Restaurant Menu Labeling Policy: Review of Evidence and Controversies

VanEpps, Eric M.; Roberto, Christina A.; Park, Sara; Economos, Christina D.; Bleich, Sara N.

doi:10.1007/s13679-016-0193-z

Cited by 116 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 44 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Further, there was only one real‐world, full‐service chain restaurant analysis with an adequate sample size, which found that calorie labeling was associated with a 150‐calorie reduction, but this study was limited by a cross‐sectional design . Although other reviews have concluded that menu labeling has little impact on fast‐food purchases , there is an extraordinary dearth of well‐designed and adequately powered studies to truly test this hypothesis in both fast‐food and full‐service chain settings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

A Systematic Review of Calorie Labeling and Modified Calorie Labeling Interventions: Impact on Consumer and Restaurant Behavior

Bleich

Economos

Spiker

et al. 2017

Obesity

Self Cite

165

142

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Evidence on the effects of restaurant calorie labeling on consumer and restaurant behavior is mixed. This paper examined: 1) consumer responses to calorie information alone or compared to modified calorie information, and 2) changes in restaurant offerings following or in advance of menu labeling implementation. Methods We searched PubMed, Web of Science, Policy File and PAIS International to identify restaurant calorie labeling studies through October 1, 2016, that measured calories ordered, consumed, or available for purchase on restaurant menus. We also searched reference lists of calorie labeling articles. Results Fifty-three studies were included: 18 in real-world restaurants, 9 in cafeterias, and 21 in laboratory or simulation settings. Five examined restaurant offerings. Conclusion Due to a lack of well-powered studies with strong designs, the degree to which menu labeling encourages lower calorie purchases and whether that translates to a healthier population is unclear. Although there is limited evidence that menu labeling affects calories purchased at fast-food restaurants, some evidence demonstrates that it lowers calories purchased at certain types of restaurants and in cafeteria settings. The limited data on modified calorie labels find that such labels can encourage lower-calorie purchases, but may not differ in effects relative to calorie labels alone.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

A Systematic Review of Calorie Labeling and Modified Calorie Labeling Interventions: Impact on Consumer and Restaurant Behavior

Bleich

Economos

Spiker

et al. 2017

Obesity

Self Cite

165

142

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Promoting health via the information environment has been a key practice of health promotion practitioners, with examples that include inserting nutrition information in restaurant menus (59), installing seatbelt warning lights in the cars we drive (60), and delivering public service announcements via the television to promote parent–child communication about alcohol use (61). The concept of environmental print , which refers to the symbols, signs, numbers, and colors of everyday life that enhance children’s literacy (41, 62), holds relevance for harnessing the information environment by guiding health promotion practitioners to interweave health messaging across everyday-life contexts of individuals.…”

Section: Information Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health by Design: Interweaving Health Promotion into Environments and Settings

Springer

Evans

Ortuño

et al. 2017

Front. Public Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The important influence of the environmental context on health and health behavior—which includes place, settings, and the multiple environments within place and settings—has directed health promotion planners from a focus solely on changing individuals, toward a focus on harnessing and changing context for individual and community health promotion. Health promotion planning frameworks such as Intervention Mapping provide helpful guidance in addressing various facets of the environmental context in health intervention design, including the environmental factors that influence a given health condition or behavior, environmental agents that can influence a population’s health, and environmental change methods. In further exploring how to harness the environmental context for health promotion, we examine in this paper the concept of interweaving of health promotion into context, defined as weaving or blending together health promotion strategies, practices, programs, and policies to fit within, complement, and build from existing settings and environments. Health promotion interweaving stems from current perspectives in health intervention planning, improvement science and complex systems thinking by guiding practitioners from a conceptualization of context as a backdrop to intervention, to one that recognizes context as integral to the intervention design and to the potential to directly influence health outcomes. In exploring the general approach of health promotion interweaving, we examine selected theoretical and practice-based interweaving concepts in relation to four key environments (the policy environment, the information environment, the social/cultural/organizational environment, and the physical environment), followed by evidence-based and practice-based examples of health promotion interweaving from the literature. Interweaving of health promotion into context is a common practice for health planners in designing health promotion interventions, yet one which merits further intentionality as a specific health promotion planning design approach.

show abstract

“…The average obscures differences by restaurant type and across individuals, an observation that is highlighted in this report. The most recent systematic review of field studies did not estimate an average treatment effect, but concluded that "the evidence regarding menu labeling is mixed, showing that labels may reduce the energy content of food purchased in some contexts, but have little effect in other contexts" (VanEpps et al, 2016). The consumer choice experiment in our study provides data on which type of context influences the effect of calorie-labeled menus.…”

Section: Abbreviationsmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…Numerous studies (and several systematic reviews) have tried to assess the effects of local menu labeling rules, but the results of the reviews have been mixed and sometimes contradictory (VanEpps et al, 2016;Sarink et al, 2016;Long et al, 2015;Sinclair, Cooper, and Mansfield, 2014;Swartz, Braxton, and Viera, 2011). There are plausible reasons for this heterogeneity, such as differences in label styles and information provided, differences in the types of restaurants in the study, and variance in groups of participants.…”

Section: Abbreviationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This will reduce situations where establishments have to meet many different menu-labeling requirements because of varying state and local regulations. The FDA rule may also cover some establishments that may not have been covered under some state laws.Numerous studies (and several systematic reviews) have previously tried to assess the effects of local labeling rules, but the results have been mixed and sometimes contradictory (VanEpps et al, 2016;Sarink et al, 2016;Long et al, 2015;Sinclair, Cooper, and Mansfield, 2014;Swartz, Braxton, and Viera, 2011). There are plausible reasons for these different findings, including study design elements like sample size and varying types of labels (e.g., calories alone versus contextual), the restaurant setting in which the study took place, and types of customers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Examining Consumer Responses to Calorie Information on Restaurant Menus in a Discrete Choice Experiment

Huang¹,

Tsang²,

Hiatt³

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Limited Print and Electronic Distribution RightsThis document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest.RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.Support RAND Make a tax-deductible charitable contribution at www.rand.org/giving/contribute www.rand.org For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/RR1957 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for this publication. ISBN: 978-0-8330-9838-2Published by the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. © Copyright 2018 RAND CorporationR® is a registered trademark.iii PrefaceThe Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services undertook this research to evaluate how providing calorie information on restaurant menus affects consumer choice. The 2014 U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) final rule titled "Food Labeling: Nutrition Labeling of Standard Menu Items in Restaurants and Similar Retail Food Establishments" requires restaurants and similar retail food establishments that are part of a chain with 20 or more locations doing business under the same name and offering for sale substantially the same menu items to provide calorie and other nutrition information for menu items. This rule applies to standard menu items, including food on display and self-service food, and creates a nationwide, uniform requirement for displaying calorie information. This is the final report on two tasks set out by ASPE in the contract: (1) developing and fielding the consumer-choice experiment and analyzing the resulting data to evaluate the potential effect of providing calorie information according to FDA menu labeling rules on consumer choice (addressed in Chapters One through Five); and (2) evaluation of menu changes over time (addressed in Chapter Six).This work was sponsored by the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation under contract HHSP23320095649WC and task order HHSP23337037T, for which Amber Jessup serves as the contracting officer's representative. The research was conducted in RAND Health, a division of the RAND Corporation. A profile of RAND Health, abstracts of its publications, and ordering information can be found at www.rand.org/health. (FDA, 20...

show abstract

Restaurant Menu Labeling Policy: Review of Evidence and Controversies

Cited by 116 publications

References 44 publications

A Systematic Review of Calorie Labeling and Modified Calorie Labeling Interventions: Impact on Consumer and Restaurant Behavior

A Systematic Review of Calorie Labeling and Modified Calorie Labeling Interventions: Impact on Consumer and Restaurant Behavior

Health by Design: Interweaving Health Promotion into Environments and Settings

Examining Consumer Responses to Calorie Information on Restaurant Menus in a Discrete Choice Experiment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About