Restaurant menu labelling: Is it worth adding sodium to the label?

OBJECTIVE:Several provincial and federal bills have recommended various forms of menu labelling that would require information beyond just calories; however, the additional benefit of including sodium information is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine whether sodium information on menus helps consumers make lower-sodium choices and to understand what other factors influence the effect of menu labelling on consumers' meal choices. METHODS:A total of 3,080 Canadian consumers completed an online survey that included a repeated measures experiment in which consumers were asked to select what they would typically order from four mock-restaurant menus. Subsequently, consumers were randomly allocated to see one of three menu-labelling treatments (calories; calories and sodium; or calories, sodium and serving size) and were given the option to change their order. RESULTS:There was a significant difference in the proportion of consumers who changed their order, varying from 17% to 30%, depending on the restaurant type. After participants had seen menu labelling, sodium levels decreased in all treatments (p