With mandatory calorie information in restaurants in New York, and Congress calling for calories to be displayed on fast food menus throughout America, we might hope that fast food consumers are starting to pay attention and reconsider eating that giant burger.
Unfortunately, early indications aren’t good…
A study carried out in New York City found that just six people out of a sample of 4,311 paid attention to calorie information.
A study carried out in New York City found that just six people out of a sample of 4,311 paid attention to calorie information.
Christina A. Roberto and her colleagues from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut watched diners at a number of different fast food outlets (McDonalds, Burger King, Au Bon Pain and Starbucks) in New York City.
And as Reuters reports, the researchers had a fairly generous definition of what constituted checking calorie information:
Customers were considered to have looked at the nutrition information if they walked up to a poster with the information and turned their head toward it, picked up a pamphlet, or touched the screen of the computer that Au Bon Pain restaurants use to provide nutrition information.
So do fast food diners just not care about the calorie content of their food? Or is this information still not accessible enough – perhaps if calorie counts were displayed as clearly as prices, people would take heed.
Roberto believes the latter, and told Reuters:
You’ve got to have this information in a really highly visible place, like on a menu board. The way it’s offered now is just not an effective way to disseminate that kind of information to the public.
One flaw with the study is that it’s possible that regular fast food diners had checked out the calorie information on a previous visit.
Do you ever eat fast food? (Go on, confess!) If so, do you pay attention to the nutritional information?
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