Local counties can't require restaurants to post nutrition information about their menu items under a bill that easily passed the Senate Thursday. The bill, which sailed through the House earlier this session, now goes to the governor's desk.

Lawmakers say House Bill 1303 protects restaurants from being at the whim of dozens of different local jurisdictions. "It's a proactive, pre-emptive bill," said Sen. Greg Goggans (R-Douglas) who handled the bill for the Senate. "The fear is that without legislation, we may find ourselves trying to over-regulate."

The bill, pushed by the restaurant industry, addresses an issue that hasn't yet come to Georgia.

San Francisco, New York City and the Seattle region have passed menu labeling requirements recently and several other metropolitan counties and large cities are considering them. Such rules typically focus on chain restaurants with standardized offerings and 15 or more locations.

The restaurant industry has opposed those measures.

Last year, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have required statewide menu labeling. Similar bills have failed in the U.S. Congress. The most recent, introduced earlier this month by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), would extend federal nutrition labeling regulations for packaged food to restaurant menus and vending machines. It would require restaurants with 20 or more locations to disclose calories, harmful fats and sodium levels on menus.

Concern over the rising number of obese Americans is driving the bills. Americans get about one-third of their calories from food purchased away from home, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Ron Wolf, the executive director of the Georgia Restaurant Association, said it would be "nearly impossible" for many restaurants, especially those that aren't chains, to post accurate nutrition labels of their menu items. Add an extra pickle here, change a cut of beef there, and the information would be off, he said. Many restaurant owners fear patrons would sue over faulty information. Wolf said.