FROM THE FIELD
April 2004
Now Can We Work Together?

If someone asked you to name the biggest challenges to U.S. domestic foodservice over the next decade, what would you say? An aging consumer market? Erosion of the middle class? Ethnic and cultural shifts driving rapid menu changes?

Nah. Those are biggies, but the really big deals are much closer at hand, according to some. Legislation, regulation and food safety will be the biggest challenges—and those are already right in front of us.

“Nutrition labeling and food safety will be bigger issues than per capita income,” Dave Brewer at Yum! Brands recently said of the year 2020. Bill Hallett at McDonald’s Corp. agreed, also noting food safety issues even at a single location “suck down a whole chain and a whole industry. We [as industry members] need to work on some of these things together” for the betterment of foodservice overall.

He’s right. Foodservice is no longer a bunch of little blips on a screen, independent companies doing their own thing. It’s definitely seen as a semi-cohesive industry, and a big one. It’s a single huge blip on the screen of regulators now, and they’re treating it accordingly. Big blips need to be addressed. That means looking for things to legislate and regulate. And you’re not exempt.

Foodservice is a single huge blip on the screen of regulators now, and they're treating it accordingly.

The big trouble, right now, is that they’re much better at coordinating and using modern communications and data collection than most foodservice operators are. While they gather data that suggests a conclusion of x, y and z, and then propose a law and notify the media, most foodservice industry people sit around in association meetings and focus on not sharing what they’ve learned, lest a competitor benefit from a blinding insight. That’s got to change.

John Banzhaff, the George Washington University law professor who’s been leading the charge for obesity lawsuits, isn’t going away. Polls suggest the average American feels Banzhaff’s goofy. But that’s not the point. No matter what happens with obesity suits, the foodservice industry as an industry has to deal with the backwash. If such lawsuits are banned, someone will claim “big business” is being protected. If they go to court, even if they’re thrown out, the public images of individual companies as well as the entire foodservice industry take a torpedo. And then there’s the expense.              

And labeling? What’s the upside for a politician who doesn’t support nutrition labeling? And now that the genie’s out of the bottle, how do you get it back in?

Health departments, too, are increasing pressure. Officials in some areas, including Brewer’s own Louisville, Ky., market, are posting letter grades on the front doors of restaurants. How quickly will the practice spread? Who wants to eat at a “B” location? Never mind that the mere existence of a publicized “B” or “C” casts a shadow on the entire industry in the eyes of consumers.

If we don’t want government agencies extending way beyond their areas of expertise, some judicious self-regulation might be in order. Your state and local restaurant associations are perfect starting points. All you have to do is open up and take notes.

We’re not a bunch of little blips any more.

Brian Ward
Chief Editor