Soups, salads and apps feeling left out

A report recently released by Technomic in the U.S. reveals that Americans as less willing to order “from the left side of the menu” — namely, appetizers, soups and salads.
Some interesting facts from the May 21 news release:

Nearly 60% of consumers are not fully satisfied with the variety of appetizers on the menu at full-service [...]

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Good news for Juan Valdez

I think one of the neatest questions I’ve been asked in my time at CRFA was, “Can you tell me how much Arctic char is sold in Canadian restaurants?”  I did not have an answer to that question, btw.
But if you want to know what the most popular food and beverage items are at Canadian [...]

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Putting a price on delicious

In our second sneak peek at this year’s Foodservice Facts, we look at average check size per person.

The average check per person rose 3.5% to $7.10 in 2008, from $6.86 in 2007.  Gains at quick-service and family/midscale restaurants were largely responsible for this increase, but growth is expected to be restrained in 2009 as customers [...]

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Two-thirds of Canadians eat mom’s turkey casserole whether they like it or not

According to NET Canada/NPD Group, only 9% of meals and snacks consumed by Canadians are sourced from a restaurant.
Whenever I cite this number, I’m invariably met with disbelief — either because the disbeliever is convinced that they don’t visit restaurants that often, or because the opposite is true, and they swear they haven’t eaten at [...]

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Coming soon to a mailbox near you …

… you lucky ducky CRFA member!
This year’s edition of Foodservice Facts is hot off the presses, complete with that luscious “new publication” smell. Over the next couple of days I’ll be previewing some of the content, notably:

Where Canadians source their meals (hint: results may not be accurate for 30 year old guys who still [...]

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Half a million haters can’t be wrong

Put the terms “foodie” and “hate” into Google and it spits back 507,000 results, which doesn’t surprise me in the least.  For a long time, I’ve had a post a-brewin’ on this very subject.
The short version?  I love food.  I need food.  I hope that most of the food that I need is also food [...]

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