Calorie (energy) labelling for changing selection and consumption of food or alcohol (Review)

Clarke N, Pechey E, Shemilt I, Pilling M, Roberts NW, Marteau TM, Jebb SA, Hollands GJ (2025)

Cochrane - DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD014845.pub2.

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Evidence Categories

• Care setting: Commercial food environment
• Population group: General Population
• Intervention: Policy/environmental: Labelling
• Outcome: Healthy Eating: Energy selected

Type of Evidence

Systematic Review

Aims

The authors state:

• "To estimate the effect of calorie labelling for food (including non-alcoholic drinks) and alcoholic drinks on selection (with or without purchasing) and consumption."
• "To assess possible modifiers – label type, setting, and socioeconomic status – of the eGect of calorie labelling on selection (with or without purchasing) and consumption of food and alcohol."

Findings

The authors state:

• "25 studies (23 food, 15 in the USA, six in the UK, one in Ireland, one in France, and one in Canada) comprising 18 RCTs, one quasi-RCT, two interrupted time series studies, and four controlled before-after studies."
• "Most studies were conducted in real-world field settings (16/25, with 13 of these in restaurants or cafeterias and three in supermarkets);"
• "Most studies assessed the impact of calorie labelling on menus or menu boards (18/25); six studies assessed the impact of calorie labelling directly on, or placed adjacent to, products or their packaging; and one study assessed labels on both menus and on product packaging. The most frequently assessed labelling type was simple calorie labelling (20/25), with other studies assessing calorie labelling with information about at least one other nutrient, or calories with physical activity calorie equivalent (PACE) labelling (or both)."
• "Calorie labelling of food led to a small reduction in energy selected (SMD −0.06, 95% CI −0.08 to −0.03; 16 randomised studies, 19 comparisons, 9850 participants; high-certainty evidence)."
• "These effect sizes suggest that, for an average meal of 600 kcal, adults exposed to calorie labelling would select 11 kcal less (equivalent to a 1.8% reduction), and consume 35 kcal less (equivalent to a 5.9% reduction)."

Conclusions

The authors state:

"Current evidence suggests that calorie labelling of food (including non-alcoholic drinks) on menus, products, and packaging leads to small reductions in energy selected and purchased, with potentially meaningful impacts on population health when applied at scale. The evidence assessing the impact of calorie labelling of food on consumption suggests a similar effect to that observed for selection and purchasing, although there is less evidence and it is of lower certainty."