Coming to a Restaurant Near You? Potential Consumer Responses to Nutrition Information Disclosure on Menus

Abstract

Is the increase in away-from-home food consumption partially responsible for the rising prevalence of overweight consumers? Some believe that this may be the case since restaurants are not required to make easily accessible nutrition information available at the point of purchase. A field study, experiment, and consumer food diaries were used to explore how nutrition information disclosure on menus may influence consumers' product evaluations and consumption behaviors. In the context of away-from-home food consumption, we find that product claims and consumer motivation moderate the effects of nutrition information provision. Consumer health and welfare implications of our findings are discussed.