Impact of sugary drink taxes on beverage calories purchased in a national fast food restaurant chain: A quasi-experimental study

by Pasquale E. Rummo, Juan A.

Echenique, Erilia Wu, Tod Mijanovich, Sunita M. Desai, Marie A.

Bragg, Beth C. Weitzman, Brian Elbel Background Sugary drink taxes have been implemented in several U.S.

jurisdictions, but we know little about the impact of taxes on calories purchased in restaurants. The impact may differ in restaurant (vs.

non-restaurant) settings because restaurant consumers may be less likely to travel to other jurisdictions for a single meal, choose no beverage or non-taxed beverages, decrease their beverage size, or order combo meals where the drink is bundled with other items at a single price. Methods and findings We used six years of transaction-level sales data (2015–2020) from 7,341 Taco Bell restaurant locations to estimate the association of sugary drink policies with beverage calories purchased in the drive-through setting of fast food restaurants over time.

Taco Bell restaurants represents a large sample size of data from several U.S. jurisdictions across a long follow-up period, which is unique in the literature.