Milling & Baking News Corporate Profiles - October 2012 - (Page 64)

Food Service Nutrition standards change school meal programs chool food service programs saw nutritional changes in 2012. A Federal Register item on Jan. 26 gave the final rule updates on meal patterns and nutritional standards for the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. Clare Keating, executive director of account management at Preferred Meal Systems, Inc., a school meal provider in Berkeley, Ill., gave her view on how the updates may change what suppliers offer. She spoke March 29 at the Institute of Food Technologists’ Wellness 12 in Rosemont, Ill. Schools generally spend about 11c on grain-based foods per meal for lunch, and opportunity exists for the use of more whole grain items, she said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said that for this school year and the 2013-14 school year, whole grain-rich products must make up half of all grain products offered exceed spending on food at home for the ﬁrst time, according to Rabobank. Quick-service gains The quick-service restaurant (Q.S.R.) sector will capture most of the gain in spending on food away from home, according to Rabobank. The fast-casual sector, including Chipotle Mexican Grill and Panera Bread, has become a rising star. Since the 2007-09 recession some chains and restaurant concepts have fared better than others through menu diversiﬁcation, improving the look and feel of the restaurants, branching out into more eating occasions and improving the quality of the dining experience, according to Rabobank. According to Technomic’s “Fast-Casual Top 150 Chain Restaurant Report,” the top 150 fast-casual chain restaurants grew 8% to $21.5 billion in 2011, which compared with 7% in 2010. “Fast-casual operators continue to outshine every other segment within the U.S. restaurant industry,” said Darren Tristano, executive vice-president of Technomic, a research and consulting ﬁrm in Chicago. “Fast-casual restaurants ﬁll the gap between quickservice and casual dining. People want fast, fresh, quality meals at a fair price point. This segment seems to hit that sweet spot right now.” According to other surveys, the entire restaurant business may beneﬁt from becoming more active in social media, appealing to ethnic consumers and taking advantage of high-margin beverage items. S to students. Starting with the 2014-15 school year, schools must offer only whole grain-rich products. Whole grain-rich products must contain at least 51% whole grain, and the product’s remaining grain product must be enriched. The Federal Register listing said schools should offer fruit and vegetables as two separate meal components and offer fruit daily at breakfast and lunch. Vegetables should be offered daily at lunch. Ms. Keating said the rules state elementary school students should receive one half cup of fruit at lunch, and only half of the half cup may come from juice. This arrangement may lead to the elimination of juices from elementary school lunches, she said. Vegetable costs are about 15c per lunch, she said. Since the school meal program divides vegetables into subgroups, potatoes may stay in school lunches, but they no longer may be available for breakfast, Ms. Keating said. In dairy, the Federal Register said schools may offer ﬂuid milk that is fat-free (unﬂavored and ﬂavored) and low-fat (unﬂavored only). Ms. Keating said schools may start using yogurt as a cost-effective source of protein since they spend about 38c on protein for each lunch. Soy is another cost-effective source of protein. CP More Facebook followers According to the N.R.A.’s 2012 Restaurant Industry Forecast, nearly 40% of consumers said they likely would use an electronic ordering system and menus on tablet computers at table 64 \ October 2012 Milling & Baking News • Food Business News • Baking & Snack • Meat & Poultry Corporate Proﬁles

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Milling & Baking News Corporate Profiles - October 2012

Milling & Baking News Corporate Profiles - October 2012