Photo: Tina Fitzgerald director of produce and corporate responsibility for Miami-based Independent Purchasing Cooperative, which handles purchasing for Subway restaurants, and David Parsley with Centralized Supply Chain Services LLC handling purchasing for Applebee’s and IHOP spoke about increasing produce usage on menus at PMA Foodservice Conference & Expo.
Over the next 10 years, you will see a fresh change on restaurant menus. A year ago, several industry groups formed collaboration to double use of fruits and vegetables in foodservice by 2020.
I was there a year ago when the initiative was announced at the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) annual Foodservice Conference. It seemed like a noble goal, but I secretly thought it was little more than a meeting topic for big-wig committee members to discuss. The other day, I attended a follow-up workshop session at this year’s annual conference where they gave an update on the discussions. And I was impressed with the main conclusion the committee, or task force, as they call it, recently came to as a way to double produce usage in restaurants.
When you hear it, you’ll think, “Duh. Did they have to have a meeting to decide that?” But I know from whence they come, and it really is a big deal. First, I have to tell you the sort of people behind the drive. They are leaders of the three collaborating associations: National Restaurant Association, PMA, and International Foodservice Distributors Association. In addition, there are buyers for huge restaurant chains, foodservice distributors and large commercial produce grower/shippers on the task force.
Now for their light-bulb idea: If commercial produce growers stopped growing varieties that just look good, but are hard and bland, and started focusing on produce varieties with memorable flavor, chefs and restaurants would be compelled to buy and serve them, and guests would love to eat them. Flavor is the new key.
I spent 15 years of my career following and writing about the produce industry, and I can tell you, and now some big growers publically confirm it, that the criteria for the varieties many of them have grown for the past 100 years are ones that will produce a high yield (more crops per acre), ones that will withstand shipping across the country (sturdy and flavorless) and blemish-free ones that look bright and beautiful. Focusing on external characteristics has worked for them, they think, because consumers buy with their eyes. Internal quality wasn’t even a consideration for many of them.
I think the current seasonal/locally grown movement has demonstrated how out of touch many (not all) commercial growers have been, and now it’s obvious to them. Local farmers are so highly regarded because they are known to produce the best-tasting produce. Who wouldn’t choose a backyard peach or tomato over a hard, flavorless one shipped nationally? Consumers know the taste difference, and so do chefs. At the PMA foodservice conference I just returned from, operators in the audience were told to have courage to “just say no” when a load of flavorless produce arrives at the back door, and “just say no” to keeping tomatoes on any part of the menu if tasty ones aren’t available.
All this was eye opening to big commercial produce growers. They are rethinking their varieties. So, as we’re on our way to seeing doubled produce usage on menus by 2020, look for better flavor. And “just say no” if it isn’t there.
Jody Shee
Comments