Out of home businesses - marketing strategies: research

7. Availability of nutritional information

Providing nutritional information within premises and online allows consumers to make more informed decisions when purchasing food and drink items from out-of-home businesses.

The research assessed the availability of calorie content and further nutritional information (for example, fat content) within the businesses beyond that available on pre-packaged products – for example: on menus, posters, signage on shelving and signage behind the counter at in-premise visits and on menu pages for online shops. As established during the 2017 research, the out-of-home products purchased within supermarkets and convenience store outlets tended to be pre-packaged, with nutritional information on the packaging, these outlets were excluded from the analysis of this question.

In-premise visits

At in-premise visits, calorie content information, beyond that on packaging, was available in 54% of the outlets (excluding supermarkets and convenience outlets). The key factor affecting whether or not calorie information was available was whether the outlet was a chain or an independent business with calorie information available at 71% of chain outlets and no independent outlets. Specific brands where the availability of calorie information was highest were: Subway and Pizza Hut (100% of outlets); McDonalds and Pret a Manger (86%); and Caffé Nero and Starbucks (75%).

The mystery shoppers judged that the calorie information was 'readable/large enough to easily read' at 78% of outlets with such information displayed.

The availability of further nutritional information (e.g. fat content) was less common - available in almost a third of outlets (30%). Pret a Manger was most likely to provide this information (observed at five of eight outlets).

Online visits

Calorie content was available at a similar proportion of outlets online (50%). Once more, it was more commonly available at chain businesses (77%) and was not available at any independent outlets. The only chain outlets where it was not obviously available were Starbucks (not available at either of the two visits) and McDonalds (available at one of the two visits).

The availability of further nutritional information was available at 45% of all online outlets. Indeed, of the 10 outlets providing calorie information, nine also provided further nutritional information.