Federal Calorie Menu Labeling Policy and Calories Purchased in Restaurants in a National Fast Food Chain: A...

Area of Science:

• Public Health Nutrition
• Health Policy Research
• Restaurant Industry Analysis

Background:

• Federal menu labeling legislation was mandated in May 2018.
• No prior studies evaluated the national impact using a comparison group.
• This study addresses a gap in understanding the real-world effects of menu labeling laws.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of national menu labeling legislation on calories purchased.
• To assess changes in transaction volume following menu labeling implementation.
• To provide data on the effectiveness of public health nutrition policies.

Main Methods:

• Synthetic control methods matched restaurants implementing national labeling to those with early local labeling.
• A 2-way fixed effects regression model estimated the effect on calories per transaction.
• Time was modeled relative to implementation, with fixed effects for month and restaurant.

Main Results:

• No significant difference in calories purchased per transaction between groups after national labeling.
• A slight, statistically significant increase of 7.4 calories per transaction in the national labeling group.
• A ~2% greater decrease in monthly transactions in the national labeling group compared to the comparison group.

Conclusions:

• National menu labeling legislation showed negligible impact on calories purchased and transaction numbers.
• The observed changes were not statistically significant beyond secular trends.
• Alternative strategies may be needed to achieve substantial reductions in restaurant calorie consumption.