Since May 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required restaurants and similar food retailers that are part of a chain with 20 or more locations to list the number of calories in standard menu items. In 2017–18, one-third of the calories consumed by the U.S. population ages 2 and older came from prepared foods 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 decisions when eating away from home. Since FDA’s menu labeling regulations took effect in 2018, numerous U.S. foodservice establishments that sell restaurant meals have listed the number of calories on their menus, including convenience stores, grocery stores, supermarkets, and concession stands at entertainment venues. During the public health emergency caused by coronavirus (COVID-19), FDA granted foodservice establishments temporary flexibility if certain menu labeling requirements were not met. This flexibility expired on November 7, 2023.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS) recently analyzed the proportion of adults who noticed calorie labels on restaurant menus, using data from the National Cancer Institute’s 2022 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), a nationally representative survey that assesses the U.S. population ages 18 and older’s use of a wide range of health-related information. The ERS study used data from 5,185 adults who answered the question whether they noticed the calorie information on the menu the last time they ordered food at a fast-food or full-service restaurant. According to the survey data, about one in two U.S. adults ages 18 and older reported noticing calorie labels. However, there were large differences in the likelihood of noticing calorie labels by gender, household income, marital status, and place of residence.

Compared with women, men were 4.1 percentage points less likely to notice calorie information in 2022. The likelihood of noticing calorie information also increased with household income. Compared with households with incomes 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 households 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 to notice calorie information than unmarried adults. Finally, where adults lived influenced the likelihood of adults noticing calorie information. 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 labels, respectively. Residents of rural areas were 13.8 percentage points less likely to pay attention to calorie labels than residents of large metropolitan areas.

The ERS-sponsored Flexible Consumer Behavior Survey (FCBS) module of the National Health and Nutrition Examination (NHANES) survey also asked U.S. consumers whether they noticed calorie information on menus during their last restaurant visit. The last publicly available FCBS sample period is from 2017 to March 2020, as NHANES data collection was halted in March 2020 following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although NHANES data collection resumed in August 2021, FCBS data from August 2021 to August 2023 have not been released. During the period from 2017 to March 2020, the proportion of adults who reported seeing calorie information on menus at fast-food restaurants and full-service restaurants was 40 percent and 35 percent, respectively.