Plant-based options are far more than a food trend. An increasing number of individuals worldwide choose to embrace this lifestyle despite numerous food service providers and restaurateurs remaining resistant to adding plant-based menus and other vegan or vegetarian provisions.
Regardless of how some individuals may feel about these products, plant-based options are an essential component of an increasingly popular movement that encourages individuals to maintain conscious attention to the foods they eat and their overall nutritional intake while promoting a healthy lifestyle.
Many food consumers are increasingly health-conscious, even when they eat meat. However, this particular generation is also more aware of the potential cost and impact associated with heavy, meat-based diets and how it affects their health and the environment.
As the vegan, plant-based, and vegetarian markets continue to increase, any food service professional must consider the benefits of incorporating plant-based menus and menu options.
Highlight Important Values and Inclusivity
Food establishments that concertedly follow popular menu planning tips and expand into a growing plant-based niche convey that their brand message, values, and mission to vegan and vegetarian consumers are aligned.
For some food companies, this messaging can reflect concerns for environmental impacts related to mass food production, taking a stand against the mistreatment of animals, or even a simple nod to plant-based benefits to general health. No matter the reason, including plant-based dishes and sections on the menu can motivate groups of individuals to dine at a location that potentially shares their values and, at the very least, recognizes them.
Moreover, food service companies providing plant-based solutions help cater to specific patron diet restrictions that other companies in the industry may ignore. As a result, these providers can experience an increased and broader consumer base.
Decreased Costs and Less Staff Stress
Every food service provider handles customers wishing to alter menu dishes. When you adhere to vegan menu planning tips and provide meat-alternative options, your business could experience fewer legitimate dish modification requests resulting from allergies or other dietary requirements. Consequently, this also puts less strain on your staff, lowers the customer complaint risks, and offers smoother service.
Keeping up with the trends and staying on the cutting edge of food is the best recipe for success. Appealing to customer sensibilities helps you to ensure your food service’s longevity. Customers that enter your doors or order from your staff should feel comfortable and secure regarding the food they eat.
Reimagining menu options is a tried and true method for restaurants to evolve, adapt, and capitalize on “what’s popular” with food trends.
Providing vegan and vegetarian options on your menu helps patrons feel just as pleasant as everyone else about your services. Instead of needing adaptations to established entries on your menu, you can also use a change to plant-based offerings as an experiment for dish reinvention without meat.
Finally, a switch to plant-based items can directly save your business money. Protein-rich, plant-based foods offer cost-saving benefits through typically more prolonged shelf life than animal products.
Encourage Healthy Eating
When it comes to health conditions, prevention is the best medicine. We can look at most vegan and vegetarian diets as “prevention-focused.”
Plant-based foods support our immune system with essential nutrients we cannot find in other foods. Phytochemicals, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals in plants keep our cells healthy and the body balanced, enabling our immune system to function optimally.
Vegan and vegetarian diets help individuals maintain a healthier weight, one of the most important things anyone can do to alleviate health risks. Excess weight causes inflammation and hormonal imbalance, increasing the risk for various cancers and other illnesses.
Fiber comprises a plant’s structure and is plentiful in almost all unprocessed plant foods. Increasing dietary fiber can provide us with numerous benefits.
Plant-based products aid with gut health, increasing nutrient absorption from food while helping support the immune system and reduce bodily inflammation. Fiber content additionally lowers cholesterol and stabilizes blood sugar.
Increases in Group Bookings
Many people eat out in groups, seeking food providers where everyone in the party has options. As plant-based diets are becoming more popular, groups, including vegan and vegetarian individuals, may skip restaurants that don’t impart plant-based alternatives. While missing a single patron may not seem like much, a large party overlooking your offerings is another story altogether.
Following plant-based menu planning tips and offering vegan, vegetarian, and plant-based options help customers perceive your establishment as an inclusive restaurant. Furthermore, plant-based inclusions help you appeal to a broader market from lifestyles we previously mentioned to those looking for alternative dining and environmental and health-conscious consumers.
Making the Change to Plant-Based Provisions
For many foodservice operators, making changes to offer more plant-based selections presents a difficult challenge. It is critical to think about what matters to consumers. The taste may represent the most crucial component to choosing between meat and plant-based meals, but healthiness, environmental impact, and animal welfare are more than an afterthought.
Creativity is essential, but familiar flavors resonate. You can always produce plant-based options that are a meat-free twist on something consumers instantly recognize on your menu as a less-threatening option for less adventurous foodies.
Plant-based selections on your menu can be more than a niche offering. Suggesting that choosing a plant-based diet is “normal” can help make meat-eaters more comfortable when selecting plant-based meals. In turn, this will also help vegans, vegetarians, and individuals seeking plant-based options for other reasons welcomed and included.
If you’re considering changing to a plant-based menu, our menu planning software, Nutritionist Pro can help you. Menu design matters and can encourage ventures into more comprehensive selections that promote healthy, sustainable choices.
Why You Should Choose Nutritionist Pro
Nutritionist Pro is a software family designed, developed, and operated by dieticians and nutritionists working to help over one million individuals and businesses in over 100 countries worldwide. Our international customer base ranges from nutritionists and chefs to hospitals and universities.
Working with our team, we can help you incorporate plant-based recipes into your menu with the substantial Nutritionist Pro menu planning software and comprehensive ingredient database. To take things another step forward, you can rely on our software toolset to create and adjust recipes with live ingredient and nutritional information updates and produce labels to inform customers of all dietary attributes.
To learn more about Nutritionist Pro and how our team can help your company make plant-based meal plan changes, contact our dedicated and friendly team today for additional information.