Calorie Labelling of Delivered Meals for Healthier Consumer Choices

ABSTRACT Calorie information is often absent for delivered meals. We use a discrete choice experiment to examine how three calorie label strategies affect consumer choices for delivered meals: a numeric calorie label, a numeric plus traffic light calorie label and a physical activity calorie equivalent label. Relative to no label, all three strategies increase preferences for low‐calorie delivered meals. Consumers prefer medium‐calorie delivered meals more under the numeric and the numeric plus traffic light labels than under the physical activity calorie equivalent label. Conversely, the physical activity calorie equivalent label outperforms the numeric label in enhancing the market share of low‐calorie delivered meals. The numeric plus traffic light label is more effective than the numeric label in reducing the market share of high‐calorie delivered meals while increasing consumer willingness to pay for low‐calorie delivered meals. Furthermore, effects vary across meal categories and product characteristics. These findings underscore that flexible calorie labelling on delivery platforms can promote healthier choices and provide actionable guidance for industry stakeholders and policymakers.