NESTLÉ PROFESSIONAL NUTRITION MAGAZINE Simple & Authentic Embracing Transparency The shift toward more natural food Boosting colour & flavour an honest APPROACH TO FOOD There was a time when how food was made mattered a lot less to guests than how it tasted. Today, consumers around the world In response to these new preferences, expectations are changing, and what you increasingly care about both. They want several grocery store chains and food can do to keep delivering great results to know what their food is made of and manufacturers have already shifted with a more selective set of ingredients where it comes from. And more and toward simpler, more natural ingredients,2 and cooking methods. Let’s take a closer more of them are choosing foods made and those expectations are beginning look at this movement. with natural, recognizable ingredients, to shape what restaurants do, too. As less artificial dyes or other additives, and this trend continues, it’s important to more familiar, authentic, or traditional understand how your guests’ cooking methods.1 Taking the mystery out of the menu From the grocery store to the restaurant, today’s customers are looking for a combination of transparency and integrity. Which factors are most important to them? A Simple Ingredient List Recognizable Ingredients Local Sources The idea of a product made with Forty percent of global respondents Local food sales in the U.S. grew the least ingredients possible say the absence of artificial from $5 billion to $12 billion is appealing to 68% of global colours and flavours is very between 2008 and 2014, and they consumers.3 important when choosing food.4 were estimated to reach $20 billion in 2019,6 making local sources of meat and produce an important part of what we consume. More Natural Ingredients Familiar Preparation Methods Almost 60% of respondents in A study of 30,000 people in 60 eight European countries see countries showed that traditional a close connection between food production methods are “natural”’ and “healthy,” while 62% perceived as preserving the food’s of consumers in Asia Pacific and natural state.5 70% in the Middle East and Africa are interested in products with natural claims.3 2 Nutripro® by Nestlé Professional® Nutripro® by Nestlé Professional® 3 FRESH expectations EXPECTATIONS EXTEND INTO EVERY DINING CATEGORY. TODAY’S CONSUMERS ARE INCREASINGLY INTERESTED IN LOCAL OR NATURAL FOODS. Casual Fast Fine Healthcare dining casual dining OF AMERICAN CONSUMERS ARE MORE Family- facilities % % LIKELY TO VISIT A RESTAURANT THAT 70 70 9 style 67% 68% 2/3 OFFERS LOCALLY SOURCED FOOD Lodging Fast 64% % food 59 MOST CONSUMERS 58% CONSIDER % LOCAL OF43 CONSUMERS ARE PRODUCTS FRESHER— While 7 out of 10 consumers expect to find more natural, authentic food in casual dining and fast casual MORE restaurants, more than half of them expect even fast food and lodging to offer this type of food.7 % LIKELY WHAT CONSUMERS WANT TO PURCHASE AND INGREDIENTS: TO SEE ON A MENU8 SPEND MORE FOR 70 3 GLOBALLY NATURAL FOODS8 % WANT %WANT 61 NATURAL 31 LOCAL OF OPERATORS SAY NATURAL % INGREDIENTS HAVE A POSITIVE EFFECT ON SALES8 4 Nutripro® by Nestlé Professional® 82 Nutripro® by Nestlé Professional® 5 WHERE DOES YOUR FOOD COME FROM? Consider the Source Fresh organic veggies Consumers increasingly want to know what’s in their food, and one way you can reassure them is by drawing attention to where it comes from. By incorporating meat and produce from local farms into your menu, you can provide more of the transparency that your guests are hungry for. There are many ways to source fresher, more natural, and more authentic foods. WHY INCLUDE LOCAL FOOD? As the farm-to-fork trend becomes 1. It supports the local economy. With 3. It’s fresher. When the farm is hours or 10 the new normal, you can partner with 59% of consumers rating “social minutes from the kitchen, ingredients nearby farms to supply chicken, beef, or responsibility” as an important factor can be served at peak freshness. Some seasonal produce. Some restaurants are when choosing restaurants,12 being consumers may perceive fresher food moving the “farm” closer to their tables,11 a good citizen of your community is as healthier, and fresher food will likely a good strategy. By sourcing some have better colour and texture. offering salad greens grown in their own ingredients from your neighbours, you plot or herbs snipped from a greenhouse can help support the local economy, 4. It’s environmentally friendly. When meat on-site. You can also give your guests and your guests will be happy to help and produce come from local farms, an authentic experience by buying food support them, too. they don’t have to travel as far to the restaurant, and less energy is spent from the regions where it’s grown— Rosemary 2. It lets you experiment with seasonal on refrigerating them along the way. such as virgin olive oil from Greece or variety. It's always a pleasure to add picked from Parmesan cheese from Italy. just-picked produce to your menu, and your own customers appreciate it, too. In fact, Making these ingredients the stars of seasonal menus deliver 26% garden your dishes will go a long way toward more orders!13 building consumer trust, and you can get creative with all-natural sauces, fonds, and other accents from your Beef from existing suppliers to complete local farm the experience. All-natural HONEST COOKING fond SINCE 2009 MENU Celebrate your relationships with local vendors by promoting Fresh asparagus from SHARE YOUR SOURCES Smith Brothers Farms them on the menu or posting seasonal produce on boards in your restaurant. We’re proud to serve free- range chicken from Red Fresh blueberries FOLLOW THE FOOD SPRING Rooster Farms from Kingwood SPECIALS Acres in Golden City 6 Nutripro® by Nestlé Professional® Nutripro® by Nestlé Professional® 7 Nature’s Palette Fruits, vegetables, spices, and other natural sources yield every colour of the rainbow, allowing you to enhance the natural hues in any dish or add interest Colouring to pale or colourless foods like pasta, rice, yogurt, pastries, and beverages. PUMPKINS TURMERIC FOOD CARROTS THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COLOUR TOMATOES PAPRIKA We already know that colour appeals to people's visual YELLOW: reduced the detection senses, but did you know it can also affect the way they threshold for sourness and SWEET POTATOES increased the threshold for the experience its flavour? One study showed that adding food detection of sweetness. RED SAFFRON colouring can deliver as much as 10% more perceived CABBAGE sweetness.14 Another showed that adding food colouring GREEN: decreased people’s detection of sweetness. to a clear solution changed the way people detected STRAWBERRIES basic tastes in the solution.15 RED: reduced the threshold for the detection of bitterness.15 COCOA SPINACH COFFEE 10 tips for cooking with colour DID YOU KNOW? Blood orange, light orange, 1. Use fresh, uncooked fruits and 6. Ask your fishmonger for squid ink that SQUID ACAI vegetables to add pigment, or you can add to pasta, rice, or bread to citrus, and pink are INK complement pale foods with bright make it black. For a vegan option, you trending up in consumer sauces like green pesto or mango can also use charcoal powder as a 16 salsa. black dye. products. CHARCOAL TEA 2. Keep the flavour profile of pigments in 7. Soak saffron in water for a rich golden POWDER mind when adding them to dishes to hue, traditionally used in rice, paella, make sure they don’t clash. and bouillabaisse. 3. Blend fresh or cooked berries into 8. Mix ground coffee or cocoa powder SEAWEED RASPBERRIES batters or beverages to make them into icings for cakes and cookies. pink, purple, or blue. 9. Add golden-yellow turmeric powder 4. Freeze-dry fruits and grind to a powder to brighten curry, eggs, meat, tofu, for a shelf-stable dye you can mix into or potatoes. frostings or beverages. 10. Stir in some dried spirulina (algae 5. Cook and puree beets, spinach, or powder) to turn yogurt or ice cream squash and work it into pasta to turn a beautiful blue. MATCHA BLUEBERRIES it red, green, or orange. BEETS 8 Nutripro® by Nestlé Professional® Nutripro® by Nestlé Professional® 9 Enhancing TEXTURES Some dishes need additional ingredients to hold their form or improve their mouthfeel, but you don’t have to rely on artificial emulsifiers, thickeners, or other unrecognisable ingredients to do that. Instead, try these natural ingredients to provide these important culinary functions. THICKENING EMULSIFYING Starch is a time-honoured way to add Because some of the proteins in eggs body and a smooth mouthfeel to sauce or attract water while others repel it, they soup, and it’s also used in some desserts are ideal for emulsifying oil-and-water and candy. It can be made from many mixtures. However, note that eggs are ingredients, including corn, tapioca, and a common food allergen and also not potato. Note that vegetable starches need suitable for vegan recipes. Mustard seeds to be blended in gradually, have a short have a natural coating called mucilage holding time when reconstituted, and are that also attracts water, so mustard can not freeze/thaw stable. be helpful for emulsifying vinaigrettes. BINDING GELLING While not as familiar to Western diners, Gelatin from animal bones or hides can Guar gum, made from dried guar beans, be used to help certain foods set, but it’s is commonly used for binding milk solids, not suitable for vegetarian dishes and flour, oil, and spices together in Indian tends to melt when subjected to heat.