Fast-Food Customers Who Read Calorie Postings Make Lower-Calorie Selections
The British Medical Journal has published a study that sought to “assess the
impact of fast food restaurants adding calorie labeling to menu items on the
energy content of individual purchases.”
According to the researchers, including an independent consultant and a city official, the more than 8,400 adults interviewed in 2009 did not overall purchase foods lower in calories after New York City implemented regulations requiring calorie posting, but among the one in six lunchtime customers who used the calorie information provided, lower calorie choices were made. Significant variations were apparently found in the data collected from different chains, a matter attributed to customer purchasing patterns and changes in menu options and promotions.
More than 7,300 lunchtime customers at 275 fast-food locations, representing 13 chains, were interviewed in 2007 and provided their register receipts so researchers could verify their self-reported purchases. The same method was used to compare and assess the purchases made in 2009. Women and customers in wealthier neighborhoods apparently used the calorie information more often than men or customers in the poorest neighborhoods, and the youngest customers evidently “were the least likely to report using calorie information.” According to the data, “Customers who reported using the calorie information after regulation purchased 106 fewer calories, on average, compared with customers who didn’t see or didn’t use the information.”
Among the study’s limitations were time constraints on the amount of information that could be collected and variability in the number of fast-food meals consumed (“customers may be eating fast food more or less often; which would not be captured in this study design”). Certain types of customers with different dietary motivations may also be attracted to certain chains, another matter not accounted for. The study authors also note, “This analysis does not attempt to distinguish between the multiple potential mechanisms by which calorie labeling could affect the energy content of purchases, such as changes in menu offerings, more informed consumer choice, or differences in pricing or promotion.”
