
Welcome to Pocket Science: a glimpse at recent research from Husker scientists and engineers. For those who want to quickly learn the “What,” “So what” and “Now what” of Husker research.
What?

In the last 50 years, food portion sizes — from restaurants to grocery store shelves — have gotten much bigger. The standard portion of French fries, for example, has increased by a whopping 180% since the 1970s.
These larger portion sizes have been connected to poorer health outcomes and higher food waste, which makes up 22% of solid refuse in landfills and is a contributor to the release of greenhouses gases in the atmosphere.
With an eye toward better overall health and the environmental impacts of overconsumption, researchers have been examining how consumers could reframe their perceptions of portion sizes and make better choices.
So what?
New research published in Food Quality and Preference was conducted at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The study examined how introducing information regarding large portion sizes and their effects on one’s health and the environment can influence consumer behavior when choosing between a small and large sandwich.

Led by Hanin Hosni, a postdoctoral researcher who earned her doctorate at Nebraska; Christopher Gustafson, professor of agricultural economics; and Simanti Banerjee, professor of agricultural economics, the researchers collected data on the amount participants were willing to pay for large and small sandwiches, testing how consumer behavior changed when presented with infographics about the health and environmental benefits of choosing smaller portion sizes.
The results showed the participants’ premium for the large sandwich shrank when receiving the health and environmental information. The results were more pronounced when the information was presented sequentially rather than simultaneously. When information was provided simultaneously, the premium for the large sandwich decreased 19%, and decreased 44% when presented sequentially. The researchers noted this could be explained by previous research showing that judgment progresses incrementally or that sequential information reduced memory load.
Now what?
The researchers noted that the findings “have policy implications for promoting healthy food choices and reducing food waste” and that the information presented shifted preferences toward the smaller portion size.
“These results underscore the potential for information to strengthen consumer preferences for smaller portion sizes, which previous studies have identified as critical for addressing obesity and food waste,” the researchers wrote, but also “that cooperation with the food industry may be essential” for implementing any policy for portion size reduction.