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Numeracy skills hinder a consumer’s ability to meet nutrition and calorie consumption guidelines. This study extends the literature on nutritional labelling by investigating how a calorie counter, which displays the total amount of calories consumers add to a shopping basket, aids them in making food choices. This study aims to ascertain whether the calorie counter affects food choices and also how individual and situational factors moderate this effect.

To test the developed hypotheses, the authors designed an online shopping experiment and administered it to a national panel of British consumers. This included a sub-sample from the general population who did not report any food-related health conditions (n = 480) and a separate sub-sample from the same population who had reported a food-related health condition or lived with someone who had one (n = 250).

The results of this study show that the calorie counter leads to a large and statistically significant reduction in calories purchased when compared to the no nutritional information condition and a small (but statistically insignificant) reduction in the number of calories chosen by consumers when compared to the nutritional information only condition. The main effect is moderated by individual factors such as whether or not the person has a health condition and shopping situations which involve time pressure.

Although the main effect of the calorie counter was not statistically significant when compared to the nutrition information only condition, the effect was in the correct direction and was statistically significant for consumers who had a food-related health condition. The conceptualisation and findings of this study are not only largely consistent with Moorman’s (1990) nutrition information utilisation process but also suggest that situational factors should be considered when understanding nutrition information processing.

The findings from this study provide the first evidence to suggest that aggregating calorie information through a calorie counter can be a useful way to overcome consumer numeracy biases, particularly for those with existing health conditions and who are most motivated to use nutritional information. Based on the descriptive statistics, the main effect was comparable to the UK’s sugar tax in its impact and the authors estimate this would lead to a reduction in calories consumed of about 5,000 per year, even for consumers who did not report a health condition. Further testing is required with different formats, but these results are encouraging and are worthy of further research.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate how consumers react to aggregated nutritional information for a basket of products, mimicking a real shopping situation. Such information has the potential to become more relevant and useful to consumers in the context of their overall diets. As technology advances rapidly, there is a need to explore alternative ways of presenting nutritional information, so it connects more easily with consumers. These results point very much to a more targeted and personally relevant approach to information provision, in contrast to existing mass communications approaches.

In the last few decades, the obesity rate has increased along with the increasing of away-from-home food consumption at restaurants (Wei & Miao, 2013), especially the food consumption at quick-service restaurants (QSRs). Previous research stated that the main factors that influence the customers’ food selection are found. Price and quality of food are the most significant things that mostly concerned customers when they are in decision-making process. There is a controversial argument between several studies that identified calorie labelling on menu influences consumers on food choice, while others said vice versa. However, several studies argued that calorie information does not have as much impact on customers’ food purchasing as other factors such as food’s quality, ranges of food, price of food, restaurant’s atmosphere, and speed of food service (Carey & Genevive, 1995). The aim of this chapter is to examine the importance of representing calorie information on menu and its effects on customer decision-making especially at QSRs. Therefore, the following questions have been addressed in this chapter:

What are the factors that influence consumer choice at QSRs?

Does calorie labelling on menus impact customer purchasing at QSRs?

This chapter starts with the introduction of the topic and reviewing previous research on menu labelling and calorie information at QSRs. This chapter aims to provide a better understanding of customer decision-making when ordering a food with regard to calorie information on the menu and the customer preference.

The study's purpose was to examine the role of two main factors in the design of online food delivery systems (OFDS) user interfaces: the display of pictures and calories – on consumers' attitudes toward online food delivery systems, intentions to use such systems, spending on a food item and tipping behavior.

The study is grounded in the elaboration likelihood model. A 2 × 2 randomized post-test only between-subjects experimental design manipulated the types of pictures (food item only vs consumers eating a food item) and calorie information display style (numbers vs activity symbols) to determine whether they influence consumers' attitudes, intentions to purchase, spending and tipping behaviors.

The results show that the calorie display style influences consumers' intentions to use such systems and consumers' tipping behaviors toward the delivery driver. It was also found that the type of picture shown to consumers influences their intentions to purchase through ODFS, such that pictures of consumers enjoying a product is more effective in stimulating intentions to purchase than pictures containing only the food items.

This study advances the current knowledge on web design for restaurants wishing to distribute via online food delivery systems. Moreover, this study extends the literature on persuasion in online environments by focusing on foodservice – an area that only recently has undergone substantial distribution online. Finally, this study advances the literature on tipping behavior.

This study provides several contributions for both restaurants and online food delivery system designers. Specifically, it illustrates exactly how specific elements in the design of the web interface and the message targeted at consumers influence consumers' behavior. Most importantly, this study provides insight into tipping behaviors for the delivery driver. This is important because the delivery driver is an important participant in the new value chain of restaurant delivery.

As the first study to develop an experiment that tests these important design conditions, this study offers several critical theoretical and practical implications. This study is the first attempt to examine various ways to present persuasive information in an OFDS in order to stimulate consumers' behaviors. Moreover, this study illustrates that the use of website design that enhance social presence is critical to website effectiveness in OFDS.

The aim is to explore the impact of new menu labels on consumers' actual meal purchases with a field experiment undertaken in a local restaurant.

The author used a field experiment in a natural eating environment at a restaurant to investigate the effect of restaurant menu labelling on consumers' meal choices and opinions on the use of nutritional labels on menus. The experiment included control and treatment conditions in which we offered customers unlabelled and labelled menus, respectively. After individuals' dining experience, the data on meal choices and attitudes to menu labelling was collected via a brief questionnaire. The author then performed inferential statistical analysis to test differences between the control and treatment conditions and logistic regression analysis to explore further what predicts the probability of labels being influential on meal choice.

The study finds that the information provided to the consumers on restaurant menus matters. The more useful the information is perceived by consumers, the more likely the labels will influence their choices. Calorie content and the walking minutes to burn those calories on labels were considered the most useful aspect of the menu labels.

The study contributes to a better understanding of the impact of menu labelling on actual meal purchases, as well as the best way to communicate calorie and nutrient information to consumers. The author also shares her experience designing a field experiment with a restaurateur for future research.

This study aims to investigate the following three issues: whether consumers process numeric information with locational cues, which locations (horizontal vs vertical) are more influential in processing numbers and whether a number-location association is weakened or strengthened when a visual reference frame moves up or down.

A field study and a series of three lab experiments were conducted to examine the location effect of numeric information on the package façade on the perceived magnitude of a number.

The authors found that a number at the right was perceived as larger than one at the left only when the number is located at the bottom. Also, placing numeric information at the bottom rather than the top of a product package façade was more powerful in processing the numeric information, but this is true only when the visual frame is set lower.

This study provides practical insights for product managers in placing core numeric information on product packaging to effectively communicate product value to consumers. Optimal locations can be deliberately considered along with types of numeric information and product categories. For healthy products that promote fewer calories, the top area of the package façade may be a better position for placing information on calories per serving to make the product more appealing to those who follow a healthy diet. Heavier, more voluminous products (e.g., refrigerator) better position their volume/weight information at the bottom than at the top or at the right of the bottom than at the left of the bottom on the product facade. Either the left side or right side of the top position may be beneficial for thinner, lightweight products (e.g., television).

The present work adds valuable empirical findings; inconsistent with past research, left-right location-number associations are not always true. People tend to associate smaller numbers with left-side locations and larger numbers with right-side locations only when the number is located at the bottom. Also, the study reported that top-small, bottom-large associations are not always true. The difference in perceived magnitude of the number between a number at the top and one at the bottom within the visual frame is significant only when the visual frame is set close to the ground.

This study examines sociodemographic and lifestyle factors associated with knowledge of calories.

Data were analysed from the Komuniti Sihat Pembina Negara (KOSPEN) 2016. Logistic regressions were used to examine the effects of sociodemographic and lifestyle factors on knowledge of the definition of calories, recommended caloric intake and the effect of calories on body weight.

The results revealed that large proportions of respondents did not know the definition of calories (51.33%), recommended caloric intake (95.50%) and the effect of calories on body weight (64.89%). The proportions of respondents having knowledge of calories varied by income, gender, ethnicity, educational level, marital status, employment status, urbanization of states, smoking status and awareness of body mass index (BMI). Respondents were less likely to have knowledge of calories if they were low-income earners, non-Malays, less-educated, unemployed, smokers and unaware of their BMI.

Sociodemographic and lifestyle factors play an important role in affecting knowledge of calories. Policymakers should make a concerted effort to improve knowledge of calories among adults with different sociodemographic backgrounds and lifestyle profiles.

This study provides several contributions to the literature: (1) The country of interest is Malaysia, where the prevalence of obesity is high and studies related to knowledge of calories are lacking. (2) In addition to knowledge of recommended caloric intake, knowledge of the definition of calories and the effect of calories on body weight factors are considered. (3) Apart from sociodemographic variables, smoking behaviour and awareness of BMI variables are included in the analyses.

A three‐year consumer research programme, using both qualitative and quantitative techniques, was undertaken to assess whether additional voluntary nutrition information for calories and fat would aid consumers’ ability to use the nutrition information that is given on food packs. A variety of label formats was investigated. The research established that providing information for calories and fat per serving, either separately from the nutrition panel or highlighted within the nutrition panel, and providing Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) for calories and fat helped to make the nutrition information more accessible to consumers. GDAs were felt by consumers to be new and useful information. The research findings were developed into voluntary industry guidelines by an IGD working group consisting of representatives of manufacturers, retailers, consumer organizations, nutrition scientists and government. The guidelines represent best practice for industry.

The purpose of this study is to examine how consumers perceive nutrition labeling on wine and how this information impacts healthiness perceptions of wine.

A series of four experiments focused on healthiness perceptions and purchase likelihood.

Consumers who read wine labels rate wine as significantly less healthy. Sugar content affects healthiness perceptions of wine more than calories. Changing the serving size on the label moderates these effects. Consumers high in dietary restraint process this nutrition information differently.

Future research could examine actual purchase behavior using retail data.

This study has implications for consumers, manufacturers and public policy. While currently most consumers are not motivated to read a nutrition label on wine, specific nutrition information can impact consumer perceptions of wine. Consumer education is recommended.

Research on nutrition labeling of alcohol specifically has been very limited.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of visual information cues such as a heart icon vs the calories and fat content on the selection of healthy food in fast-food restaurants (FFRs).

An online survey design providing a fast-food menu was implemented to collect responses from the participants. The survey respondents were recruited from a large South-western university in the USA. The research model was tested using logistic regression.

Data analysis shows that visual information plays a significant role in healthy food selection in FFRs. The authors findings show that the heart icons have a statistically significant effect on food choices, while calories and fat content information did not affect the participants’ selections vs no information.

Dietary choices and obesity are a serious social concern. This study provides support for the effect of a heart icon symbol on food choice in fast-food selection. The implication is that labelling FFR menus with symbols such as our heart icon will have a positive impact on healthy food selection vs the more usual inclusion of calorie and fat information.

The current research contributes to the marketing literature by examining, and more importantly, better understanding a presentation format (i.e. PACE) in which caloric information is complemented with physical activity time required to offset consumption. The purpose of this paper is to systematically evaluate the impact of this approach in both actual and simulated consumption settings while providing evidence of its contribution to healthier decision-making. This research uncovered several important insights into how consumers are influenced by, and respond to, the presence of physical activity time.

The paper used experiential designs in five studies to examine how the presence of physical activity calorie equivalent (PACE) information affects consumption. The studies measured both intended and actual consumption behavior. The data were analyzed using analysis of variance as well as bootstrapping methods.

The paper establishes that PACE information reduces consumption compared to NLEA-mandated information. We show that the effectiveness of PACE information differs based on consumers’ level of health consciousness as well as food type. Our research also uncovers a moderating effect based on perceived difficulty of the featured activity. Finally, we show the psychological process underlying the effectiveness of PACE information.

Future research can address the generalizability of current findings across different consumption domains and contexts. Our work focuses on the efficacy of information delivery at the point of consumption. The results of the current study may differ when the decision is being made at the point of purchase for future consumption.

The paper’s findings represent a win-win scenario for consumers and manufacturers alike. Manufactures stand to benefit from PACE information as many consumers are seeking healthier food options and are willing to pay a premium for items that help them make more healthful choices. Consumers will benefit as well, given the struggle with obesity and other diet-related ills, by being provided with a more effective means of making healthier choices.

Obesity and diet-related chronic diseases are global pandemics affecting consumers throughout the world. This paper contributes to this issue by presenting manufacturers and researchers with a better understanding of how consumers can be encouraged to make healthier choices and overcome the barriers to healthier lifestyles.

This paper addresses a gap in the literature as well as an important social concern by better understanding how healthier nutrition choices can be encouraged.