Restaurant menu labelling: is it worth adding sodium to the label?

OBJECTIVE: Several provincial and federal bills have recommended various forms of menu labelling that would require information beyond just calories; however, the additional benefit of including sodium information is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine whether sodium information on menus helps consumers make lower-sodium choices and to understand what other factors influence the effect of menu labelling on consumers' meal choices. METHODS: A total of 3,080 Canadian consumers completed an online survey that included a repeated measures experiment in which consumers were asked to select what they would typically order from four mock-restaurant menus. Subsequently, consumers were randomly allocated to see one of three menu-labelling treatments (calories; calories and sodium; or calories, sodium and serving size) and were given the option to change their order. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in the proportion of consumers who changed their order, varying from 17% to 30%, depending on the restaurant type. After participants had seen menu labelling, sodium levels decreased in all treatments (p CONCLUSION: Including sodium information alongside calorie information may result in a larger decrease in the amount of sodium ordered by restaurant-goers. KEY WORDS: Restaurants; fast foods; food labelling; sodium OBJECTIF: Plusieurs projets de loi provinciaux et federaux recommandent diverses formes d'etiquetage nutritionnel des menus exigeant davantage d'information que la simple teneur en calories; on ignore cependant quel serait l'avantage supplementaire d'inclure la teneur en sodium. Notre etude visait a determiner si l'ajout de la teneur en sodium sur les menus aiderait les consommateurs a choisir des mets plus faibles en sodium; elle visait aussi a comprendre les autres facteurs qui modifient l'effet de l'etiquetage nutritionnel des menus sur les mets choisis par les consommateurs. METHODE: En tout, 3 080 consommateurs canadiens ont repondu a un sondage en ligne incluant une experience a mesures repetees au cours de laquelle on leur a demande de choisir ce qu'ils commanderaient d'habitude aux menus de quatre faux restaurants. Ensuite, les consommateurs ont ete repartis de facon aleatoire en trois groupes, et on leur a presente l'un de trois modes d'etiquetage nutritionnel des menus (calories; calories et sodium; ou calories, sodium et portion), et on leur a donne la possibilite de modifier leur commande. RESULTATS: Il y avait un ecart significatif dans la proportion de consommateurs ayant change leur commande, soit de 17% a 30% selon le type de restaurant. Apres que les participants ont vu l'etiquetage nutritionnel des menus, les niveaux de sodium ont diminue pour les trois modes d'etiquetage (p CONCLUSION: Inclure la teneur en sodium en plus de la teneur en calories pourrait entrainer une plus forte reduction de la quantite de sodium commandee par la clientele des restaurants. MOTS CLES: restaurant; aliments de restauration rapide; etiquetage aliments; sodium
In response to the growing obesity epidemic (1) and the prevalence of eating outside the home, (2) restaurant menu labelling is a policy being explored as a means to enable [...]