Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School & Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.
Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.
JAMA Intern Med. 2022 Sep 1;182(9):965-973. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.3065.
Calorie labels for prepared (ie, ready-to-eat) foods are required in large chain food establishments in the US. Large evaluations in restaurants suggest small declines in purchases of prepared foods after labeling, but to the authors' knowledge, no studies have examined how this policy influences supermarket purchases.
To estimate changes in calories purchased from prepared foods and potential packaged substitutes compared with control foods after calorie labeling of prepared foods in supermarkets.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This controlled interrupted time series compared sales 2 years before labeling implementation (April 2015-April 2017) with sales 7 months after labeling implementation (May 2017-December 2017). Data from 173 supermarkets from a supermarket chain with locations in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont were analyzed from March 2020 to May 2022.
Implementation of calorie labeling of prepared foods in April 2017.
Purchased items were classified as prepared foods, potential packaged substitutes for prepared foods, or all other (ie, control) foods. The primary outcome was mean weekly calories per transaction purchased from prepared foods, and the secondary outcome was mean weekly calories per transaction purchased from similar packaged items (for substitution analyses). Analyses of prepared and packaged foods were stratified by food category (bakery, entrées and sides, or deli meats and cheeses).
Among the included 173 supermarkets, calorie labeling was associated with a mean 5.1% decrease (95% CI, -5.8% to -4.4%) in calories per transaction purchased from prepared bakery items and an 11.0% decrease (95% CI, -11.9% to -10.1%) from prepared deli items, adjusted for changes in control foods; no changes were observed for prepared entrées and sides (change = 0.3%; 95% CI, -2.5% to 3.0%). Labeling was also associated with decreased calories per transaction purchased from packaged bakery items (change = -3.9%; 95% CI, -4.3% to -3.6%), packaged entrées and sides (change = -1.2%; 95% CI, -1.4% to -0.9%), and packaged deli items (change = -2.1%; 95% CI, -2.4% to -1.7%).
In this longitudinal study of supermarkets, calorie labeling of prepared foods was associated with small to moderate decreases in calories purchased from prepared bakery and deli items without evidence of substitution to similar packaged foods.
在美国，大型连锁食品店必须为准备好的（即即食）食品贴上卡路里标签。在餐馆进行的大型评估表明，标签后准备好的食品购买量略有下降，但据作者所知，尚无研究探讨该政策如何影响超市的购买情况。
估计在超市对准备好的食品进行卡路里标签后，与对照食品相比，从准备好的食品和潜在的包装替代品中购买的卡路里的变化。
设计、设置和参与者：本控制中断时间序列比较了标签实施前 2 年（2015 年 4 月至 2017 年 4 月）与标签实施后 7 个月（2017 年 5 月至 2017 年 12 月）的销售情况。对一家位于缅因州、马萨诸塞州、新罕布什尔州、纽约州和佛蒙特州的连锁超市的 173 家超市的数据进行了分析，分析时间为 2020 年 3 月至 2022 年 5 月。
2017 年 4 月实施准备好的食品的卡路里标签。
购买的物品被分类为准备好的食品、准备好的食品的潜在包装替代品或所有其他（即对照）食品。主要结果是从准备好的食品中每笔交易购买的平均每周卡路里，次要结果是从类似包装的食品中每笔交易购买的平均每周卡路里（用于替代分析）。对烘焙食品、主菜和配菜以及熟食肉类和奶酪进行了食品类别分层的准备和包装食品分析。
在包括的 173 家超市中，与控制食品的变化相比，卡路里标签与从准备好的烘焙食品中每笔交易购买的卡路里平均减少 5.1%（95%CI，-5.8%至-4.4%），从准备好的熟食中购买的卡路里减少 11.0%（95%CI，-11.9%至-10.1%）；准备好的主菜和配菜没有观察到变化（变化=0.3%；95%CI，-2.5%至 3.0%）。标签还与从包装好的烘焙食品（变化=-3.9%；95%CI，-4.3%至-3.6%）、包装好的主菜和配菜（变化=-1.2%；95%CI，-1.4%至-0.9%）和包装好的熟食（变化=-2.1%；95%CI，-2.4%至-1.7%）中每笔交易购买的卡路里减少有关。
在这项对超市的纵向研究中，对准备好的食品进行卡路里标签与从准备好的烘焙食品和熟食中购买的卡路里减少有关，但没有证据表明有类似的包装食品替代。
