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Nasir and Matt discuss the new laws that require fast food restaurants and other sellers to post calorie information. They then answer the question, "One of my employees is consistently late in the winter and always blames weather. Can I fire them for this?" Full Podcast Transcript NASIR: All right, welcome to our podcast where we cover business in the news and answer some of your business legal questions that you, the listener, can send in to ask@legallysoundsmartbusiness.com. My name is Nasir Pasha. MATT: And I'm Matt Staub. NASIR: And recording in the same room for the first time ever. MATT: Almost. NASIR: Almost first time ever. Well, 'tis the season to start losing weight. MATT: A time when people probably ate a lot the entire weekend. I know I did, but I always eat a lot so it's probably about the same. NASIR: No, I feel like I've been just eating for days since I've been in San Diego, since Thursday. MATT: Nonstop? NASIR: Yeah, nonstop. MATT: Yeah. NASIR: So, fast food restaurants, vending machines, grocery stores which isn't that uncommon, coffee shops, pizza joints -- our personal favorite - are starting having to put calories up for all the items on their menu. So, a while ago, it got past where they had to put the information up. I remember going to places and seeing something on the wall like a big poster or little brochures. MATT: Yeah, they had to have it available or something, right? Sometimes, they didn't have a poster or you had to ask for them, they'd give you some kind of brochure that they had printed out or something like that. NASIR: Right, and I guess I should mention that it's the Food a Drug Administration that's enforcing this. When does it actually start going into effect? MATT: Oh, that's a good question. I know these regulations are in response to some of the laws that were passed within the Affordable Care Act. It's kind of a mandatory thing here. But I don't know when it's actually supposed to go into place. NASIR: Neither do I. So, as always, good research on our part. I think it will deter people a little bit from maybe getting some of the more high-calorie items on there even though it's fairly obviously which things have more calories and which things don't. It just has to be calories, correct? MATT: Yeah, it says calorie information which is interesting because I think even most nutritionists would feel that that's still not enough information to make an educated decision. NASIR: Right. MATT: Actually, calories are important from what I've been told, but there's more to it than that. NASIR: Yeah. Well, I hate those exercise machines that actually measure how many calories are being burnt because I feel like that's... How do they know? MATT: Yeah. I guess, if you enter your height and weight and things like that, but even then it doesn't seem like it's accurate. I wouldn't assume anything there is correct. Well, you actually, you saw a movie last night. Was it on the popcorn that you had? Because they're going to have to start doing that, too. NASIR: Yeah, we saw the new Hunger Games and we got one of those large popcorns and it was huge, of course. Too big for any one person or two people and, I think amongst about six or seven of us, there was free refills. We filled it up twice and were able to not even get through it all. MATT: Multiple times I've seen you just get the things of free refills. NASIR: Yes, that's true. MATT: Like at that at football game when you got the giant soda. NASIR: And then, they didn't give me the refill because I didn't have the receipt. MATT: Yes, because you obviously brought your own cup that was specially there. NASIR: Yeah, exactly. MATT: I guess I should mention too that this does deal with restaurants that are 20 or more locations. So, a lot of independent places have it already so it's a requirement for these bigger chain restaurants, but not places such as Ben's Chili Bowl which is the example here.