Menu Trends: Restaurants Are Introducing A South American Super Crop

This is a story about how an Incan super crop is starting to take over health food stores and trendy restaurants in the U.S.  The rest of the world is already on board with this mysterious super plant; we’re just now catching up.  What’s so great about this plant?  Well, it doesn’t rot, doesn’t need refrigeration, is a complete protein but is dairy and gluten free, and is rich in important vitamins like iron, magnesium,...

Healthy Menu? Don’t Tell Your Customers

Ask anyone sitting on their couch around dinnertime if they want a healthy pizza, and you’ll probably get a lukewarm response.  Not that people don’t want to eat healthier.  Study after study has shown that consumers, when asked when they aren’t actively ordering food at a restaurant, want healthy menu options.  But as I have...

NYC Restaurants Make Smooth Transition Away From Trans Fats

Back in 2006, despite objections from industry groups like the National Restaurant Association (NRA), New York City banned the use of trans fats in all foods served in the city’s restaurants.  At the time, the NRA said that municipal government had no place regulating restaurants, and the ban would put an undue burden on business. The deadline for compliance with the new ban was last summer, and a new study came out recently...

Healthy Menus: Are Customers Saying One Thing Then Doing Another?

Healthy this.  Healthy that.  We want nutrition information.  We want healthy menu choices. The drumbeat coming from consumers and consumer groups over the last five years has steadily increased, demanding healthier options from restaurants in all segments of the food service industry.  Heavyweights like McDonald’s have bent under the pressure, and everyone across the industry has heard the call for healthy menus and responded. ...

LEAN Act Gaining Popularity In Congress

The Labeling Education and Nutrition, or LEAN Act, is gaining sponsors and votes in the United States congress.  The legislation would create a national standard for labeling menu items across the entire food service industry.  Consumers overwhelmingly support menu labeling, with some polls showing...

Menu Labeling Law Being Considered in Congress

The movement to accurately label menu items with nutrition information is gaining ground at a remarkable pace.  In 2008, the state of California, the cities of New York and Philadelphia, and two counties in Washington and Oregon passed legislation requiring restaurants to provide nutrition information to their customers. 20 more...

Hot Restaurant Trend: Menu Nutrition Labeling

Nutrition labeling is nothing new in the food industry.  Nutrition Facts have become ubiquitous on everything from milk cartons to candy bars. But up until recently nutrition information on menus was largely absent. That’s changing, and places like California and New York city have already passed ...