Proposal to post food allergen information put on back burner

A proposal to require St. Paul restaurants and caterers to provide food allergen information to customers is going to simmer for a while.

St. Paul City Council Member Melvin Carter III withdrew the proposed ordinance on Wednesday along with another that would discount license fees if certain conditions about allergy awareness were met.

Restaurant owners and business groups in the city have reacted angrily to the proposed ordinance.

Carter said he pulled the proposal to allow for some fine-tuning over the next several months with the help of business owners.

But, he still intends to bring something forward, though, to have some kind of policy that allows consumers to have access to credible allergen information, he said.

"We're having a useful conversation and I want to let that take its course," Carter said. "Ultimately, I want to make sure the ordinance I propose has really good feedback from restaurant owners."

The impetus for the proposed ordinance came from Carter's 3-year-old daughter, who has food allergies.

• provide an allergen information handbook to any person upon request. The handbook would contain copies of all ingredient labels for food being served

• display an allergy awareness poster,

• notify consumers in menus, on menu boards or in a noticeable location that allergen information is available,

• make sure food managers and people in charge attend food allergen training at least once every three years.

Proposal finds enemies

Members of the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce opposed the draft proposal, said Liz Bogut, the organization's spokeswoman.

"The reality is it will create tremendous difficulties and expenses for restaurants and caterers to implement and will likely open them up to significant liability issues," Bogut said.

The chamber will continue to work closely with Carter to express its concerns, she said.

An effort to ban trans fats and require calorie labeling in chain restaurants was going to be introduced last winter, but it also has been put on the back burner.

$70 million for housing

The projects are Commerce Building Apartments, East Side Commons, Minnesota Building, Renaissance Box, and The Terraces.

They will create 192 new housing units.

Rents for the units are typically between $400 and $1,000, said Natalie Fedie, planning and economic development spokeswoman.

The projects could create up to 300 construction jobs, she added.

The money comes from federal tax credits, federal recovery act money, federal HOME funds and the St. Paul Foundation.