Survey Says! People Want Calorie Information

Menu labeling found to influence diner’s meal choice

Portland, Maine - Today, Healthy Portland released survey results of the public’s opinion of the city’s Smart Meals for ME, menu labeling initiative. Smart Meals for Me is a city initiative designed to work with local restaurants to analyze the nutrition of their menu items and post calorie information on menus. Through the program nearly a dozen local businesses have posted calories information.

During the months of August and September, the city surveyed diners at participating establishments to determine whether or not posting this information impacted their purchasing habits and found that one in every two women and one in every four men who saw the calories information changed what they ordered, with the majority choosing to order an item with fewer calories. The survey also found that consumers overwhelmingly want calorie information posted at restaurants with three out of four respondents (77%) stating that this information should be displayed.  Patrons also reported that their food choice was more often influenced by calorie information at dinner rather than lunch.

“As a community, we need to pursue policies and strategies that help us live healthy, active lives,” remarked
City of Portland Mayor Michael Brennan. “Posting accurate nutritional information is an easy effective way for diners to make informed decisions about what they want to eat and the survey results confirm that people want to know.”

Studies have found a link between eating out and higher caloric intakes with nine out of ten diners underestimating the calorie content of their meal by more than six hundred calories, consuming an extra six hundred calories a week can lead to a weight gain of nine pounds a year. With most Americans eating a third of their calories out at restaurants, the city’s obesity prevention effort initiated Smart Meals for ME to help arm residents with the information they need by making the healthy choice the easy choice. This local effort complements the Affordable Care Act, which requires restaurants with twenty or more locations nationally to add calorie information to their menus. Unfortunately due to cuts made to the Fund for Healthy Maine, which reduced the city’s preventive public health funding, the city has had to suspend the program until funding can be restored or new funding identified.

With survey results complete, the city will continue to evaluate the program and the public’s views towards menu labeling. While most national surveys focus on chain restaurants, the local results reflect opinions when dining at local establishments. Interestingly, the survey identified a distinction between sit down establishments and counter establishments with 74% of diners at a sit down restaurant reporting that they saw the calorie information and 23% of patrons at a take-out establishment reporting the same thing.

Currently, Maine is the most obese state in New England with one out of every four children in the state and fifty-eight percent of all adults in Cumberland County either overweight or obese. Medical expenditures attributable to obesity cost the state more than $767 million or $577 for each Mainer. Medical care costs for an obese person are roughly 42% higher annually than that of a person of healthy weight. This translates to $1,429 per year in additional costs. With the latest projections estimating that obesity will increase by 33% and severe obesity will increase by 130% over the next two decades, it is crucial and financially responsible for the city to adopt and support initiatives that will help curb this trend. The City of Portland through Healthy Portland, a local Healthy Maine Partnership and program of the City of Portland’s Health and Human Services Department, created the Smart Meals for ME program to make it easier for local restaurants to provide nutritional information to their diners.

Since receiving a $1.8 million federal grant to prevent obesity which concluded in March 2012, the city has worked to develop and adopt policy, systems and environmental changes that make it easier for residents to make the healthy choice.