Estimating the impacts of calorie labels in fast-food settings using a novel comparison: Comparing California drive-through and in-store purchases.

Prior studies assessing the impact of calorie labels in fast-food settings have relied on comparisons across local and state jurisdictions with and without labeling mandates; several well-designed studies indicate a small reduction of calories purchased as a result of the labels. This study exploits a staggered roll-out of calorie labels in California to study the same issue using a novel comparison of in-store purchases with calorie information and drive-through purchases without calorie information at the same locations. With this design, consumers in both the treatment and comparison groups have been subject to the same social signals associated with the policy change and may have been exposed to calorie information during prior purchases, narrowing the intervention under study to the impact of posted menu labels at the point of purchase.

Relationship between community characteristics and impact of calorie labeling on fast-food purchases.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate potential sources of heterogeneity in the effect of calorie labeling on fast-food purchases among restaurants located in areas with different neighborhood characteristics.

Methods: In a quasi-experimental design, using transaction data from 2329 Taco Bell restaurants across the United States between 2008 and 2014, we estimated the relationships of census tract-level income, racial and ethnic composition, and urbanicity with the impacts of calorie labeling on calories purchased per transaction.

Results: Calorie labeling led to small, absolute reductions in calories purchased across all population subgroups, ranging between -9.

"I Don't Want an App to Do the Work for Me": A Qualitative Study on the Perception of Online Grocery Shopping From Small Food Retailers.

Background: Small food retailers often stock energy-dense convenience foods, and they are ubiquitous in low-income urban settings. With the rise in e-commerce, little is known about the acceptability of online grocery shopping from small food retailers.

Objective: To explore perceptions of the role of small food retailers (bodegas) in food access and the acceptability of online grocery shopping from bodegas among customers and owners in a diverse New York City urban neighborhood with low incomes.

Menu Labeling and Calories Purchased in Restaurants in a US National Fast Food Chain.

Importance: Menu labeling has been implemented in restaurants in some US jurisdictions as early as 2008, but the extent to which menu labeling is associated with calories purchased is unclear.

Objective: To estimate the association of menu labeling with calories and nutrients purchased and assess geographic variation in results.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A cohort study was conducted with a quasi-experimental design using actual transaction data from Taco Bell restaurants from calendar years 2007 to 2014 US restaurants with menu labeling matched to comparison restaurants using synthetic control methods.

Revealing the extent of sea otter impacts on bivalve prey through multi-trophic monitoring and mechanistic models.

Sea otters are apex predators that can exert considerable influence over the nearshore communities they occupy. Since facing near extinction in the early 1900s, sea otters are making a remarkable recovery in Southeast Alaska, particularly in Glacier Bay, the largest protected tidewater glacier fjord in the world. The expansion of sea otters across Glacier Bay offers both a challenge to monitoring and stewardship and an unprecedented opportunity to study the top-down effect of a novel apex predator across a diverse and productive ecosystem.