The study was designed to determine whether a city-mandated policy requiring calorie labeling at fast food restaurants was associated with consumer awareness of labels, calories purchased, and number of fast food restaurant visits. Point-of-purchase receipts, in-person interviews, and telephone surveys via random-digit dialing were collected as a part of this study on calorie labeling in fast food restaurants. Data was collected in Philadelphia before and after calorie labeling was implemented and in Baltimore, where calorie labeling was not implemented. Baseline collected took place in December 2009 in both Baltimore and Philadelphia. Data was collected after calorie labeling took effect in Philadelphia in February 2010. Further follow-up data collection occurred in June 2010.

Researchers collected data on whether or not consumers reported seeing calorie labeling in the restaurant, whether they bought fewer or more calories as a result of the labeling, and how frequently they went to fast food restaurants. They also collected data on consumer age, gender, race, education, income, and BMI category. A total of 2,083 usable observations across both cities and data collection periods are included in the dataset.