When it comes to restaurant fare, “good for you” doesn’t necessarily mean “good”—at least, not yet. While a growing number of consumers consider the availability of healthy restaurant menu offerings to be extremely important, their satisfaction with these offerings is fairly low, according to Nutritrack, a major consumer research study on health and nutrition trends conducted by Techomic. Only a low percentage of consumers queried as part of the survey said they were “truly satisfied” with the “healthy” and “nutritious” offerings of 37 leading restaurant chains, with Subway, Olive Garden, Red Lobster and Applebee’s designated doing the best job of satisfying consumer demand for such fare. Full Story. Clearly, restaurant operators and institutional foodservice providers stand to gain by taking such steps as re-formulating the existing “healthy” options on their menus and replacing particularly slow movers with other selections. Those that do not will more than likely find themselves unable to meet the ever-longer list of requirements being set by increasingly selective consumers as well as to hold their own against a new brand of competitors in the healthy dining market: hotel restaurants. Starwood plans to eliminate all trans fats at its 400-plus hotels in North America and the Caribbean by year-end. Marriott, Loews, Hampton, Red Lion and Carlson, the owner of Radisson, also say they are eliminating trans fats from foods at all, or most, of their hotels.Full Story
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Retail price-setting by manufacturers and distributors is poised to become easier. Striking down a nearly century-old antitrust rule, the U.S. Supreme Court has handed down a decision deeming it no longer automatically unlawful for manufacturers and distributors to agree on setting minimum retail prices. The decision gives producers significantly more leeway, though not unlimited power, to dictate retail prices as well as to restrict the flexibility of discounters, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. Full Story. In at least some instances, the ruling could lead to more competition and, hence, better service throughout the supply chain. However, the flexibility it affords might also create a frenzy of higher pricing that will knock some competition out of the running.
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Spurred by recent recalls of Chinese-made goods, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) is calling for the creation of a federal import czar, reported The Washington Post. Working under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Commerce, such an individual would oversee inspections and all other aspects of import consumer safety, Schumer said. The import czar would also issue public reports on problems encountered by U.S. agencies in monitoring imports. Full Story (Free Registration Required). The presence of an import czar has the potential to better keep import safety “breaches” in check by coordinating the efforts of other agencies charged with consumer safety related to imports, as well as by actively monitoring the day-to-day functions of all agencies responsible for assuring the consumer safety of imported goods. Meanwhile, a new layer of complication has arisen on the Chinese import front: According to The Wall Street Journal,some of the contaminants in China's food comes from the soil in which it is grown. It has not been determined which tainted crops such as rice, fruits and vegetables were exported to the U.S., reported The Wall Street Journal. Full Story(WSJ Subscription Required)
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Interest in expanding or even bolstering certain foodservice dayparts is high among convenience retailers looking to improve margins and traffic inside the store. On that front, breakfast and lunch seem to be garnering the most interest. In a recent Kraft/CSP Daily News poll, a respective 39.7% and 25% of survey respondents deemed morning/breakfast and lunch the foodservice dayparts they are presently targeting for growth, reported CSP Daily News. This could create more competition for traditional restaurant operators and institutional feeders, while at the same time opening new doors for the manufacturers and distributors that serve them. Full Story. However, foodservice industry players may find that charting new daypart and/or product waters may pose a challenge: Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds are finding that attempts to woo the lunchtime trade with the addition of deli-style offerings frequently found at convenience stores is a tough proposition.Dunkin’ Donuts’ deli offer shows very little movement, with 45 locations open since a soft launch in 2000. Similarly, McDonald’s launched a test of sub sandwiches in four or five markets a couple of years ago. The initiative has since been scaled back to a handful of restaurants in Illinois, with no current plans to expand the test or make the sandwiches available nationwide, officials of the chain have publicly stated.
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U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced a new risk-based process for approving the importation of certain fruits and vegetables. The process applies only to commodities that can be imported into the United States subject to one or more of five designated phytosanitary measures. These measures include port-of-entry inspection, approved postharvest treatment, a phytosanitary certificate verifying that the produce originated from a pest-free area, a phytosanitary certificate verifying that the items are free from a specified pest or pests or that the risk associated with the commodity can be mitigated through commercial practices. The changes in the rule do not alter which fruits and vegetables are currently eligible for importation or how the risks associated with those commodities are evaluated or mitigated, and The importation of fruits and vegetables that require additional phytosanitary measures will continue to undergo the full rulemaking process Full story Full Story. In rendering the approval of fruits and vegetables that are safe for importation into the U.S. more timely, the rule will likely yield enhanced produce availability for foodservice processors and operators. A more efficient review process for imported fruits and vegetables should also help to expand market access for U.S. agricultural exports as other countries recognize U.S. efforts to encourage trade, as well as to allow the USDA to focus less on administrative processes and, consequently, concentrate on facilitating imports that do not pose a risk of introducing foreign pests and diseases while eliminating those that do.
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Foodservice distributors face a somewhat rocky road ahead—at least, if Sysco’s experience is any indication. The company is seeing a reduction in its margins as national quick-service chains, which account for about 60% of its sales in its core restaurant business—gain market share and exercise the ability to engage in bulk buying at lower prices. Also throwing up roadblocks are an overall slowdown in the growth of the food service industry and the pressure posed to the business by while high fuel costs, a recent MSNBC report indicated. Full Story. Distributors would do well to consider following Sysco’s lead in improving logistics and altering other practices as a means of counteracting obstacles to growth. For example, the company has eschewed allowing individual operating companies to negotiate with food suppliers in favor of centrally purchasing its food supplies. It is also offering centralized support to its network of distribution centers through its first-ever"redistribution centre" in northern Virginia, as well as aiming to increase margins by introducing its own brands of such products as ice cream in giant tubs.
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Initiatives aimed at reassuring consumers that the foods they are purchasing are safe to eat are definitely worth undertaking by foodservice processors and, most likely, operators that offer menu items produced elsewhere. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults lack confidence in the safety of a variety of products manufactured in developing nations, including packaged and prepared foods, and eight in 10 adults are concerned about counterfeit products that claim to be produced or manufactured in the U.S. These are some of the results of an online survey of 2,071 U.S. adults, ages 18 and older, conducted by Harris Interactive between June 26 and 28, 2007 for The Wall Street Journal Online's Health Industry Edition (www.wsj.com/health). Three in four adults believe measures can be taken to ensure the safety of products produced or manufactured for the export market. However, there is no clear consensus as to which approach would be most effective. When given a set of options, U.S. adults are most likely to prefer banning products that have been proven to be unsafe, or instituting bigger fines or stiffer penalties to companies that produce unsafe products (22% and 16%, respectively). Far fewer adults believe that the best way of ensuring product safety is to rely on more government inspections of agricultural or manufacturing sites or better company oversight of their own facilities (7% for each).
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The federal government will spend more than $1 billion this year on educational programs designed to teach kids about how great they will feel by adopting better eating habits and consuming more nutritious food. However, their efforts will more than likely not be rewarded. An Associated Press review of scientific studies examining 57 such programs found mostly failure, according to Newsday. Just four showed any real success in changing the way kids eat -- or any promise as weapons against the growing epidemic of childhood obesity. Full Story. Experts attributed such poor results at least in part to the fact that such programs have been executed almost exclusively in schools rather than targeted at parents, whom they believe have a stronger influence on kids’ eating habits. Thus, it behooves foodservice entities aiming to jump on the nutrition education bandwagon to ensure that their messages are aimed at parents rather than at schools, and that they take steps to make it easier to put fruits, vegetables and other healthy fare in the hands of consumers who, because of limited financial resources or other difficulties, cannot readily access them.
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Two major manufacturers, VeriFone and Hypercom, are now targeting toward U.S. restaurants “pay-at-the-table” technology wherein consumers use hand-held devices to swipe their credit or debit cards at their seats rather than allowing servers to execute transactions at a point-of-sale station, ABC NEWS said. Full Story. A rise in the number of "skimming" scams in which waiters use hand-held computers to quietly record customers' credit card information and sell it is sparking the implementation of such devices, as is an increased push by managers to speed the flow of diners during peak hours. Operators that opt not to jump on the bandwagon stand not only to lose business to competitors that are addressing patrons’ concerns about credit and debit card security by investing in the devices. A lack of efficiency in credit and debit card transaction processing might also blunt their competitive edge.
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The Presidents Conference '07 sponsorship opportunities have just been finalized and the information will be mailed to all members this week.  You can also access the information on our website via the following link IFMA Sponsorship.  There are a variety of events and price levels to accommodate all companies so please review the information and contact Lea Eisenberg at 719/266/0531 or lea@ifmaworld.com should you have any questions.  Thank you! 

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