weighed retailers’ concerns for what felt like an eternity, but the final rules were finally released in 2014. Establishments had until the end of 2015 to comply, but some obstacles caused the agency to push back the deadline to the end of 2016.

The last delay – which gave restaurant chains time until a year after the FDA publishes its final guidance – was caused by the fact that many companies have lobbied for an exemption.

Domino’s, for instance, claimed the rule makes no sense for food chains that get a lot of their orders over the phone or online.

However, Subway is not the only one to move forward in spite of the delay. Panera Bread started making this information public in 2010, and McDonald’s Corp. followed suit two years later.

According to the National Restaurant Association, most food companies seem to be waiting for the final guidance from the FDA before they begin posting the information.

In the meantime, Subway has already posted calorie counts in about 4,000 stores located in New York, California, and other states where this information is already required. Since January, the food chain has included the new menu boards in another 7,000 restaurants.

However, it’s still unclear if and how the calorie counts change people’s behavior.
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