Number Crunchers
Will dining out become a math test as nutrition data show up on menus?
By Allison Perlik, Senior Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 8/1/2004
Only time will tell if history records Ruby Tuesday’s bold venture into full-menu nutritional disclosure as a progressive success or pricey failure. In April, the Maryville, Tenn.-based casual-dining chain entered uncharted territory when it introduced menus with calorie, fat, carbohydrate and fiber content for all items.
“Millions of Americans are on some sort of diet or eating plan,” says Ruby Tuesday Senior Vice President Richard Johnson. “No matter what diet plan one is on, we are providing the information on the menu they need to stay on that plan.” That, Johnson says, is a key point of differentiation.
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While the chain confidently stands behind its decision, other foodservice operators are taking a wait-and-see attitude before diving into comprehensive on-menu information.
“People will be looking at Ruby Tuesday to see how it goes. I don’t think in the near term we will see any massive adoption, but the trend is toward that direction,” says Paul Westra, a managing director and senior research analyst covering the restaurant industry at SG Cowen in New York City.
Chains and noncommercial operators are leading the exploration, experimenting with ways to present the facts to customers. Most commonly available on menus are carbohydrate counts, fat grams and calories. More comprehensive online data can be used to bolster the informational offerings. To enhance a healthy lifestyles message, many chains also provide related materials including meal suggestions, eating tips and exercise advice.
The Price of Knowledge
Some companies, including Miami-based Burger King and Atlanta-based
Blimpie Subs & Salads, have for some time displayed full
data on in-store posters, and are either revamping their presentation
or adding supplementary materials. Others communicate nutritional
information to customers via a combination of menu boards, printed
menus, individual item cards, pamphlets and Web sites.
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Given the time, money and personnel that operators must dedicate to calculating and displaying nutritional information, cost is a key consideration. Price tags start in the thousands and can run into the millions, with research, analysis and man-hours eating up the most dollars.
Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp.’s recently introduced Just4U program grew into a multimillion-dollar initiative when taking into account marketing, training, consumer research, testing for and validating nutritional information and incorporating the results into company databases. The program, still in the pilot stage, offers detailed nutritional data via point-of-service signage at each station listing fat, calories, protein, sodium and other details for hundreds of new, health-minded menu creations.
While Ruby Tuesday declined to reveal the costs for its third-party laboratory analysis, Overland Park, Kan.-based Applebee’s says the May launch of its 10-item Weight Watchers menu—which notes calories, fat, fiber and Weight Watchers points—was a multimillion-dollar proposition. Costs do not always run so high, however, especially for chains offering information only for specific menu items (typically those targeting health-minded customers).
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Fast-casual chain Bear Rock Cafe, based in Cary, N.C., hired an outside firm to analyze its more than 150 menu items at a cost of $16.95 each. The nutritional analysis necessary to create the four-item Lite Menu at The Loop Pizza Grill, a 21-unit, fast-casual chain based in Jacksonville, Fla., cost about $3,000, estimates Director of Marketing Cathy Manzon. Printing costs for the menu supplements, which feature items with 10 grams of fat or less and list calories and fat content, were not significant, she says.
Inside Information
Companies with the resources to do so, such as Aramark, Burger
King and Lexington, Ky.-based Fazoli’s, complete menu-item
testing with in-house dietitians, who typically use computer
software programs to calculate nutritionals.
“It allows us to be able to continue to dialogue with a dietitian at no additional project fees,” says Julie Gondak, Fazoli’s director of marketing. “It’s ideal to have that type of resource at your beck and call.”
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Campus Dietitian Rebecca Berman at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., says the greatest cost of the school providing nutritional data (which it does for all menu items in six residential dining facilities and two retail operations, managed by Gaithersburg, Md.-based Sodexho USA) is her own time. Through a Sodexho computer system, Berman generates identification cards for each menu item in four-week cycles for all three dayparts. Besides calories, fat, protein, suggested serving sizes and other details, the cards note whether food items are vegan, low sodium or low fat and whether they contain egg, dairy products or nuts. Although menus now are online, the nutritional facts remain available at the point of sale only.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va., is headed in the opposite direction. Finding menu cards too cumbersome—they were lost easily, and printing cards for new items became a chore—the housing and dining services department decided to go high tech for the You’re Eating Smart (YES) nutrition education program.
“Students were doing more and more online and were used to being on the Internet, so we felt it was time to make the change,” says Jenny Lindsey, administrative dietitian for student programs.
The Web-based model allows Lindsey to make regular updates as changes occur to the more than 1,000 recipes in the database.
Boarding Call
More flexibility, multiple points of access and the ability
to easily calculate full-meal information (with the proper
software) make the Internet the preferred method for offering
nutritional data. But as public-interest groups and some
legislators call for more on-site disclosure, such efforts
may not be enough.
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In addition to its online Nutrition Wizard, Burger King has updated the in-store nutrition posters it displays prominently near cash registers. Data on all core menu items—as well as common requests such as sandwiches without mayonnaise, tartar sauce or buns—is included. Colored symbols in different shapes denote low-carb, low-fat and low-calorie choices.
Atlanta-based Blimpie also offers information on core menu items via posters and brochures in addition to a Web component. In January, the sandwich chain took additional measures to call out specific nutritional information, rolling out an eight-item Carb Counter menu that lists net carbs.
Some companies have taken such efforts a step further, posting select nutritional facts on certain items where customers can’t help but see them: on menu boards. To address the challenge of limited real estate, these chains supply limited types of data on select items.
Options on the Smart Italian Choices menu at Fazoli’s are called out for having 8 grams of fat or less, with some including carbohydrate content as well. Bear Rock Cafe’s menu boards list fat and carb information for low-fat and low-carb items.
At Austin, Texas-based Schlotzsky’s, the latest menu board incarnations highlight low-fat items with small hearts denoting fat grams inside. Full-menu nutritional information is available online or in stores by request, but the sandwich chain does not foresee bringing all the data to menu boards or printed menus.
“So much information would be hard to visually absorb,” says Monica Landers, Schlotzsky’s director of communications. “For those looking for more information we do have it available, but walls of numbers could be intimidating.”
Consumers Weigh In
Should restaurants post nutritional information
for their menu items? The answer is yes, according to the majority
of respondents in the Reed Research Group/R&I Obesity in America 2004 Study.
According to R&I’s exclusive research:
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