Impact of calorie labelling on online takeaway food choices: an online Menu-Based Choice Experiment in England.

Abstract

Eating out-of-home is linked to higher calorie intake and body weight, risk factors for obesity, diabetes and other diseases. This study examined whether providing calorie information on online takeaway food menus leads to lower-calorie food choices. A Menu-based Choice Experiment was conducted in November 2022 among a random sample of 1,040 online takeaway consumers in England. Each participant chose their preferred items from ten hypothetical menus including starters/sides, mains, desserts, and drinks. Participants were randomly allocated to a group in which the ten menus included either: a) no calorie information (group A); b) individual item calorie content (group B); or c) individual item and total calorie content (group C). An orthogonal design was used to create the menus and the probability of choosing each of the food items was estimated using a Multivariate Probit Model (MVP). There was no statistically significant difference in calories ordered by respondents in group B or group C in comparison to the control group. by. While group B and C had on average a greater likelihood of choosing low-calorie items compared to group A, the effect was only statistically significant for the low-calorie main for respondents over 55 years old in group C in comparison to the control. For these respondents, calorie information increased the probability of choosing the low-calorie main by 11.1pp (p<0.001). We found no evidence that including a calorie counter had a larger impact on food choices than providing calorie information for individual items. Choices were relatively inelastic to price changes although main meals were more price sensitive (own-price elasticity -0.5 to -0.62) compared to starters, deserts and drinks (-0.22 to -0.39).