Foodservice providers—including school foodservices and cafeterias—have begun to experience increasing pressure from both government regulators and consumers to disclose nutritional information about the food they distribute. The idea is simple: students will make healthier food choices when they can access the nutrition profile of what they order. This pressure is now extending to college foodservice operations.
However, posting calorie information for standardized menu items on menu boards for campuses typically result in high printing costs, and according to the National Restaurant Association more than 70 percent of all meals are customized (e.g. hold the mayo, extra cheese, etc.). And, well, what student wants to visit the Web site of their university cafeteria and do math to determine their meal totals?
Nutricate Corporation solves these issues with a new technology product that enables schools and other foodservice operators to provide personalized nutrition information to their customers in one of the most convenient formats possible—on receipts. The fully patented technology, the only solution of its kind, provides consumers with meaningful information customized to the student’s precise, personalized order. The Nutricate software makes students lives easier by automatically calculating recommended daily nutritional values and nutrient totals for each meal—down to customizations such as “hold the onions.”
The Nutricate Receipt also offers health tips and facts— – such as “Did you know? If you hold the mayo on your sandwich, you’ll save 180 calories and 8 grams of fat” —helping students navigate their choices and understand how they can easily eat more nutritiously.
“I took a nutritional class where they taught us how to put together nutritional values based on food labels, but adding it up and matching it to your servings is difficult and takes us too much time,” said Brittany Morgan, a University of California–Santa Barbara student. “So, when you are at home you normally don’t know the nutritional value of what you are eating, but with the Nutricate Receipt you know exactly what values your portion has. It makes you think twice about what you order. It helps you make better choice, more educated decisions of what to eat.”
But there is another benefit to the Nutricate Receipt—additional revenue opportunities for schools. Campus foodservice departments can partner with sponsors that promote smart and healthy lifestyles (e.g. Dole, Fitness Clubs, PBS, etc.) which can help offset the program and bring in additional revenue.
“Nutricate is committed to developing nutritional reporting solutions that not only offer the greatest benefit to consumers, but are also easy for food service providers to implement and manage,” said Jay Ferro, Nutricate’s CEO and inventor.
As added proof of the system’s popularity, an initial April 2006 survey of more than 1,000 Extreme Pita restaurant customers in San Diego found that 75 percent of respondents preferred receiving a nutritional receipt (such as the Nutricate Receipt) over any other type of nutritional information format (e.g. packaging, wrappers, menus, menu boards, etc.). In addition, 55 percent said that knowing they’d receive a Nutricate Receipt made them “more likely to visit” the restaurant, and 41 percent wondered why other restaurants weren’t providing them with the same information.
“We’re thrilled with the overwhelmingly positive response we’ve received to the Nutricate Receipt. Our customers love getting nutritional information that’s tailored to them, and it’s helped us in getting the word out about our company,” said Brett Weiss, a San Diego/Orange County area developer for Extreme Pita.
The Nutricate Receipt™ system is available now by calling Nutricate Corporation at (805)879-1720. Pricing for the system varies depending on the number of locations, desired features, menu conversion requirements, and the number of professional services requested. For more information on Nutricate or the Nutricate Receipt™ system, please visit the Nutricate web site at http://www.nutricate.com.
