Published November 10, 2015

Demystifying Menu Terms

Restaurant menus can trend towards being wordy and complex these days. Although ingredient descriptions can sometimes be confusing for consumers, operators can also take advantage of these terms to make their food more appealing to customers, as well as to educate their customers about the specific benefits of the ingredients they’re using. Today’s customers are interested in whether the food they’re eating is natural, organic, or sustainable, and operators should capitalize on that interest by including words on menus that inform customers about the provenance of ingredients.

The most popular health-related menu terms in the U.S. is “light,” which has no legal definition. While it is the leader at the moment, it is decreasing in popularity in favor of more specific terms that often have government-regulated meanings. Another popular term, “organic,” refers specifically to ingredients that have been USDA certified to meet a stringent set of production requirements. Some customers are also interested in eating food that are antibiotics free, another government-regulated term.

Other hot menu descriptions include describing foods as “sustainable” and “local.” While these are unregulated marketing terms, many customers will respond favorably to information on menus that proves that ingredients are sustainably and locally sourced, like listing the local farms from which operators purchase produce or including a pledge that all seafood served comes from certified sustainable fisheries.

Read the full article here: Translating Menus