Nutrition labelling is mandatory on food products in retail stores, but compliance in the rapidly expanding online setting remains unclear. We assessed mandatory and voluntary labelling information across major U.S. online retailers.

Between January and August 2022, we evaluated a representative basket of sixty food and beverage items across eight product categories of ten major retailers. We evaluated online presence, accessibility and legibility of four mandatory elements – Nutrition Facts, ingredients, allergen statements and percent juice for fruit drinks – and presence of seven voluntary elements – nutrient content claims, health/qualified health claims, ingredient claims, structure–function claims, additive claims, front-of-package nutrient profiling symbols and other marketing claims.

Major online food retailers in the USA.

N/A.

On average, each mandatory element was present, accessible and legible for only 35·1 % of items, varying modestly by element (from 38·3 % for ingredients lists to 31·5 % for Nutrition Facts) but widely by retailer (6·6–86·3 %). Voluntary elements were present for 45·8 % of items, ranging from 83·7 % for marketing claims to 2·0 % for structure–function claims. Findings were generally consistent across the eight product categories. Voluntary elements were more frequently present than accessible and legible mandatory elements for six of ten retailers and seven of eight product categories.

Mandatory nutrition label elements are not commonly present, accessible and legible in online retail settings and are less consistently present than marketing elements. Coordinated industry and regulatory actions may be needed to ensure consumers can access mandatory nutrition information to make healthy and safe food choices online.

Federal law requires calorie information on chain restaurant menus. We sought to assess the prevalence of calorie disclosures on online menus and determine if the menus are controlled by restaurants subject to US labelling requirements.

Cross-sectional

Restaurant websites and mobile apps for restaurant located in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston

US chain restaurants (top seventy-five by number of outlets) and third-party platforms (TPP): Grubhub, Uber Eats, DoorDash

There was at least one calorie disclosure (for at least one food or beverage, in at least one location) on sixty-eight of seventy-two (94 %) menus on restaurant websites or apps, thirty-two of fifty-five (58 %) menus on DoorDash, six of forty-nine (12 %) menus on Grubhub and thirty of fifty-nine (51 %) menus on Uber Eats. There was consistent calorie labelling (all foods and beverages, all locations) on forty-three of seventy-two (60 %) menus on restaurant websites or apps, fifteen of fifty-five (27 %) menus on DoorDash, three of forty-nine (6 %) menus on Grubhub and eleven of fifty-nine (19 %) menus on Uber Eats. Only four restaurant chains consistently labelled calories for all items, in all locations, on all platforms where their menus were found. All three TPP provided restaurants the ability to enter and modify menu items, making the menus subject to US labelling requirements. Only Uber Eats provided guidance to restaurants on entering calorie information.

As consumers increasingly rely on TPP for restaurant ordering, menus on these platforms should include calories in order to promote transparency and nutrition.

To assess the association between child ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption and home-school learning environment characteristics during school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic in schoolchildren with low- and middle income in Chile.

Cross-sectional. UPF consumption was collected using the Nova screener. We apply the structured days hypothesis (SDH) to assess home-school learning environment characteristics with three constructs that summarised school preparedness for online teaching and learning, school closure difficulties for caregivers and child routine. We explored associations between child UPF consumption and home-school environment characteristics using multivariate linear regression analyses after controlling for child demographic and school characteristics.

Low- and middle-income neighbourhoods in southeastern Santiago, Chile.

Children from the Food Environment Chilean Cohort (n 428, 8–10 years old).

Based on the Nova score, child mean consumption of UPF was 4·3 (sd 1·9) groups. We found a statistically significant negative association between child routine for eating, play and study and child UPF consumption when we adjusted for child sociodemographic (model 1: β = –0·19, (95 % CI –0·40, 0·02)) and school characteristics (model 2: β = –0·20, (95 % CI –0·41, 0·00)). Associations between school preparedness for online teaching or school closure difficulties and UPF were not statistically significant.

Variations in child routines during the COVID-19 pandemic were negatively associated with UPF intake in schoolchildren with low- and middle income. Our findings are consistent with the SDH, suggesting the school environment helps regulate eating behaviours. Future research should evaluate what happens when children return to in-person classes at school.

The rapid growth in web-based grocery food purchasing has outpaced federal regulatory attention to the online provision of nutrition and allergen information historically required on food product labels. We sought to characterise the extent and variability that online retailers disclose required and regulated information and identify the legal authorities for the federal government to require online food retailers to disclose such information.

We performed a limited scan of ten products across nine national online retailers and conducted legal research using LexisNexis to analyse federal regulatory agencies’ authorities.

USA.

N/A.

The scan of products revealed that required information (Nutrition Facts Panels, ingredient lists, common food allergens and per cent juice for fruit drinks) was present, conspicuous and legible for an average of only 36·5 % of the products surveyed, ranging from 11·4 % for potential allergens to 54·2 % for ingredients lists. More commonly, voluntary nutrition-related claims were prominently and conspicuously displayed (63·5 % across retailers and products). Our legal examination found that the Food and Drug Administration, Federal Trade Commission and United States Department of Agriculture have existing regulatory authority over labelling, online sales and advertising, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme retailers that can be utilised to address deficiencies in the provision of required information in the online food retail environment.

Information regularly provided to consumers in conventional settings is not being uniformly provided online. Congress or the federal agencies can require online food retailers disclose required nutrition and allergen information to support health, nutrition, equity and informed consumer decision-making.

To determine if US household food purchases with lower levels of red meat spending generate lower life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), greater nutritional quality and improved alignment with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Affordability of purchasing patterns by red meat spending levels was also assessed.

Household food purchase and acquisition data were linked to an environmentally extended input–output life-cycle assessment model to calculate food GHGE. Households (n 4706) were assigned to quintiles by the share of weekly food spending on red meat. Average weekly kilojoule-adjusted GHGE, total food spending, nutrients purchased and 2010 Healthy Eating Index (HEI-2010) were evaluated using ANOVA and linear regression.

USA.

Households participating in the 2012–2013 National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey.

There was substantial variation in the share of the household food budget spent on red meat and total spending on red meat. The association between red meat spending share and total food spending was mixed. Lower red meat spending share was mostly advantageous from a nutritional perspective. Average GHGE were significantly lower and HEI-2010 scores were significantly higher for households spending the least on red meat as a share of total food spending.

Only very low levels of red meat spending as a share of total food spending had advantages for food affordability, lower GHGE, nutrients purchased and diet quality. Further studies assessing changes in GHGE and other environmental burdens, using more sophisticated analytical techniques and accounting for substitution towards non-red meat animal proteins, are needed.