Calorie labelling on Ontario menus: what the Healthy Menu Choices Act requires

Ontario's Healthy Menu Choices Act, 2015 requires food-service chains with 20 or more locations in Ontario to post the calories of every standard food and drink item on their menus, including menu boards, drive-throughs and online menus or apps that show prices or take orders. Covered chains must also display a set statement about daily calorie needs, in the same font and size as their item names. A restaurant with fewer than 20 Ontario locations doesn't have to post calories, though it can choose to.

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This is general information, not legal advice. Your local public health unit enforces the law and can answer questions about your menus.

Who has to post calories

The Act defines a chain as 20 or more food service premises in Ontario that operate under the same or substantially the same name, regardless of ownership, and offer the same or substantially the same standard food items. Franchisors and licensors count as operators along with franchisees and managers. The regulation adds anyone who owns or operates 20 or more cafeteria-style food service premises open to the public in Ontario.

Items that don't need calories even at a covered chain: items on the menu for fewer than 90 days a year, free self-serve condiments not listed on the menu, one-off items made to a customer's special request, and items in vending machines. Premises in schools, correctional institutions and child care centres are exempt.

Which menus need calories

Under O. Reg. 50/16, a "menu" includes:

• paper menus and electronic menus;
• menu boards and drive-through menus;
• online menus and menu apps;
• advertisements, other than billboards, radio and TV;
• promotional flyers.

Online menus and apps outside the restaurant are exempt only if they don't list prices or don't offer a way to order. A chain's own ordering website therefore needs calories on every standard item. Items on display, such as a pastry case, need a label or tag with the calories. Where customers serve themselves, the chain must post a sign near each item with its calories and serving size.

How calories must be displayed

Calories can come from lab testing or a nutrient analysis method you reasonably believe is accurate.

The required statement

Covered chains must display this statement on every menu, close to the items and in the same font and at least the same size as the item names (or the regulation's French version):

On a menu with several pages, it must be visible on every page that lists standard items. If customers can order somewhere they can't see a menu carrying the statement, such as a counter, the chain must also post it on a sign there. An older adult-only wording (2,000 to 2,400 calories) was allowed only until 31 December 2017.

Enforcement and fines

Public health inspectors from your local public health unit inspect covered businesses and respond to complaints. Ontario describes the usual path as education first, then a warning, then a fine if the problem continues. The maximum fines under the Act, for every day or part of a day an offence continues:

Directors and officers of a corporation must take reasonable care that the company complies, and can be prosecuted personally.

Worked example: calories for a burger combo

A covered chain sells a burger combo with medium fries and a medium drink. The figures below are illustrative; use your own nutrient analysis. Prices as of October 2026.

Combo range: lowest is burger + fries + diet cola = 880; highest is burger + fries + cola = 1,090. Make it large: fries add 120, and the drink adds 0 to 100, so upsizing adds 120 to 220.

How the menu line reads:

Because the drinks are listed separately elsewhere on the menu, each drink also shows its own calories.

Calories on a Menuthere menu

Every Menuthere plan has a Calories field (kcal per serving) on each dish, next to the 14 allergens and a halal mark. Customers see the figure, for example "320 kcal", when they open the dish, and in the Diner menu style the dish card also shows a short line such as "320 kcal · 3 allergens". See allergens and nutrition.

If you're a small restaurant, that's all you need: showing calories is optional and the kcal field is a good way to do it.

If you're a covered chain, the Ontario rules ask for more than the kcal field gives: the figure next to the name or price, in the same font and size, labelled "Calories" or "Cals", and ranges for combos. A practical way to meet that in Menuthere:

1. Put the calories in the dish name, for example "Classic Burger Combo (880–1090 Cals)", so the figure sits beside the name in the same font everywhere the dish appears.
2. Name sizes with their calories, for example "Large (adds 120–220 Cals)".
3. Show the required statement in your announcement bar on Lite (see fonts and announcement bar), and check with your public health unit that its placement and size meet the rule.
4. Keep the kcal field filled too, so the figure also appears in the dish details and in free tools such as the allergen chart maker.

Running several Ontario locations on one account needs Pro (US$39 a month); see pricing. For table menus, see the QR code menu for Canada; for your own ordering site, the online ordering system for Canada. Setting prices too? Ontario adds 13% HST to restaurant meals: see GST/HST on restaurant food.

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Checklist for a covered chain

• Count your Ontario locations under the same name and menu (20 or more means you're covered).
• List every standard item, size, flavour, add-on and combo.
• Get calories from a lab or a nutrient analysis method, and round them as the regulation says.
• Put calories next to every name or price, in the same font and size, with "Calories" or "Cals".
• Show combo ranges as "xx–yy", and say add-on calories are extra.
• Add the required statement to every menu, including your ordering website and app.
• Label display cases and post signs at self-serve stations.