Restaurant Corporate Social Responsibility Commitments Are Not Associated With Nutritional Changes to Menu Offerings

Background

Restaurants’ public commitments to health, including corporate social responsibility (CSR), have implications for menu offerings, diet, and chronic disease risk.

Objective

To evaluate associations between CSR commitments and the nutritional quality of menu offerings in 66 top-selling restaurant chains from 2012 to 2018.

Study Design, Settings, Participants

Data on restaurant CSR commitments and the nutrition content of menu offerings were abstracted from the Internet Archive database of restaurant websites and the MenuStat database.

Measurable Outcome/Analysis

Outcomes of interest included the nutritional quality scores of restaurant menu offerings (via a modified Nutrition Environment Measures Study-Restaurants, NEMS-R, tool) and the nutrition content of menu items (kcal, total fat, saturated fat, sugar, fiber). Generalized linear mixed models with a random effect for restaurant were used to evaluate differences in the NEMS-R score and nutrition content menu offerings between restaurants with (n=22) and without CSR (n=44) commitments, overall and by year. Sensitivity analyses were conducted using health-related CSR commitments identified by qualitative coding in a random subsample of web text sections (n=4,096) versus by keywords (health and non-health-related) in all the web text sections (n=10,615).

Results

There were no differences in the NEMS-R score or the nutrition content of menu items in restaurants with versus without CSR commitments. Sensitivity analyses suggest modest changes in the nutrition content of menu items at restaurants with CSR commitments both overall and by year. Specifically, there was a modest decline in per-item calories offered each year (-3.4 kcals per year 95%CI: -7.0, -0.4) but a slightly higher amount of total fat and saturated fat overall by restaurants with CSR commitments vs. those without (0.09 g of fat 95%CI: 0.0, 2.1 and 0.4 g saturated fat 95%CI: 0.0, 1.1, respectively). There were small declines in saturated fat over time (-0.1 g saturated fat per year 95%CI: -0.2, 0.0) in restaurants with CSR commitments vs. those without.

Conclusions

CSR commitments did not translate into nutritional changes to restaurant menus that would meaningfully impact health.

Funding

American Heart Association