FSR March 2023

TRENDING ON THE MENU // Cheese

RESTAURANT OPERATORS ARE LOOKING FOR VERSATILE AND DELICIOUS INGREDIENTS TO HELP THEM DO MORE WITH LESS.

BEL BRANDS

TheMVPof Soft Cheeses Restaurants are finding Boursin to be a powerhouse ingredient. T he full-service restaurant industry has stayed resilient over the last few years in the face of enormous percent prior to COVID-19, but in 2022, that figure remained at 13 percent.

also helpminimize labor and food waste. “Cost is front and center of the con versation today,” says Katie Driscoll, director of marketing for foodservice and convenience at Bel Brands USA . “Inf lation has driven up prices every where, and operators are trying to find ingredients that offer value—whether it’s through lower prices, versatility across many applications, or the poten tial for labor savings.”

So, in all areas of the business, oper ators are searching for solutions to help them do more with less. Certain forms of automation technology, for exam ple, are becoming more viable as labor grows more expensive and difficult to retain. In terms of menu planning, it’s more important than ever to find ver satile, crowd-pleasing ingredients that

pressures—supply chain issues, infla tion, and labor shortages continue to per sist. Traffic has mostly returned to pre pandemic levels (and for many brands, it’s higher than ever), but margins are shrinking for many operators. According to Datassential, profit margins for the restaurant industry overall averaged 21

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SPONSORED CONTENT / MARCH 2023