The thought behind this of course is, if we knew how many calories were in foods we would say, "oh my, what was I thinking?" choosing instead, the salad with dressing on the side.
The result? The calorie information has not changed consumer choices.
While half of customers surveyed said they noticed the labeling, and about a quarter of those said they made different choices as a result, (yeah, right) a review of fast food purchases showed habits remained the same.
Here's the most interesting bit of news, even though we are told a quarter of those informed made a different choice, and the percentage of people aware of the calorie information increased from 16 percent to 54 percent, the number of calories purchased was slightly higher than before the law was implemented. "Though the introduction of calorie labels did not change the number of calories purchased, a combination of public policy efforts are likely necessary to produce a meaningful change in obesity," researchers said.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said,
"At least the public has information and that's the government's job -- to make sure that the public has information," Bloomberg told reporters on Tuesday.
"But once again, this is America and you have a right to eat what you want to eat," he said.
We find this next bit of calorie news interesting.
Coca-Cola Co. will introduce 90-calorie slim cans of Coke in 2010 attempting to do their part to adjust to the demands of consumers trying to make better decisions about their health.
The new cans will be smaller than a 12-ounce can, which has 140 calories.
So the product will be the same, only in smaller cans.
In addition to the new slim cans, Coca-Cola announced last week it would put caloric information on the front of almost all of its global packages by the end of 2011.
We thought they already had a label?
