WASHINGTON: “Eating better” is a perennial new year’s resolution, and this year, your chain restaurants are here to help. KFC has a 395-calorie grilled chicken meal, served with green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy. Uno Chicago Grill is selling a 550-calorie roasted vegetable and feta wrap on a whole-wheat and flaxseed tortilla. Next week, Starbucks will introduce four sandwiches with 400 calories or fewer. And all of the coffee company’s 11,000 or so stores will launch a campaign to promote beverages under 90 calories.
Such offerings were not designed just for new-year dieters. Restaurant chains across the country are reformulating fat- and calorie-laden items and introducing lighter, more healthful options in preparation for federal menu labeling requirements that are part of the health-care reform that President Obama hopes to soon sign into law. Bakery chain Le Pain Quotidien, for instance, has introduced bite-size brownies with 77 percent fewer calories than their regular-size counterparts.
Restaurants had long fought such government control; the industry tied up a New York City regulation in court for two years before the rule finally went into effect in 2008. But with 26.6 percent of Americans considered obese and 48 percent of food dollars spent on food eaten outside the home, fast-food and chain restaurants are an easy legislative target. Consumer interest in healthful eating — more than 1 million customers accessed nutrition information through Starbucks’ iPhone application in the first three months it was available — has helped persuade the industry to support uniform national regulations.
If enacted, the health-care reform law would mandate that chains with more than 20 outlets must post calories on the menu in a “clear and conspicuous” manner and provide complete nutritional information upon request. Public-health advocates hope the rules go into effect within two years.
Whether disclosing calories on a menu will change consumer behavior remains the subject of contentious debate, but a new study supports the idea that it can: An analysis of 100 million transactions over 14 months at Starbucks by researchers at Stanford University showed that when calories were posted prominently, the average number of calories per transaction fell by 6 percent. The researchers didn’t investigate whether consumers ended up taking in those calories elsewhere. But they did find in a small telephone survey that restaurants in jurisdictions where calorie posting is mandatory were 58 percent more likely to offer low-calorie options than restaurants where it was not.
Anecdotal evidence bears out the theory. Austin Grill, California Pizza Kitchen, the Cheesecake Factory, Fuddruckers and Sizzler, among others, are working with consulting company Nutrition Information Services (NIS) to analyze and, where appropriate, make over their recipes. Some are reducing calories, sodium and fat; others are adding whole grains, the current darling of nutritionists. The Orlando, Fla.-based firm says it has seen its business jump 80 percent in 2008 and 100 percent in 2009. “Legislation in New York and Seattle really forced the issue,” said Jeffrey Whitlow, the company’s vice president of research and development.
NIS runs ingredients used in restaurant recipes through its database of 27,000 products. If, say, sodium is too high, NIS can test how different ingredients might affect the bottom line. One national chain recently substituted a lower-density salt in all of its recipes, cutting totals by up to 40 percent, Whitlow said.
“Choice” seems to be the mantra of the restaurant industry. Many executives say they prefer to add healthful options rather than fiddle with tried-and-true sellers. “There are people who want what they want,” said Frank Guidara, chief executive of Uno Chicago Grill, whose signature individual-size deep-dish pizza with “the works” has 1,920 calories. (The USDA’s benchmark for daily calorie intake is 2,000.) “Maybe they are overweight and don’t really care. Or they exercise a lot and burn it off. In every category, we’re going to have choice.”
Guidara tried to make over Uno’s deep-dish pies when he arrived at the company in 2005. Company chefs experimented with different tomato sauces, cheeses and flours, such as whole wheat and flaxseed, to improve the nutritional content. After three months, executives participated in a blind taste test. “The original recipe blew away everything on the table,” Guidara remembered. “We realized, this will never really be healthy.”
Instead, Uno turned its attention to its flatbread pizzas. It introduced more-healthful varieties, such as the Roasted Eggplant, Spinach and Feta (840 calories)and the Harvest Vegetable, a five-grain crust topped with, among other things, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, broccoli, cheddar and mozzarella (960 calories). The Harvest Vegetable, which went on the menu in October, became Uno’s top seller. Within two months, 33 percent of all flatbread pizzas were ordered on a five-grain crust.
Other chains are making similar moves. Taco Bell’s Fresco menu has eight items with nine grams of fat or fewer. Long John Silver’s has a Freshside Grille menu that focuses on non-fried fish. More than 300 chain restaurants now promote their more-nutritious dishes on the Healthy Dining Finder (www.healthydiningfinder.com), a Web site that lists restaurants that offer at least four meals with fewer than 750 calories and 25 grams of fat.
“Restaurants know they need to do something. They hear it from their customers. It’s going to be mandated by law. It’s becoming important both in operations and marketing,” said Anita Jones-Mueller, Healthy Dining Finder’s president.
Offering more-healthful foods doesn’t appear to affect overall sales, though, anecdotally, it seems to encourage diners to order more carefully. When calorie labeling became mandatory in New York, Guidara said, he held his breath, fearful that customers would punish the company for some of its high-calorie offerings. Sales of deep-dish pizzas did slip 6 percent, but overall sales remained steady: The number of salads ordered jumped 11 percent, and steaks, not considered a health food unless you’re an Atkins devotee, increased by about 8 percent. At Le Pain Quotidien, the top-selling tartine, or open-faced sandwich, had been a 690-calorie grilled chicken with smoked mozzarella. Within months of the chain’s move to post calories, the 350-calorie smoked salmon tartine had risen from the No. 7 spot to become the best-seller.
“What we noticed was the lower the calories, the greater the sales. And the higher the calories, the greater the sales decline,” said Jack Moran, the bakery’s vice president of brand and food and beverage.
In areas where menu labeling is required, offering more healthful food might improve sales overall. After New York’s law went into effect, Le Pain Quotidien’s sales of brownies and tarts dipped. A year later, the bakery introduced bite-size versions. Some customers downsized to the smaller version. But the option also attracted a new group of customers who previously had skipped dessert, Moran said.
According to the Stanford study of Starbucks sales, calorie posting had no effect on profits except in stores near competitor Dunkin’ Donuts. In those stores, revenues increased by 3 percent, suggesting that consumers substituted items not only within stores but also across them.
“Before menu labeling, most of what restaurants did was add grilled chicken and salads and apple slices. But with it, they have the benefit of having people notice the changes they make,” said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington public-health advocacy group. “... They can cut calories in innovative ways and get credit. It opens up a whole new host of possibilities.”
