Menu labeling, wherein consumers are provided calories information, has not been effective in helping consumers make healthier food choices.

One in three Americans are known to be victims of obesity, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This ratio is rapidly increasing and has already seen a 20-30 percent increase in the last 30 years. In an attempt to curb this growing number, health experts previously recommended that menu labels should be introduced where consumers will be provided with additional calories information, aiding them to make healthier food choices.

However, in a recent study, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University found that menu labels are doing little to help consumers make healthier food choices.

"There have been high hopes that menu labeling could be a key tool to help combat high obesity levels in this country, and many people do appreciate having that information available. Unfortunately, this approach doesn't appear to be helping to reduce consumption very much, even when we give consumers what policymakers thought might help: some guidance for how many calories they should be eating," said the study's lead author Julie Downs, associate research professor of social and decision sciences in CMU's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences in a press release.

For the study, researchers analyzed the ordering behavior of 1,121 adult lunchtime diners at two McDonald's restaurants in New York City. These participants were divided into three groups. The first one was provided information on the recommended daily calorie intake. The second group was provided information on the recommended per-meal calorie intake and the third group was given no additional information.

Researchers observed that menu labeling didn't help customers make better use of the information provided on calorie-labeled menus. In fact, it didn't affect the amount of calories a customer purchased.

"People who count calories know that this is a pretty labor-intensive exercise," Downs said. "Making the information available on menus may have other beneficial effects, such as motivating restaurants to change their formulations. But it may be unrealistic to expect many consumers to keep such close, numeric track of their food intake by using the labels directly."