Nutrition Labels Influence Healthier Eating at Chain Restaurants, but the Food is Still Unhealthy

New research from the Drexel University School of Public Health reports that people make healthier food choices at full-service chain restaurants when nutrition information is presented on the menus, but overall the food choices people make at chains are markedly unhealthy.

Researchers sought to determine whether the presence of nutritional information on restaurant menus had an impact on consumer choices based on whether their purchases varied based on the presence of nutritional labeling.

The researchers collected nearly 650 customer surveys and transaction receipts at seven locations of one large full-service restaurant chain.

Philadelphia, where Drexel is located, has menu-labeling laws that require full-service chain restaurants with more than 15 locations nationwide to list caloric, sodium, carbohydrate and fat content on each item.

At the chain restaurant where the survey was taken, two outlets had menu labeling, while five did not.

"This is the first field-based study of mandatory menu labeling laws that found a large overall adjusted difference in calories between customers who dined at labeled restaurants when compared to unlabeled restaurants -- about 155 fewer calories purchased," said lead study author Amy Auchincloss.

Auchincloss and her colleagues found that at restaurants where nutritional labeling was present on menus, diners made a food choice that was on average 151 less calories than diners at outlets of the same restaurant where nutritional information was not present. Diners presented with nutritional information also made choices that yielded an average of 224 milligrams less sodium and 3.7 grams less saturated fat compared to diners who were not given nutritional information.

While 80 percent of the survey respondents reported seeing the nutritional labels when present, only 26 percent of respondents reported actively using the labels to guide their food choice. Among those who said they used the nutritional information to make a decision, the average person purchased 400 fewer calories, 370 mg less sodium and 10 grams less saturated fat than the overall average.

However, regardless whether nutritional information was available, the diners at the chain restaurants, on average, made food choices that exceeded what its considered healthy for one meal. Including beverages, the average consumer in the study purchased a meal with 1,800 calories -- just 200 calories shy of the 2,000-calorie daily calorie intake standard for most people.

"When you compare the average intake with the recommended daily intake, these consumers purchased almost all their calories, and more than the recommended sodium and saturated fat in just one meal," said study co-author Beth Leonberg. "In order to not exceed recommended intakes for the day, most adults should consume fewer than 750 calories, 750 milligrams of sodium and 8 grams of saturated fat in a single meal."

The research is published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.