Article

The un-red meat: Restaurants embracing new proteins

Restaurants are trying to meet Americans' desires to eat healthier by giving them a variety of protein options.

May 6, 2015 by Cherryh Cansler — Editor, FastCasual.com

With Americans trying to eat healthier, it’s no surprise they’ve cut back on red meat. In fact, the nation's total beef consumption is down from 27.3 billion pounds in 2008, to 25.5 billion pounds in 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Clearly, Americans are looking for healthier protein alternatives, and restaurants hoping to keep customers happy need to fill that need. Below are three alternatives to beef proteins that are already showing up on menus across the country.

Turkey

Turkey isn’t new to restaurant menus as it’s shown up for years as the staple of the club sandwich and in wraps, but restaurants are now embracing it in many other ways. For example, it’s becoming increasingly popular for breakfast, said Darren Tristano of Technomic. Consumers are comfortable eating turkey bacon and turkey sausage, and that trend will continue to increase.

“Expect to see more turkey introduced on menus as the cost of beef increases,” Tristano said.  “I think we will see [turkey] consumption rise across the board ... with [the addition of] tacos, burgers and other more traditional items. Turkey is leaner, healthier and less expensive.”

Lunch is another day part seeing more turkey. For example, Arby’s recently added a new Smokehouse Turkey Avocado sandwich and also brought back the Turkey Gyro, featuring a pita filled with roast turkey, lettuce, onion, tomatoes, tzatziki sauce and gyro seasoning. Also, Mooyah added a turkey LTO in March. The Jalapeno Jack Turkey Burger is customizable with Mooyahs's range of buns, cheeses, toppings and sauces.

Ostrich and boar and bison; oh my

For consumers wanting to get a little more adventurous try ostrich meat, which has a similar texture and taste as beef, has about 40 percent fewer fat grams and half the calories but contains similar protein levels as beef, according to NutritionBite.com.

While it’s already popular in European restaurants, it’s not so easily found on American menus. That may soon change, however. Crazee burger in L.A. and Bull City Burger and Brewery, for example, both feature ostrich burgers. Both restaurants also serve bison and wild boar, which are high in protein and iron but have fewer grams of saturated fat than beef. Fuddruckers also offers buffalo, elk and wild boar burger options that are “all-natural, free-range, grass and grain-fed and 100-percent antibiotic and hormone free.”

No-meat options

While some consumers may be satisfied with substituting red meat with turkey or wild game, others won’t eat meat in any form. Quinoa, which looks and tastes more like a rice dish than meat and surprisingly packs 24 grams of protein in 1 cup, can fill that need. A variety of restaurants, including Zoës Kitchen and First Watch, have already incorporated the super food in order to please customers wanting to avoid red meat.

"We are always looking for new and exciting ways to provide our guests with balanced Mediterranean meals that they can feel good about eating," said Kevin Miles, CEO of Zoës Kitchen, which has been serving its Quinoa Salad since 2013.

Another new meat alternative is Match Meats, a vegan friendly option that is committed to matching the “passion, taste and texture of real meat, “said Allison Burgess of AB Foods, the manufacturer of Match.

“All restaurants should offer a high-quality menu item for vegans and vegetarians because it builds loyalty with that customer base, because the vegan or vegetarian drives where the groups go to eat, and it helps with the branding of the establishment as an environmentally supportive restaurant,” she said.

Burgess said their largest restaurant customers simply substitute Match meats into one or more of their existing dishes, so that the vegan or vegetarian gets exactly the same dish as the animal meat eater.

“For example, we have a customer that offers EVERY burger on the menu made with vegan meat if requested,” she said. “They sell a ton of these burgers, because they are essentially the same dish, it looks the same, tastes the same, and there are no compromises. The same is done with pizza toppings and taco meat, burrito filling, and many more dishes.”

About Cherryh Cansler

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Cherryh Cansler is VP of Events for Networld Media Group and publisher of FastCasual.com. She has been covering the restaurant industry since 2012. Her byline has appeared in Forbes, The Kansas City Star and American Fitness magazine, among many others.

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