Calorie Labels at Restaurants: Half of Adults Notice, but Some More Than Others

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began requiring restaurants and similar retail food establishments that are part of a chain with 20 or more locations to disclose the number of calories in standard menu items in May 2018. As of 2017–18, one-third of calories consumed by the U.S. population aged 2 and above were from food prepared away from home (FAFH). Full-service and limited-service restaurants are the two largest segments of the commercial foodservice market, accounting for 69.3 percent of all FAFH sales in 2022. FDA’s new labeling requirements were intended to help consumers make more informed food choices when eating out. Since FDA’s menu-labeling regulations became effective in 2018, a wide variety of U.S. foodservice establishments that sell restaurant-type food have disclosed calorie counts on menus, including convenience stores, grocery stores, superstores, and concession stands located within entertainment venues. During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency, FDA provided temporary flexibility to foodservice establishments if certain menu labeling requirements were not met. That flexibility ended November 7, 2023.

USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) recently analyzed the share of adults who noticed calorie labels on restaurant menus using 2022 data from the National Cancer Institute’s Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), a nationally representative survey that assesses the use of a wide range of health-related information of the U.S. population aged 18 and older. The ERS study used data on 5,185 adults who answered a question asking whether they noticed calorie information listed on the menu the last time they ordered food at a fast-food or sit-down restaurant. According to the survey data, about 1 in 2 U.S. adults aged 18 and older reported noticing calorie labels. There were, however, large disparities in the likelihood of noticing calorie labels by sex, household income, marital status, and residential location.

Compared with women, men were 4.1 percentage points less likely to notice calorie information in 2022. The likelihood of noticing calorie counts also rose with household income. Compared with households with incomes of less than $35,000, the likelihood of noticing calorie information was higher among households with incomes of $35,000 to $99,999 (6.6 percentage points) and among those with incomes of $100,000 or more (10.2 percentage points). Marital status also played a role: Married or partnered adults were 4.9 percentage points more likely than unpartnered adults to notice calorie labels. Finally, residential location influenced the likelihood of adults noticing calorie counts. Compared with residents of the Northeast Census Region, residents of the South, West, and Midwest Census regions were 6.9, 11.8, and 11.9 percentage points more likely to notice calorie information, respectively. Rural area residents were 13.8 percentage points less likely than their counterparts in large metropolitan areas to report noticing calorie labels.

The ERS-sponsored Flexible Consumer Behavior Survey (FCBS) module of the National Health and Nutrition Examination (NHANES) survey also has asked U.S. consumers if they noticed any calorie information on menus during their last restaurant visit. The last publicly available FCBS sample period is 2017 to March 2020 because NHANES data collection was halted in March 2020 after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although NHANES data collection resumed in August 2021, the August 2021–August 2023 FCBS data have not been released. Over the 2017–March 2020 period, the shares of adults who reported seeing calorie information on fast-food and sit-down restaurant menus were 40 percent and 35 percent, respectively.