A number of studies have been conducted to evaluate the effect of calorie labeling on consumer food choices. In contrast, very little is known about whether and how restaurant menu offerings may change in response to calorie labeling. To address this knowledge gap, investigators assembled a dataset to examine trends in the nutritional quality of More
This paper discusses availability of nutrition information and nutritional content of menu items in the largest chain restaurants in the United States. Researchers examined the nutritional content of 30,923 menu items–including items from children’s menus–from 245 restaurants across the country. They found that while most main entrees did not exceed 667 calories, which is one-third More
The quality and impact of school meal programs could be improved by menu labeling policies, but there is little research about nutrition labeling in schools. This project will utilize existing data as well as ongoing data collection to study the nutritional quality of foods selected by students in a diverse urban school district in Washington More
This article discusses a study that examined changes in the energy content of lunch/dinner menu offerings at eight of the leading fast-food restaurants in the U.S. between 1997-1998 and 2009-2010. Researchers found that there have been few changes to the energy content of menu offerings among the selected restaurants. During the 14-year period, the number More
This article discusses results of a study that examined whether restaurant environments changed as a result of a newly implemented restaurant nutrition-labeling regulation in King County, Wash., compared over a similar length of time to restaurants in Multnomah County, Ore., where nutrition-labeling was not implemented. Researchers found that there was no substantive difference in overall More
Over the past few decades, behavioral economics, social psychology, and neuroscience research has suggested that people are often irrational and their choices are frequently the consequence of automatic, hard-wired, instinctual processes made without conscious awareness. This paper reviews some of the evidence that dietary behaviors are, in large part, the consequence of automatic response to More
This study examined the energy, saturated fat, and sodium content of entrées at national chain restaurants subject to menu labeling regulations in King County, Washington, at six and 18 months after the implementation of the regulation. Researchers evaluated the nutrition content of entrées at 11 sit-down restaurants and 26 quick-serve chains for items that were More
This paper examines the effect of an intervention to provide caloric information about sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) on the number of SSBs purchased by Black adolescents. The intervention randomly assigned urban corner stores in Baltimore City, Maryland to the following calorie information conditions which were posted on the beverage cases: 1) absolute caloric count, 2) percentage More
This paper examines the assumptions that consumers know how many calories they should consume throughout the course of a day and customers improperly estimate the number of calories in their fast food order. It then examines whether mandatory menu labeling influences either of these assumptions. Based on receipt and survey data collected from consumers outside More
This article assesses the impact of fast food restaurant menu labeling on the calorie content of individual lunchtime purchases of customers in New York City. Researchers found that, for the full survey sample, mean calories purchased did not change from before to after regulation. However, three major fast-food chains showed significant reductions in average calories More
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