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Made with 💚 by Mission Sustainability
Imagine you’re at a restaurant on the corner of a quaint square of a European city. The pleasant May sun is upon you as you’re perusing their menu. The proprietor tells you all his vegetables are in season and grown by local farmers. Immediately you’re convinced you made the right choice for a lunch spot.
Sample restaurant menu from Nimble’s summer produce
If the choice and source of produce makes such a big difference in the minds of a consumer, isn’t it time that all restaurants made that their starting point for creating a menu? If you want to know more about how you should do it (and if you still need more reasons why), read on!
**Why should you create a Sustainable Menu for your Restaurant? **
According to a study done by the Kerry Health and Nutrition Institute in Ireland,
71% of European consumers said sustainability was important when choosing where to eat out.
With over half of people reporting they ate more sustainably since the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s room on menus for more sustainable choices.
The findings in the 'Sustainable Nutrition in Foodservice' report1 were illuminating, indicating that more than 70% of European consumers said sustainability was important when choosing where to eat out. As people integrate sustainability into their everyday choices and become proactive about living a sustainable life, there’s an opportunity for the industry to provide healthier and more sustainable food and beverage offerings that deliver on taste expectations and are better for the planet and society.
Creating a sustainable restaurant menu is one of the best things you can do for the planet and for your bottom line. But while going green is more popular than ever before, it’s not as simple as banning plastic straws or adding veggie burgers to the menu. A sustainable restaurant is one that makes a meaningful effort to reduce its impact on the environment through waste reduction, energy conservation, and more.
As mentioned above, a sustainable restaurant menu can give your bottom line a great boost. However, that’s not the only reason you should think holistically about what your restaurant offers its customers.
Reduced Operating Costs: According to a study by Pacific Gas and Electric’s Food Service Technology Center, 80% of the $10 billion annual energy bill for the commercial food service sector is spent on inefficient food cooking, holding, and store equipment. As a result, sustainable practices could reduce restaurant operating costs by up to 30%.
Reduce Employee Turnover: People don’t just choose brands based on their values – they also choose workplaces that align with their personal values. Your staff are more likely to stick around when your restaurant practices are implemented in similar values, like sustainability.
Attract New Customers: The National Restaurant Association found that sustainability is a particularly hot topic among Millennials, with 58% saying they are “more likely to choose one restaurant over another based on its ability to provide sustainably grown, raised and manufactured foods.”
Marketing Opportunities: Branding your restaurant as a sustainable venue can help set your venue apart from the competition and garner positive media attention.
Good for the Planet: It goes without saying that efforts to save energy, reduce waste, and implement other sustainable practices have a positive impact on the planet.
While we all agree conceptually that having a restaurant with a sustainable menu is the desired choice, how does one actually go about building the menu? Here are some angles that you should explore while building out your sustainable menu.
1. Buy fresh and seasonal, local and global: For chefs, peak-of-season fruits and vegetables can help create unbeatable flavors—and marketing opportunities. When designing menus, draw ideas and inspiration from local farmers and their crops during the growing season. The advantages of local sourcing include working with smaller producers who may be more willing to experiment with varieties that bring interest and greater flavor to the table. A focus on local foods also can play an important role in building community by encouraging school children, retailers, media, and others to learn how to grow food, steward the land, and adopt healthier eating habits.
2. Be transparent about sourcing and preparation: Providing customers with abundant information about food production methods, sourcing strategies, calorie and nutrient values, labor practices, animal welfare, and environmental impacts is a necessity in our technology-driven and networked era. Restaurants can build trust by learning about environmental and social issues in the food system and sharing information about their own practices, for eg, identifying the farms that grow key ingredients.
3. Reward better agricultural practices: Sourcing sustainably grown foods is complex, but there is one important rule of thumb: the environmental cost of food is largely determined by how it is produced. The best farms protect and restore natural systems through better and more effective practices, such as choosing crops well-suited for their local growing conditions and minimizing use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. The most powerful strategies for supporting better farms include aligning menus to emphasize fresh foods during the peak of their local growing season and shifting purchases toward farms that have responsible management programs.
4. Leverage globally inspired, plant-based culinary strategies: Scientific research suggests that the most effective way to help diners make healthy, sustainable food choices is to shift our collective diets to mostly plant-based foods. Growing plants for food generally has less of a negative impact on the environment than raising livestock, as livestock have to eat lots of plants to produce a smaller amount of food. In fact, no other single decision in the professional kitchen can compare in terms of the benefits of advancing global environmental sustainability. From the well- researched Mediterranean diet to the cuisines of Asia and Latin America, traditional food cultures offer a myriad of flavor strategies to support innovation around healthy, delicious, even crave-able cooking that rebalances ratios between foods from animal and plant sources.
5. Focus on whole, minimally processed foods: Chefs should focus on whole, minimally processed foods. Such foods are typically higher in micronutrient value and less likely to contain high levels of added sugars, saturated or trans fats, and sodium. That said, some minimally processed foods—low- sodium tomato paste, wine, nut butters, frozen fruits and vegetables, mayonnaise, dark chocolate, canned low-sodium beans, 100 percent whole- grain crackers, fresh-cut vegetables, spice mixtures, yogurt, reduced sodium sauces, many kinds of canned fish and shellfish, among other things—can be incorporated into healthy meals.
6. Grow everyday options, while honoring special occasion traditions: The foodservice industry historically developed around special occasion dining. Today’s industry, however, is increasingly responsible for providing everyday food choices to a substantial segment of the population. The real opportunity in menu and concept development is the expansion of everyday food and menu choices that embrace current nutrition and environmental science, as well as emerging consumer values about how food is produced.
7. Lead with menu messaging around flavor: To sell healthy and sustainable food choices, lead with messages about flavor, rather than actively marketing health attributes. Research shows that taste trumps nearly all, even if customers want chefs, on some level, to help them avoid foods that increase their risk of chronic disease. Messages that chefs care and are paying attention to how and from whom they are sourcing their ingredients—such as by naming specific farms and growing practices (e.g., organic)—can enhance perceptions of healthier food choices (if, in fact, these choices are healthier— i.e., that they are also consistent with guidance for optimal nutrition).
8. Reduce portions, emphasizing calorie quality over quantity: Moderating / reducing portion size is one of the biggest steps restaurants can take towards reversing obesity trends and reducing food waste. Consider menu concepts that change the value proposition for customers from an overemphasis on quantity to a focus on flavor, nutrient quality, culinary adventure, new menu formats, and the total culinary and dining experience. Calorie quality is also important. Dishes should feature slowly metabolized whole grains, plant proteins including nuts and legumes, and healthy oils that promote lasting satiety and create great flavors.
9. Celebrate cultural diversity and discovery: Respect for cultural diversity and the savoring and preservation of family traditions and centuries-old food cultures are as vital as public health and environmental sustainability. While consumers are becoming more explorative, presenting ancestral recipes and ingredients with a new flair draws the conscious consumer in.
10. Design health and sustainability into operations and dining spaces: Food and menu design are not the only ways to advance sustainability in foodservice. Choices that affect the way restaurants and other foodservice operations are designed, built, and operated are also important. These include imagining kitchens that support the optimal preparation of fresh, healthy foods and selecting energy- and water-efficient equipment and environmentally friendly building materials. As behavioral economics studies have shown, dining-room operations and foodservice eating spaces also deserve more attention: design, set-up, service, and communication strategies can all lead consumers towards healthier, more sustainable choices.
Creating a sustainable restaurant menu doesn’t have to be a daunting task – it can be fun, exciting, and profitable. Effective menu engineering helps restaurants lower costs, reduce waste, and create high-margin dishes that resonate with modern diners. Strategies like using seasonal ingredients, managing portion sizes, and adopting sustainable practices not only improve efficiency but also increase sales and strengthen a restaurant’s brand. Click here to explore how Nimble can help you make this process seamless, quicker and easier for you, with its wide range of pre-cut, local, seasonal produce offerings!
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