August 14, 2013

Beth Leonberg, an assistant clinical professor in the Nutrition Sciences Department and Director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics, was a co-author on a new study led by Drexel’s School of Public Health. Titled “Exploratory Analysis of Fast-Food Chain Restaurant Menus Before and After Implementation of Local Calorie-Labeling Policies, 2005-2011,” the study was recently published in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

The study of fast-food menu labeling legislation was led by Alexa Namba, a graduate student at the School of Public Health who has since graduated. It was supervised by Dr. Amy Auchincloss and co-authored by our own Professor Leonberg and Dr. Margo Wootan from the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The study was funded by Drexel University and by the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

During a period of seven years, the study examined 4,055 menu items at nine chain restaurants. Of those nine fast-food chains, five of them were subject to menu labeling legislation. The study found that, after labeling regulations were introduced in those jurisdictions, fast-food restaurants affected introduced additional healthy entrees (significantly more than did fast-food restaurants not affected by legislation changes).