May 19, 2022 When it comes to the foodservice industry, consumer trends have rapidly and significantly evolved over the course of the pandemic. One development that has proven it is here to stay, however, is the integration and use of technology in restaurants. Technology has been there to ease restaurants’ concerns, from labour shortages to changing dining operations to supply ...Read more about this post
May 16, 2022 What should a good menu include? The names and prices of dishes are a given, and other menus often display other details such as a description, dietary information such as calories, and the source of local products. But what about food’s carbon footprint? A team of researchers at Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg in Germany are ...Read more about this post
May 16, 2022 Over the past two decades, Canadian consumers have shown an increasing interest in the country’s food supply, including where their food comes from, how it is produced, the environmental impacts of that production, nutritional composition and health benefits, and more. This has only intensified during the pandemic, and a new report from Nourish Food Marketing has ...Read more about this post
May 16, 2022 Meal kits were growing in popularity before the pandemic, and sales boomed during the first year of COVID-19 with restaurants shut and diners adjusting to a different life of consumption. But it appears some Canadians have since lost their appetite for the services. A recent survey conducted by the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in partnership ...Read more about this post
May 5, 2022 A new survey from back-of-house restaurant management software company MarketMan has found that three-quarters of Americans believe restaurants will cut down on portion sizes as inflation continue. Responding to the survey, 74 per cent of Americans said they think operators will manage increasing food costs by cutting portion sizes while charging customers the same price, and ...Read more about this post
April 21, 2022 Sustainable food is increasingly a focus of discussion for the food industry and the general public, and it seems it is top of mind for diners when it comes to ordering takeout, too. According to Deliverect data cited by Restaurant Dive, more than four in 10 (43 per cent of) diners would be willing to pay ...Read more about this post
April 18, 2022 New data from Numerator has shown that consumers’ longstanding concerns over the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic are being replaced by worries about high levels of inflation and other financial constraints. A webinar hosted by Brian Ettkin, Canadian Lead of Strategy & Solutions Consulting at Numerator, assessed the company’s latest month-over-month data and found that financial ...Read more about this post
April 14, 2022 The increased use of technology in the restaurant has been well-documented, ranging from automated servers to robot chefs. For example, numerous quick-service restaurants are employing robotics in their kitchens. U.S. burger chain White Castle is introducing Flippy, an aptly-named burger-grilling machine, while Hyundai Robotics is partnering with KFC to develop chicken-cooking robots. Meanwhile, Buffalo Wild Wings has tested ...Read more about this post
April 8, 2022 Restaurant operators, staff, and patrons have embraced increased technology over the past couple of years, both by preference and necessity. QR codes, which had existed prior to the pandemic but have surged in prominence since 2020, look like they’re here to stay. At first, part of that motivation was an early belief that COVID-19 spread easily ...Read more about this post
March 29, 2022 New reports have assessed the impacts of soaring gas prices in America on the cost of food and the levels of spending in restaurants. While the data focuses on the U.S. specifically, much of it can be applied to Canada, where the price of fuel has also jumped in recent months due to factors including Russia’s ...Read more about this post
February 14, 2022 A new authoritative report has found that nearly half of diners engage with a customer loyalty program in at least one way in at least one type of restaurant, and adds that mobile apps appear to be the key to maximizing this interest. PYMNTS and Paytronix’s Digital Divide Report: Minding The Loyalty Gap has spotlighted how ...Read more about this post
February 4, 2022 A new report from Cargill suggests that consumers are being increasingly influenced by sustainability claims on food packaging. The recent global Fatitudes survey found that 55 per cent of consumers said they are more likely to purchase a packaged food item if it includes a sustainability claim, a four-point jump since the company last fielded ...Read more about this post
February 2, 2022 Restaurant diners are increasingly turning their noses up at fried foods, according to a new industry report. Black Box Intelligence’s latest pulse report says that guest sentiment for fried foods has declined since the start of the pandemic at both limited- and full-service restaurants. The greatest decline in fried food’s appeal to diners was in limited-service ...Read more about this post
February 1, 2022 The increasing prominence and profitability of off-premises dining has been a prominent accelerated shift throughout the pandemic. Now and moving forward, restaurants must realize that appealing to the multiplatform customer is vital for survival and success. Financial services company Rabobank estimates that even coming into COVID-19, off-premises sales had increased nearly four times faster than ...Read more about this post
January 11, 2022 Ready-to-make meal kits have surged in popularity during the pandemic with indoor dining off the table for so much of the last two years. The question now is whether they will endure. A new Canadian study by Empathy Inc. in partnership with Vividata suggests that, while the appeal of these kits varies based on demographic, the ...Read more about this post
