The Impact of Nutritional Information on Restaurant Consumer Behavior

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Impact of Nutritional Information on Restaurant Consumer Behavior Abstract Obesity among adults in the United States increased by approximately 50 percent per decade throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Given the substantially elevated risk of type-2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and cancer associated with obesity there is an undeniable need for effective public health interventions aimed at reducing the rate of obesity in the United States. Further, since the average American now eats 218 restaurant meals per year, and since the average annual percentage of fat intake consumed away from home rose from 18 percent in the mid-1970s to 38 percent in the mid-1990s, restaurant consumption behavior maybe a useful place to begin looking for solutions. In particular, more informed dietary choices away-from- home could help reduce calorie over-consumption and the risk of obesity. Through a unique partnership between the Department of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), Nutricate Corporation, a nutritional software company and Silvergreens LLC., we have the opportunity to conduct a field experiment at Silvergreens restaurant. The primary objective of this experiment is to examine the impact of disseminating nutritional information to customers in a restaurant environment, and its impact on consumer purchasing behavior. In particular, we propose to investigate the impact of positive and negative nutritional and motivational messages in conjunction with nutritional content information distributed to consumers on their transaction receipts over an extended period of time Nutritional labeling of packaged foods has been an important element in the battle against obesity. However, Americans consume an ever greater share of their meals at restaurants, where nutritional information on meals is currently not widely available. This exploratory field study will ask whether a new method of providing nutritional information in restaurants - the Nutricate receipt - might help customers make healthier meal choices. If this technology works, it could have a large and beneficial effect on Americans' health, life expectancy, and health care costs.