Two thirds of consumers want to know the nutritional information of every dish on the menu when they eat out, according to a new poll.
The survey from hospitality software partner, Fourth, shows that since the introduction of legislation in 2014 which demanded restaurants list the presence of the 14 main allergens, the demand for further total menu transparency of nutritional information has been driven by a wider consumer trend of healthy eating.
The survey of over 1,500 consumers, also showed that half of the respondents start at least one healthy eating plan each year – lasting three and a half weeks on average. A third of consumers also worry about ordering a menu item as they can’t trust what is in it.
Fourth said that with 45% of consumers believing a ‘healthy eating plan’ gets in the way of their social life, accommodating for this new group with total menu transparency of nutritional information presents a great opportunity for operators to boost loyalty and drive sales.
Catherine Marshall, from Fourth said: “As a nation we’re becoming increasingly devoted to following a healthy eating plan, which has created a new consumer group of healthy eaters who chop and change their eating requirements.
“Catering for this fickle group can be challenging, as they constantly switch between a range of lifestyle choices, so it is imperative that menus offer full transparency of accurate nutritional and allergen information, which can be tricky across large estates.
“Displaying nutrition and allergen information that consumers can trust is a huge opportunity to drive both customer visits and satisfaction; this group of people are disproportionately influential when choosing where to eat out with their friends.
“To overcome this, we’re increasingly seeing savvy operators streamline processes with our recipe and menu engineering solution which allows them to instantly update nutritional information on their website, app, digital signage, tills and much more, whenever they make a menu change.”
