Technology Helps Customers Make Healthful Choices
New tools help customers find chains with better-for-you menu items and make healthful choices at the restaurant.
By Mary Boltz Chapman, Editor-in-Chief -- Chain Leader, 9/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
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| HealthyDiningFinder.com can boast that the National Restaurant Association is a partner. |
Customers have made it clear that they want to know that nutrition information is out there, even if they won't act on it. While chains may not be shouting from the rooftops about their nutritional efforts, many are making sure nutritional information is available for those who want it.
Easy to Find
Diners who are serious about eating right in restaurants can use online resource HealthyDiningFinder.com to find restaurants that offer “dietitian-approved” healthful menu options at more than 60,000 restaurant locations. A user enters an address or ZIP code and receives a list of nearby eateries that offer healthful choices. Each entry shows what type of restaurant it is, offers a suggested item and lists calorie and fat content, and links to more items from that restaurant's menu.
For example, a local listing for Culver's recommends the Blackened Chicken Sandwich, which has 370 calories and 8 grams of fat. A click to a deeper page shows nine more better-for-you items. Visitors can also get directions to the restaurant, find other Culver's units or go to the chain's Web site.
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| Uno Chicago Grill’s Nutrition Center, available online and in restaurant-lobby kiosks, lets customers search for menu items that meet their nutritional requirements. |
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| Good Food Near You, a Web site and mobile app, was created by Global Fitness Media, a company founded by Body By Jake’s Jake Steinfeld. |
Healthy Dining is an initiative launched in 1991 to help the restaurant industry develop and promote healthful menu options. In 2005, the group received a Small Business Innovative Research grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop an online resource. The National Restaurant Association signed on as a founding partner, and in 2007 HealthyDiningFinder.com was launched.
Healthy Dining says the menu options are approved by registered dietitians and meet nutrition criteria based on recommendations of leading health organizations. Chains in the database include Panera Bread, Chili's Grill & Bar and Jack in the Box. The site notes that information on gluten and other allergens will be coming soon.
Take it with You
Good Food Near You is a similar tool, with both a Web page and iPhone and BlackBerry applications. Again, customers enter their ZIP code or address and the site generates a list of nearby restaurants that have healthful menu options and gives suggestions of what to order.
The restaurants that come up are primarily chains, presumably because many chains' nutrition information is readily available. For some of the menu items, the app suggests leaving off ingredients such as mayonnaise or even bread to make them more healthful.
Global Fitness Media, the Los Angeles-based company that created Good Food Near You, was founded by Jake Steinfeld of Body by Jake fame. It claims to have 220,000 locations in its database and plans to include more restaurants in the next version and allow restaurant operators to upload and update their own data.
Brand Specific
A handful of restaurant chains, including Au Bon Pain, McDonald's and Uno Chicago Grill, offer their own online tools.
For example, visitors to Uno's Web site will find a Nutrition Information Center that lets customers search for menu items low in calories, fat or carbohydrates, or for gluten-free dishes. The Boston-based chain also has lobby kiosks in each of its restaurants, so in-store customers have access to the information as well.
MORE: A software program calculates a restaurant chain's nutrition information and prints it on the receipt for each order.
