How to present calorie information on the electronic menu to help people order more healthily

Abstract

A large study published in THE LANCET in 2014 showed that the number and proportion of obese and overweight people in the world have been increasing in the past 30 years. The problem of high obesity rate has attracted people’s attention. At the same time, the frequency of people eating out shows a rapid increase, and eating out often will increase the risk of overweight and obesity. Because of changes in the ordering methods of restaurants, the electronic ordering system affects people’s food choices and also has an important impact on obesity. Therefore, how to design an electronic ordering system that can effectively promote consumers’ healthy diet is a key issue. In this research, the authors use factorial experiments and laboratory experiments to explore the impact of calorie labels on the electronic menu and the perceptual fluency of calorie labels on users. Studies have found that electronic menus presenting calorie labels would guide people to choose foods with lower calorie values, and calorie labels with low perceptual fluency would better guide people to choose foods with lower calorie values. The results can complement the research in the field of electronic menus and calorie labels, and provide a theoretical basis for the menu design of restaurants using electronic menus. Through this study, more people and restaurants will focus on dietary health issues, thereby effectively reducing the obesity rate in China.