A recent study by Technomic Associates was published in the last few days, indicating that nearly nine out of 10 New Yorkers favor their city’s recent menu-labeling mandate, because they “believe it helps them make better choices when dining out.”
My role as restaurant owner and industry consultant has been in conflict with my “consumer” role on this issue. As a proponent of healthy eating (at least some of the time) I would like to know more about the dish being offered to me. Conversely, as a restaurant owner, I understand the challenge that “full disclosure” requires, especially since most food manufacturers often cannot provide the end user with the information or tools to convert your dish to the proper “reporting format.” Instead of fighting the trend, the state and national restaurant associations need to assist their members with this challenge.
The aforementioned survey indicated that a number of New Yorker restaurant patrons have CHANGED their ordering based on the nutrition information provided. The New York law only affects operations with 15 or more units, and concentrates on calorie counts. Yet 86% of the respondents favored the new regulation.
Technomic executive vice president Bob Goldin states, “I kind of sensed there was a shift [in public perception] based on some other work I’ve done concerning government regulation and restaurant responsibility,” and expressed surprise at how many respondents were in favor of calorie disclosure. "…I think it’s an indication that we’re going to see a lot more mandated nutritional disclosure that likely will go beyond calories," he said. "It’s a brave new world."
So what does this mean to all of us in the restaurant SUPPLY business? To me, it calls out an OPPORTUNITY to the upward links on the supply chain to begin thinking about how to:
-
CHANGE our assumptions about why customers buy our products, and
-
SUPPORT the end-user in his effort to not only provide high-quality menu items, but to REPORT their advantages (and disadvantages) clearly for their customers.
Smart suppliers will further address this trend as an opportunity to cut back on useless trade promotion, and create TOOLS for end users to use and/or access to assure that they properly state nutritional and caloric details.
Likewise, smart restaurant groups will empower their lobbyists to embrace this fact and try to set the proper agenda for state regulation, rather than let uninformed state assemblies set the criteria.
The bottom line is that this is GOOD NEWS. Perhaps the future may not include 67% of Americans classified as obese…
"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." -- Henry Ford