The nutritional information legislation would apply to only about 25 percent of the country's 1 million restaurants. Michael Dwyer, STF

A food fight is brewing over legislation in Washington that would require restaurants to post calories on menus.

Hoping to clean up a patchwork of what it says are unwieldy state and local laws, a restaurant trade group is pushing a federal bill that would require chains to disclose the calorie counts of meals on the menu.

But companies such as Domino’s, KFC and El Pollo Loco say the proposed legislation lets too many restaurants off the hook.

The fight has become so intense that the warring parties have made some unusual alliances. The National Restaurant Association has forged a pact with a public policy interest group often called the “food police” and long a foe of the industry. It sees the proposed legislation, introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, in May and since combined with a competing bill, as the best way to expand menu labeling nationwide after years of objections by the restaurant trade.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen fast-food and pizza chains have linked with several health groups that believe the legislation should include as many establishments as possible.

As written, the bill applies only to chains with 20 or more restaurants operating under the same name. They must post calories on menus and provide detailed written information on request.

The 20-establishment threshold captures just 25 percent of roughly 1 million restaurants nationally, said Jonathan Blum, a senior vice president of Yum Brands Inc., which owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC and several other chains.

“That is inadequate. America’s consumers deserve better,” Blum said. It’s also unfair to all the restaurants that will be required to list nutrition information, he added.

Yum and the other companies say the regulations should apply to individual restaurants with $1 million or more in annual sales and chains with three or more locations.

“A pizza is a pizza no matter where it is purchased,” said Steve Carley, chief executive of the chain El Pollo Loco.