Restaurants, Get Ready for Natural
There's this great research firm in Chicago called Technomic. Basically, they know everything about restaurant and culinary trends, and if they don't know, they're probably in the process of finding out. Smart minds and nice people, those folks.
A couple months ago, Technomic announced that natural, organic, and local ingredients were about to boom in retail channels. The other day, the firm said that's true, SO true, for the foodservice channel, too.
Menu offerings with organic and natural ingredients currently represent a small percentage of overall sales, but that percentage is growing rapidly.... Sales of organic and natural products are expected to grow at a 15 to 20 percent compounded average annual growth rate from 2007 to 2010.
This isn't just a trend, Technomic added, but a societal shift. It's here to stay. Yay!
Want to go ahead and let your family enjoy this trend? Panera and Chipotle were among the first mid-sized chains to bring organic, all-natural, and local ingredients to the menu. If you're lucky enough to live near an O'Naturals location in the Northeast, or an Organic to Go spot on the West Coast, that's great.
Point is, your options are almost sure to increase as more quick-serve and fast-casual restaurants jump on this trend. This is one time when following the crowd is good—for us, our kids, the air, the soil, the animals. As The Wonderful Husband likes to say, "It's alllllll good."
