Warning labels on restaurant menus reduce likelihood consumers order high-sugar foods, study finds

Added-sugar warning labels decreased the chance that customers would order objects containing excessive quantities of added sugar in an internet experiment led by College of California, Davis researchers. Menu labels will help inform shoppers in regards to the surprisingly excessive quantity of added sugar in even the smallest sizes of soda or in sudden objects like salad dressings and sauces.

In a randomized managed trial, researchers discovered that warning labels decreased by 2.2% the likelihood of ordering a high-added-sugar merchandise. Nonetheless, solely 21% of the shoppers uncovered to the added-sugar warning labels observed them. Amongst those that observed the labels, there was a discount of 4.9 grams of added sugar ordered, in comparison with the management group.

“Given the frequency of restaurant meals consumption, these modest results may result in significant modifications in sugar consumption on the inhabitants stage, and the labels ought to encourage eating places to scale back the added-sugar content material of their menus,” stated Jennifer Falbe, a researcher within the Division of Human Ecology and lead writer. Notably, it’s estimated that 21% of energy consumed in the USA come from eating places.

Nonetheless, given that almost all members didn’t discover the added-sugar labels, Falbe added, “our findings additionally point out that menu labels ought to be designed for increased visibility.”

First take a look at behavioral outcomes

The research, revealed on-line this week within the American Journal of Preventive Drugs, checked out folks’s habits as they simulated ordering from menus for fast-food and full-service chain eating places. Co-authors embrace researchers from different universities and the Middle for Science within the Public Curiosity.

Falbe stated this research is the primary to check a restaurant menu added-sugar warning label on behavioral outcomes. Within the research, shoppers chosen menu objects they might wish to order for dinner from on-line menus that included widespread meals like hamburgers, salads, French fries, drinks (with sugar and sugar-free), sodas, cookies, sundaes and smoothies.

Greater than 15,000 members had been recruited to match the U.S. inhabitants by way of age, gender, race and ethnicity, and schooling. Half of them had been randomized to pick out from on-line menus with added-sugar warning labels whereas the opposite half chosen from menus with out added-sugar labels (the management group). Within the intervention group, warning labels had been added to objects containing over 50% of the advisable day by day restrict for added sugar. Researchers had been capable of document all members’ habits as they simulated ordering dinner from these menus in 2021.

Main findings embrace:

• Added-sugar warning labels decreased the chance that customers would order an merchandise excessive in added sugar.
• The warning labels helped shoppers perceive whether or not menu objects had been excessive in added sugar.
• A big majority (72%) of shoppers within the research indicated that they supported a legislation requiring chain eating places to publish these warning labels on their menus.

Falbe and colleagues had performed earlier research on creating such warning labels, together with one which designed added-sugar menu labels primarily based on the design of present sodium warning labels current on menus in New York and Philadelphia.

Whereas the USA Meals and Drug Administration requires giant chain eating places to make some diet info accessible in eating places, there may be presently no requirement for added sugar to be publicly disclosed for restaurant meals, researchers stated.

“This hole in info leaves shoppers in the dead of night about how a lot added sugar is contained within the meals and drinks that they eat,” stated DeAnna Nara, a senior coverage affiliate at Middle for Science within the Public Curiosity and co-author. “We all know that chain eating places serve up meals and drinks full of added sugars and are particularly exhausting locations for shoppers to navigate and make wholesome decisions for themselves and their households, particularly these managing power ailments.”

“Warning icons present simply interpretable info to shoppers and equip them with the data they should make knowledgeable choices,” stated Nara. “Additionally they have the potential to encourage eating places to rethink their recipes, spurring reformulation to chop again on added sugars.”

Co-authors of the research embrace researchers from UC Davis, Harvard T.H. Chan Faculty of Public Well being, Perelman Faculty of Drugs on the College of Pennsylvania, Middle for Science within the Public Curiosity in Washington D.C., and the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.