Restaurant and Food Service Blog

In this era of globalization, restaurant menus from New York to San Francisco boast fresh fish with distant origins: blackfin tuna from Tobago, mahi-mahi from Hawaii and black grouper from the Bahamas. But a group of chefs and food service vendors (aware that such jet-setting comes at a heavy cost – not to just the pocket but with green house gases.

The term “Fresh frozen” really is not a new one at all. Some sushi catchers have been doing this for years and many sushi chef prize this meat more because the fish is being “preserved” in a state closer to when it came out of the sea.

As we look to other alternatives to lowering our greenhouse gas emissions and become more green in our purchases, supply chain leaders need to think more about how our food is being transported from all over the world.

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Which kids’ menus are most likely to make your children fat? A year-long study of children’s meals has revealed vast dietary differences among America’s favorite fast-food and sit-down chain restaurants, according to the authors of the new book EAT THIS, NOT THAT! For Kids. Co-authors David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding calculated calories, fat (trans- and saturated), and sodium, as well as the average number of calories per children’s entree, and discovered that many of America’s most popular chain restaurants are nutritional nightmares for America’s children.

The authors compared children’s entrees, credited restaurants for having healthy adult options that would appeal to the young palate, evaluated healthy vegetable and fruit sides and drink options that go beyond sugar-laden soda, and docked points for restaurants still dishing out unhealthy trans fats or for refusing to release any nutrition information to their customers.

The result is a Restaurant Report Card that holds each food chain accountable for the fare they’re serving up — to moms, dads, kids, teens, and everybody else — along with a survival strategy for making it through any meal unscathed.
Did your favorite restaurant make the grade?

A

Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A excels in every category we tested for. With a slew of low-calorie sandwiches, the country’s “healthiest” chicken nugget, a variety of solid sides like fresh fruit and soup that can be substituted into any meal, and nutritional brochures readily available for perusing at each location, Chick-fil-A earns the award for America’s Healthiest Chain Restaurant (for kids, for the adults who drive them there, plus anybody else wise enough to make it their fast food choice).

Your Survival Strategy: Even the smartest kid in the class can still fail a test, so be on your toes at all times, even at Chik-fil-A. Limit salads with ranch or Caesar dressings, any sandwich with bacon, and make milkshakes a special treat, not an everyday beverage.

A-

Subway

A menu based on lean protein and vegetables is always going to score well in our book. With more than half a dozen sandwiches under 300 calories, plus a slew of soups and healthy sides to boot, Subway can satisfy even the pickiest eater without breaking the caloric bank.

But, despite what Jared may want you to believe, Subway is not nutritionally infallible: Those rosy calorie counts posted on the menu boards include neither cheese nor mayo (add 160 calories per 6-inch sub) and some of the toasted subs, like the Meatball Marinara, contain hefty doses of calories, saturated fat, and sodium.

Your Survival Strategy: Cornell researchers have discovered a “health halo” at Subway, which refers to the tendency to reward yourself or your kid with chips, cookies, and large soft drinks because the entree is healthy. Avoid the halo, and all will be well.

B+

Boston Market

With more than a dozen healthy vegetable sides and lean meats like turkey and roast sirloin on the menu, the low-cal, high-nutrient possibilities at Boston Market are endless. But with nearly a dozen calorie-packed sides and fatty meats like dark meat chicken and meat loaf (which contains an unfathomable 55 ingredients!), it’s almost as easy to construct a lousy meal.

Your Survival Strategy: There are three simple steps to nutritional salvation: 1) Start with turkey, sirloin, or rotisserie chicken. 2) Add two noncreamy, nonstarchy vegetable sides. 3) Ignore all special items, such as pot pie and nearly all of the sandwiches.

B

McDonald’s

Though not blessed with an abundance of healthy options, Mickey D’s isn’t burdened with any major calorie bombs, either. Kid standards like McNuggets and cheeseburgers are both in the acceptable 300-calorie range.

Your Survival Strategy: Apple Dippers and 2% milk with a small entree makes for a pretty decent meal-on-the-go. McDonald’s quintessential Happy Meal(R) makes this possible — just beware the usual French fries and soda pitfalls. Adults should go for a Quarter Pounder without cheese.

C+

Domino’s

Domino’s suffers the same pitfalls of any other pizza purveyor: too much cheese, bread, and greasy toppings. If you don’t order carefully, your child’s pizza might come laden with more than 350 calories per slice. To its credit, Domino’s does keep the trans fat out of the pizza, and it also offers the lowest-calorie thin crust option out there.

Your Survival Strategy: Stick with the Crunchy Thin Crust pizzas sans sausage and pepperoni. If your must order meat, ask for ham. And whenever possible, try to sneak on a vegetable or two per pie.

C

Burger King

BK has only four legitimate kids’ entrees on the menu, and none of them — French Toast Sticks, hamburger, mac and cheese, chicken tenders — are particularly healthy. And while the recent addition of Apple Fries provides a much-needed healthy side alternative for kids, the menu is still sullied with trans fats. BK pledged to follow in the wake of nearly every other chain restaurant and remove trans fats from the menu by the end of 2008, but so far, we’ve seen little action. In fact, a large order of Hash Browns has an outrageous 13 grams of the heart-threatening fat, and even an order of Cini-minis will add 4.5 grams of trans fats to your kid’s breakfast.

Your Survival Strategy: Adults can sign on for the Whopper Junior and a Garden Salad, and escape with only 365 calories. The best kids’ meal? A 4-piece Chicken Tenders(R), applesauce or Apple Fries, and water or milk. Beyond that, there is little hope of escaping unscathed.

D

Chipotle

We applaud Chipotle’s commitment to high-quality produce and fresh meats, but even the most pristine ingredients can’t limit the damage wrought by the massive portion sizes the chain serves up. The lack of options for kids means young eaters are forced to tussle with one of Chipotle’s behemoth burritos or taco platters, which can easily top 1,000 calories. Don’t think you’ll escape by ordering up a salad, either — even a leafy bowl at Chipotle can knock out more than half a day’s worth of calories.

Your Survival Strategy: Stick to the crispy tacos or burrito bowls, or saw a burrito in thirds.

F

Applebee’s, IHOP, Olive Garden, Outback, Red Lobster, T.G.I. Friday’s

These titans of the restaurant industry are among the last national chains that don’t provide nutritional information on their dishes. Even after years of communication with their representatives, we still hear the same old excuses: it’s too pricey, it’s too time-consuming, it’s impossible to do accurately because their food is so fresh. Our response is simple: If every other chain restaurant in the country can do it, then why can’t they? Recent New York legislation requiring these restaurants to run calorie counts on their menus gave diners a glimpse of what these establishments are hiding: At Friday’s, no fewer than nine sandwiches and ten appetizers topple the 1000-calorie barrier, at IHOP, the “healthiest” entree-size salad has a staggering 1050 calories, and at Outback, even a simple order of salmon will wipe out 75% of your day’s caloric allotment.

Your Survival Strategy: Write letters, make phone calls, beg, scream, and plead for these restaurants to provide nutritional information on all of their products. Ask them why they refuse to tell us the truth!

For a comprehensive A-to-F breakdown on 30 other chain restaurants — plus the best and worst meals at each — see the complete EAT THIS, NOT THAT! For Kids Restaurant Report Card at eatthis.com/restaurants.

EAT THIS, NOT THAT! For Kids is available nationwide on August 19th.

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Here is an intersting interview that I found with Ben Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s

How did you and Ben start?

Ben and I met in gym class when we were 13 years old. We were the two slowest, fattest kids in the class, running around the track together. We went through school together, and we failed at everything we tried to do. We wanted to do something together that was fun. We had always liked to eat, so we picked ice-cream. We opened a homemade ice-cream parlour in Burlington, Vermont, in 1978 and we learned how to make ice-cream from a $5 correspondence course. We had a happily chaotic experience.

Do you miss those early homespun days?

I do. When we began we had no idea what we were doing – every day was a complete and total adventure, and it was really fun.

The brand has a hippyish image. Were you really hippies?

If you think of hippies as people who professed peace, love and nderstanding, yes. If you think of them as people who sat around all day doing nothing but smoking drugs and thinking up funny ideas, no. We were a little more productive than that.

What is your favourite flavour?

Vanilla toffee crunch.

You sold the company to Unilever in 2000. Has Unilever changed Ben & Jerry’s or has Ben & Jerry’s changed Unilever?

It is some of both. For Ben & Jerry’s, changing Unilever is a little like the tail wagging the dog. The best thing that has happened is that Ben & Jerry’s has continued to perform well, so Unilever has a company that has operated with a social mission as part of its central reason for being and has seen that it is a success.

You were criticised for having sold out. Is that fair?

Yes. It is fair. I can certainly say that if I had not been part of Ben & Jerry’s, if I had been a person on the street who was a Ben & Jerry’s eater and followed Ben & Jerry’s values, I would have been concerned. We did not want to sell the business; it was a very difficult time. But we were a public company, and the board of directors’ primary responsibility is the interest of the shareholders. So that is what the decision came down to. It was extremely difficult, heart-wrenching. It was a horrible experience for me and I can probably say it was horrible for Ben too.

Once you had banked the cheque, did you regret selling?

It is not as if we sold it feeling great about the situation and ended up regretting it – we didn’t feel great about it from the start and throughout. It was nothing about Unilever; we didn’t want to get bought by anybody.

Isn’t there a danger that you have become Unilever’s social conscience, that you make it look good – ie, socially responsible?

I guess that I hope Unilever and other companies will see that the way Ben & Jerry’s has operated has been very successful for the company.

But people are buying into the brand because they think it is just you and Ben when, really, you are owned by a multinational.

If you happen to believe what Ben & Jerry’s is supporting and involved in, then you should support the company. If you don’t believe in what we are supporting, don’t support it. The reality is that most companies are not about any values at all – they are about making money. It is extremely rare for a business to stand for anything because most businesses don’t want to alienate potential customers, and if you believe in anything you are going to alienate someone.

As Ben says to me all the time, it’s better to stand for something. Some people will agree, some people won’t agree, but you’re going to connect with the people who agree with you on a much deeper level than, “Hey this is some great-tasting ice-cream with some interesting names.”

You’re an ice-cream company, but you have a social conscience. How does that work when it comes to public health?

Ben & Jerry’s is an indulgent dessert that should be eaten in moderation. You should not be replacing more than one meal a day with ice-cream. We do not consider a pint or a tub of ice-cream to be a single serving.

Are you responsible for the obesity epidemic?

No, we are clearly not responsible for the obesity epidemic. I believe I am personally responsible for my own consumption, which I could cut back on a little.

Do you still eat ice-cream?

I eat plenty of it. I do still maintain the basic human form, but I could be a little trimmer.

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