53% Oppose Nutritional Information on Restaurant Menus
As part of the new health care law, restaurant chains with 20 or more outlets will be required to disclose nutritional information in their menus. But most Americans would rather they not.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 53% of American Adults do not think it should be required that every restaurant publish the nutritional information for all items on its menu. Thirty-nine percent (39%), however, favor a requirement for disclosing nutritional facts. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
These findings represent a reversal in public opinion from this time last year. At that time, 59% of Americans believed restaurants menus should be required to include nutritional information on the food they serve. Thirty percent (30%) disagreed.
Twenty-nine percent (29%) say nutritional disclosure would greatly influence their decision making. Another 39% say it would somewhat influence their choices. Thirty-one percent (31%) believe nutritional facts would not influence their menu choices at all.
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The national survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on July 21-22, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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