Using fundraising incentives and point-of-purchase nutrition promotion to improve food choices among school families in restaurants: a pilot and feasibility study.

Objective: To assess the feasibility and efficacy of in-restaurant interventions aiming to promote healthy choices via fundraising incentives benefiting school wellness programmes and point-of-purchase nutrition promotion.

Design: Twelve schools were randomly assigned to one of the two intervention periods: Fundraising Incentive (FI) donated funds for visiting the study restaurant and Fundraising-Healthy Eating Incentive (F-HEI) included FI with additional funds given when selecting a healthier item. Both conditions included point-of-purchase nutrition promotions.

Promoting healthier children's meals at quick-service and full-service restaurants: Results from a pilot and feasibility study.

High-calorie restaurant foods contribute to childhood overweight. Increased consumer demand for healthier kids' meals may motivate the restaurant industry to provide additional healthy options. This study pilot-tested a combination of four strategies (toy incentive, placemats, server prompts, signage) designed to increase demand for healthier kids' meals, which were defined as those eligible for the National Restaurant Association's Kids LiveWell program.

Healthier Children's Meals in Restaurants: An Exploratory Study to Inform Approaches That Are Acceptable Across Stakeholders.

Objective: Assess parents', children's, and restaurant executives' perspectives on children's meals in restaurants.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Parents and children completed predominantly quantitative surveys at 4 quick- and full-service restaurant locations.

Reducing calories, fat, saturated fat, and sodium in restaurant menu items: Effects on consumer acceptance.

Objective: To assess consumer acceptance of reductions of calories, fat, saturated fat, and sodium to current restaurant recipes.

Methods: Twenty-four menu items, from six restaurant chains, were slightly modified and moderately modified by reducing targeted ingredients. Restaurant customers (n = 1,838) were recruited for a taste test and were blinded to the recipe version as well as the purpose of the study.

Mixed Messages: Ambiguous Penalty Information in Modified Restaurant Menu Items.

Restaurant menu items from six national or regional brands were modified to reduce fat, saturated fat, sodium and total calories. Twenty-four items were tested with a current recipe, and two modifications (small and moderate reductions) for 72 total products. Approximately 100 consumers tested each product for acceptability as well as for desired levels of tastes/flavor, amounts of key ingredients and texture/consistency using just-about-right (JAR) scales.