TY - JOUR
T1 - Prevalence and nutrient composition of menu offerings targeted to customers with dietary restrictions at US fast casual and full-service restaurants
AU - Hua, Sophia V.
AU - Soto, Mark J.
AU - Dunn, Caroline G.
AU - Bleich, Sara N.
AU - Vercammen, Kelsey A.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements: None. Financial support: Sophia Hua is supported by the National Research Service Award (training grant T32 DK 007703) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Kelsey Vercammen was supported by a Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) doctoral foreign study award (#0492002603). This paper is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH or CIHR. Conflict of interest: None. Authorship: SVH developed the research question, conducted the statistical analysis, interpreted the data and drafted the manuscript. MJS provided statistical feedback, provided critical manuscript revisions and approved the final version of the manuscript. CDG interpreted the data, provided critical manuscript revisions and approved the final version of the manuscript. SNB developed the research question, provided critical manuscript revisions and approved the final version of the manuscript. KAV provided statistical feedback, interpreted the data, provided critical manuscript revisions and approved the final version of the manuscript. Ethics of human subject participation: Not applicable.
Publisher Copyright:
© Authors 2020.
PY - 2021/4
Y1 - 2021/4
N2 - Objective: To examine the prevalence and nutrient composition of menu offerings targeted to customers with dietary restrictions at US fast casual and full-service chain restaurants. Design: We used 2018 data from MenuStat, a database of nutrient information for menu items at large US chain restaurants. Five alternative diets were examined: gluten-free, low-calorie, low-carbohydrate, low-fat and vegetarian. Diet offerings were identified by searching MenuStat item descriptions and reviewing online menus. For each diet, we reported counts and proportions. We used bootstrapped multilevel models to examine differences in predicted mean kilojoules, saturated fat, Na and sugars between diet and non-diet menu items. Setting: Forty-five US fast casual and full-service chain restaurants in 2018 (including 6419 items in initial analytic sample across small plates, salads and main dishes). Participants: None. Results: The most prevalent diets were gluten-free (n 631, 9.8 % of menu items), low-calorie (n 306, 4.8 %) and vegetarian (n 230, 3.6 %). Compared with non-diet counterparts, low-calorie main dishes had significantly lower levels of all nutrients examined and vegetarian main dishes had significantly lower levels of all nutrients except saturated fat. Gluten-free small plates had significantly fewer kilojoules, grams of saturated fat and milligrams of Na compared with non-diet small plates. Conclusions: A small proportion of fast casual and full-service restaurant menus are targeted towards customers with dietary restrictions. Compared with non-diet items, those classified as gluten-free, low-calorie or vegetarian generally have healthier nutrient profiles, but overall nutrient values are still too high for most menu items, regardless of dietary label.
AB - Objective: To examine the prevalence and nutrient composition of menu offerings targeted to customers with dietary restrictions at US fast casual and full-service chain restaurants. Design: We used 2018 data from MenuStat, a database of nutrient information for menu items at large US chain restaurants. Five alternative diets were examined: gluten-free, low-calorie, low-carbohydrate, low-fat and vegetarian. Diet offerings were identified by searching MenuStat item descriptions and reviewing online menus. For each diet, we reported counts and proportions. We used bootstrapped multilevel models to examine differences in predicted mean kilojoules, saturated fat, Na and sugars between diet and non-diet menu items. Setting: Forty-five US fast casual and full-service chain restaurants in 2018 (including 6419 items in initial analytic sample across small plates, salads and main dishes). Participants: None. Results: The most prevalent diets were gluten-free (n 631, 9.8 % of menu items), low-calorie (n 306, 4.8 %) and vegetarian (n 230, 3.6 %). Compared with non-diet counterparts, low-calorie main dishes had significantly lower levels of all nutrients examined and vegetarian main dishes had significantly lower levels of all nutrients except saturated fat. Gluten-free small plates had significantly fewer kilojoules, grams of saturated fat and milligrams of Na compared with non-diet small plates. Conclusions: A small proportion of fast casual and full-service restaurant menus are targeted towards customers with dietary restrictions. Compared with non-diet items, those classified as gluten-free, low-calorie or vegetarian generally have healthier nutrient profiles, but overall nutrient values are still too high for most menu items, regardless of dietary label.
KW - Gluten-free
KW - Low-calorie
KW - Nutrient composition
KW - Vegetarian
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U2 - 10.1017/S1368980021000112
DO - 10.1017/S1368980021000112
M3 - Article
C2 - 33431097
AN - SCOPUS:85099344710
SN - 1368-9800
VL - 24
SP - 1240
EP - 1247
JO - Public health nutrition
JF - Public health nutrition
IS - 6
ER -