Balancing the Menu.

This article focuses on the issue of balancing healthful menu items with those that sell well and support a restaurant's core brand in the U.S. as of March 2005. In a diet-obsessed culture, food service must do more than merely feed guests. Now operators have to balance the healthful options consumers supposedly want with foods they will keep coming back for. Nearly half of commercial-segment operators polled for R&I's 2004 Obesity in America study say they had instituted changes in response to the obesity debate, including 20% who said they had added health-oriented items to their menus. Menu categories ripe for innovation and development include side dishes, desserts and breads. Restaurants should offer more variety in vegetables and salads, more fruits in desserts and more whole grains in the breadbasket. he quick-service segment continues to build healthful options into menus. Christine Braun, director of the Center for Consumer Research at the University of California at Davis, commends the industry for increasing healthful options, but adds that "there's more to do Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy's last month completed the rollout of fresh-fruit bowls paired with low-fat yogurt for dipping. Not every chain wants to monitor customer calorie, fat or carbohydrates intake. Atlanta-based Huddle House says it does not provide nutrition data in its 390 units.