More than ever, consumers demand healthy dining options, and are looking to restaurants to inform them about menu nutrition.

Gaining customer loyalty – and profits – in today’s industry is the result of providing customers with healthy menu items and access to the nutritional information of those items.

A panel of industry experts at the NRA Hotel-Motel show in Chicago this past spring highlighted how owners can address nutritional-related concerns and capitalize on the growing consumer interest in health and nutrition.

“What I’m hearing consistently is that consumers are getting the message about health and nutrition,” said panelist Erica Bohm, vice president of Healthy Dining Finder, a San Diego-based restaurant nutrition group.

Ideal Blueprint
To help restaurants more easily promote the healthful and nutritional value of their menus, Bohm and a team of nutrition experts at Healthy Dining launched HealthyDiningFinder.com. Launched in March, the national Web site highlights member restaurant’s healthy menu options including key nutrition information such as calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, sugars, protein and fiber.

The online tool offers restaurants a “blueprint to capitalize on health and nutrition,” Bohm said.

The purpose of the online tool is twofold. It aims to, first, encourage restaurants serve healthy foods and, second, to empower the consumer with information when dining out. To use the site, consumers enter criteria such as food preference, location and price range and then submit that information and are given a list of restaurants that match the specified criteria.

Visitors can then view the restaurants’ select list of menu items and their nutrition profiles.

Restaurants participating in the Healthy Dining program are exposed to new customers, can increase customer loyalty among health and weight-conscious guests and enhance their industry image by being a leader in providing customers with pertinent information regarding the health benefits of its menu.

Providing Options
When it comes to providing consumers with both healthy meals and the nutritional content of its menus, the restaurant industry “is under a microscope in this regard,” said Joe Taylor, vice president of Brinker International. Brinker, which owns Chili’s and Maggiano’s chains, has customized its menus to target consumers. Chili’s, for example, offers a “Guiltless Grill” menu created to give diners healthy choices.

Giving consumers healthy options is one key way restaurants can maintain traditional customers, while appealing to the health conscious, said Jeff Tunks, a Washington, D.C. chef.

“If you want to have the longevity of [a] restaurant, you have to have more options,” he states.

‘Pain’-Less Guidance
Ed Frechette, vice president of marketing at Au Bon Pain said to stay on the edge of consumer interest in health and nutrition, the bakery and café chain installed kiosks in the front of its stores where consumers can search nutrition content.

In addition, online, each of its menu items includes a nutritional guide “at just the click of a mouse,” the company says. Its online Smart Menu also helps customers build a meal that fits a variety of diet needs.

Au Bon Pain also utilizes a nutrition advisory board when planning new menu items and recently joined HealthyDiningFinder.com.