Loading ...

Calorie labels have little impact on takeaway food choices, especially among younger adults and those with obesity, and healthiness ranks behind taste and price when consumers order food carry-out meals, a cross-sectional consumer survey in the UK suggested.

In April 2022, calorie labeling was mandated in England for food businesses with more than 250 employees to help promote healthier food choices. The authors aimed to assess consumers’ knowledge and use of calorie labeling when ordering takeaway food online, as well as other factors influencing food choices.

The study survey found that while 63% of respondents were aware of the calorie labeling legislation, 77% didn’t notice any calorie information during their most recent online takeaway purchase. Of those who did, 71% said it didn’t affect their food choices and 63% reported no impact on their beverage choices.

“Our study did not test causality between takeaway consumption and overweight/obesity, which we know is a complex issue with multiple underlying causes, but anyone who regularly consumes takeaway meals and is struggling with excess weight or poor nutrition should be made aware that they could benefit from calorie labels to help them make healthier meal choices,” Laura Cornelsen, PhD, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, England, told Medscape Medical News.

The study was published online in BMJ Nutrition Prevention & Health.

Taste Most Important

The researchers conducted a cross-sectional survey of 1040 takeaway consumers in England and assessed their knowledge and awareness of calorie labeling legislation; self-reported takeaway frequency; the impact of calorie labeling on their choices; key drivers of takeaway consumption, including perceived healthiness, price, taste, delivery time, portion size, and carbon footprint; and their ranking of additional strategies that could improve choices.

Around two thirds (68%) of respondents were women; over half were between ages 35 and 55 years. Twenty-eight percent had overweight, and 35% had obesity.

Overall, 27% of respondents ordered takeaway meals once or more per week, 41% every 2-4 weeks, and 32% less than once a month.

Respondents aged 35 years or older were less likely to report frequent takeaway purchases than younger groups (odds ratio [OR], 0.28-0.52), whereas those with obesity were more likely to report doing so compared with individuals with a healthy weight or who had underweight (OR, 2.01).

Respondents tended to overestimate the UK recommended calorie content of a meal. The average estimate was 747 kcal — about 25% higher than the recommended 600 kcal — which only 15% correctly identified. Women were more likely to be knowledgeable about the recommended energy content for meals than men (OR, 2.06).

Although 63% of respondents overall knew about the labeling regulations, awareness was lower in middle socioeconomic groups than higher socioeconomic groups (OR, 0.56-0.63).

Asked if they noticed calorie information the last time they ordered, 23% of respondents answered yes, and of those, only 26% reduced the food calories ordered and 10% reduced drink calories.

Taste was the most important consideration for these meals, followed by price, delivery time, portion size, healthiness, and lastly low carbon footprint.

“There is likely to be a lot of heterogeneity in the kinds of meals people get from takeaways,” Cornelsen acknowledged. But other research supports the notion that takeaway meals are linked to poorer dietary quality and health outcomes.

“Another study has shown how meals served in major restaurant chains in the UK are often above the recommended 600 kcal per meal, and with the rapid increase and expansion of online food delivery services, these meals are more and more easier to access,” Cornelsen said.

The survey also found that around half of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that traffic light labels and healthy alternatives on menus would encourage healthier choices, while around a third backed higher prices, labels showing how much exercise is needed to burn off the calories gained from the food, and smaller portions.

However, Cornelsen noted, “one of the themes that arose from the responses was that takeaways are, for many, seen as a treat for which calories, or healthiness, doesn’t really matter, albeit some acknowledging that its frequency should be limited.”

Calorie Labeling a ‘Meaningful Contribution’

The study’s key findings align with the general trends in food ordering toward heterogeneity across consumer segments in paying attention to calorie information and toward women paying more attention to calorie information than men, Dipayan Biswas, PhD, professor of marketing at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, told Medscape Medical News.

Biswas is the coauthor of a recent article that found that using digital devices for restaurant orders leads to unhealthy food orders and higher overall spending.

In expert commentary for the UK’s Science Media Center, Amelia Lake, PhD, professor of public health nutrition, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, England, said, “As the takeaway food environment expands before our eyes with the rise and rise of the digital food environment, these findings are very important in a real-world setting.”

It’s important to interpret the study findings with caution, Rachel Richardson, acting head of the Methods Support Unit, The Cochrane Collaboration, wrote in her commentary for the Science Media Center.

“Firstly, the study reports the results from a survey of a small number of people — 1040, and only 235 people responded to the question about the impact of calorie information,” she said. “It also seems as if the sample for the survey may not be representative of the general UK population — for example 46% reported ordering takeaway once every 2 weeks or more and younger people and men were underrepresented in the sample.”

Although only 23% of respondents noticed calorie information the last time they ordered takeaway food, “smaller businesses are not required to provide calorie information on menus, so it may be some menus did not include any calorie information,” Richardson said.

A review from The Cochrane Collaboration, published online in January 2025, examined evidence from 25 studies and concluded that calorie labels in supermarkets, restaurants, and other food outlets led to a small reduction in the calories people purchased, she noted.

“Importantly, the studies included 18 randomized controlled trials, and most were conducted in real-world field settings. The authors concluded that the cumulative effect at a population level could make a meaningful contribution to public health,” Richardson wrote.

Two study authors received individual funding from the UK Medical Research Council Fellowship and another from the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research. The study authors reported having no conflicts of interest. Commentors Biswas, Lake, and Richardson reported no conflicts of interest related to the survey.

Marilynn Larkin, MA, is an award-winning medical writer and editor whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including Medscape Medical News and its sister publication MDedge, The Lancet (where she was a contributing editor), and Reuters Health.