Changes in chain restaurant kids' meal beverage offerings on online ordering platforms after a healthy beverage default policy in New Orleans, Louisiana

Abstract

Objective

Consumption of restaurant food is associated with poorer diet quality and greater consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages among children; and online restaurant purchases have increased substantially. New Orleans, Louisiana, enacted a healthy beverage default (HBD) ordinance effective January 1st, 2023, that restricted beverages automatically included with kids' meals, but that did not apply to online ordering platforms. This study evaluated whether this ordinance impacted online offerings.

Methods

Data on online kids' meal beverage offerings one month before and 8–11 months after the ordinance effective date were collected for chain restaurants in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Online ordering platforms included restaurant websites/applications and three third-party platforms (Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash). Difference-in-differences (DID) weighted logistic regression models with robust standard errors clustered on restaurant were used to estimate relative changes in (1) compliance with HBD ordinance requirements, (2) default offerings of only water, milk, and 100 % juice, and (3) any default offerings of soda.

Results

The DID results revealed no statistically significant changes in compliance or beverage offerings in restaurants in New Orleans compared to Baton Rouge following the HBD ordinance; further, nearly all estimated odds ratios were close to 1, indicating no meaningful differences in changes in outcomes across sites.

Conclusions

This study found no evidence that the New Orleans HBD ordinance led to changes in kids' meal default beverage offerings on online ordering platforms. The results underscore the need for HBD policies that specifically apply to online ordering platforms, and for enforcement and monitoring of these platforms.