Start Date: August 2019

ID #: CAS059

Organization: University of California-Nutrition Policy Institute and University of Delaware

Project Lead: Lorrene Ritchie, Alison Karpyn

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Beginning January 2019 in California and Wilmington, Delaware, all restaurants selling children’s meals that include a beverage must provide healthy default options (unsweetened water and milk in California; water, milk or 100% juice in Delaware). In December 2018, baseline data on children’s meal beverage options were collected from a sample of fast food restaurants in California (n=111) and fast food and sit-down restaurants in Wilmington (n=16). The research team proposes to return to the same restaurants 6-8 months after the beverage policy went into effect to: assess pre-post changes in children’s meal beverage options, quantify policy compliance, compare compliance and beverages offered with children’s meals in California and Delaware, and identify compliance challenges and opportunities for increasing compliance. Researchers will observe menus and children’s meal ordering, and interview restaurant managers regarding changes in children’s meal beverage sales, perceptions of customer responses to the policy, and difficulties experienced in policy implementation. The overall purpose of the study is to inform future policies in other states and municipalities.

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