What's in their food? Diners want to know

With the boom of fast and convenience food, our eating habits have definitely changed. Sadly, with these changes come significant concerns regarding its impact on our health.

Dining out means you could lose control over the amount of salt, harmful fats and calories that goes into your food. Just imagine what these harmful ingredients can do to our body over time.

With the onset of childhood obesity, diabetes, heart problems, and the dreaded big “C,” there’s an overwhelming need for consumers around the world to be provided with more information about the food being served in fine-dining restaurants, fast-food chains, hawker stalls, and food courts, which they frequent often. That’s according to Unilever Food Solutions (UFS), one of the world’s top foodservice companies, which recently unveiled its much-anticipated 2011 World Menu Report in Singapore.

WHAT’S ON THE MENU?

Eating out is, indeed, a serious business. In Southeast Asia alone, 500 million people dine out at least once a year.

Soup’s up: Soto Ayam (chicken soup), national dish of Indonesia.

“We Asians eat all the time. We have five to seven meal occasions per day: breakfast, morning tea break, lunch, afternoon tea break, dinner, supper and midnight snack. So it’s not surprising that the food service market in Southeast Asia now amounts to 20 billion euros a year. We at Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) are passionate about the business of food, and we fully understand the joy of serving a satisfying meal that consumers enjoy,” says Jacqueline Chook, vice president for Southeast Asia, Unilever Food Solutions.

UFS has been in the food business since the 1880s. The company provides professional ingredients (Knorr, Hellman’s and Lipton) and services to meet the needs of their customers — from hawker centers to five-star hotels, and from school canteens to large food chains.

UFS’s passion for understanding what consumers want and need inspired them to come up with the 2011 World Menu Report. The study is aimed not only at helping chefs and restaurant owners serve tasty and nutritious meals — to keep their guests coming back for more — but also to help diners make healthier food choices.

Tasty meals are made of these: Unilever Food Solutions creates ingredients (Knorr, Hellman’s and Lipton) that are some of the staples of professional kitchens in 74 countries around the world.

“The 2011 Unilever Food Solutions World Menu Report is a snapshot of out-of-home eating, polling consumers across the globe to compare and contrast changing tastes and market behaviors in today’s food industry,” explains David Lowes, UFS VP for marketing, Asia, Africa, Middle East.

The research was conducted by interviewing a representative sample of people from seven countries across the globe: United States, United Kingdom, China, Germany, Russia, Brazil and Turkey.

Results of the World Menu Report showed that nine out of 10 consumers are demanding more information about food when dining out.

The study highlights the growing need for the food service industry to provide “increased transparency for consumers about what’s in their food, where the food has been sourced, and the safety of the food, helping people make informed meal decisions out of home.”

Conny Braams, senior vice president, Unilever Food Solutions Asia, Africa and the Middle East; and Jacqueline Chook, vice president South East Asia, Unilever Food Solutions

In Turkey, Brazil, China, Russia, more than 90 percent of the respondents want to know more about what is in their meal when eating out while majority of the respondents in the UK, China and Brazil mentioned “health” in their answers to why nutritional information would influence their food choices. They believe that more nutritional information would help them ensure they get the balance between a treat and being healthy.

The majority of respondents claimed they would make healthier decisions when choosing what to eat if they were provided with nutritional values. Around two-thirds of the respondents said that food labels, including low-fat and calorie content, would be a welcome addition to the menu when eating out. However, the findings also revealed that consumers globally are not in agreement when it comes to the way this information should be conveyed. International cultural differences suggest that messaging could be delivered through a variety of channels.

In China, people are most concerned with the safety of food and whether it was prepared hygienically.

Across all surveyed countries, fat, calories, preservatives and food additives top the charts for the nutrients and ingredients that people are most interested to know about when eating out.

Chicken surprise: Hainanese chicken rice, national dish of Singapore

“These findings are significant not only to the respondents and our clients but to UFS as well. The World Menu Report clearly demonstrates the role we want to play in the food industry. We don’t just want to be the supplier of food products. We want to start a discussion about how people (diners) feel about their diets and how UFS and our partner chefs can help improve them,” notes Lowes.

The results of the report also demonstrates that of those who believe there should be more transparency about the content of meals when eating out, majority of the respondents agreed that restaurant and canteen operators should take responsibility for providing this information.

For chef Cyrille Soenen of Restaurant Cicou in Makati, the World Menu Report is important for chef and restaurant owners like him.

“The key reason why nutritional information might be important is that it could help people make healthier choices. With the World Menu Report, we’re now more sensitive to our guests’ needs,” chef Cyrille says. “In my experience, Filipino diners are more concerned to find out where we source our ingredients than its nutritional value, or how the food is prepared. Some just inform our waitstaff of their food preference. People with dietary needs will dine more often in restaurants, which can provide them with what they need.”

A graduate of France’s leading culinary school Ecole Hotelier Mederic, chef Cyrille served as executive chef of Crowne Plaza Galleria and Holiday Inn Galeria before he decided to put up his own restaurant, Cicou, which serves dishes with French and Asian flavors.

FEAST WITH ME

We were part of the media group invited by UFS, together with the award-winning chefs from Southeast Asia, to witness the unveiling of the World Menu Report held at the Unilever’s global hub at Mapletree Business Centre, Singapore.

In flames: Chef Jackie Na of Vietnam works his magic in the kitchen.

UFS managing director Matt Wilke; Jackie Chook; UFS senior vice president of Africa, Asia, and Middle East Conny Braams; VP for marketing, Asia, Africa, and Middle East David Lowes; and UFS executive chef for South East Asia and Singapore chef Yen Koh welcomed and gave us a quick tour of the state-of-the-art edifice, which houses a mini grocery, a beauty salon, and café exclusively for Unilever employees.

The office’s main attraction is the brand-new 395-square-meter Culinary Studio which houses eight work stations, a demo area big enough for 60 persons, a dining room that simulates the resto environment, and a chef’s office with a view.

“Our kitchen is our home. It’s where we create new recipes, experiment with formulations for new ingredients, and share ideas and knowledge not only with our fellow chefs but also with our trade partners,” explains chef Yen Koh.

Aside from the World Menu Report, we also had the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of Southeast Asia’s leading chefs — chefs Robin Ho Wai Kwong of Singapore, Muchtar “Tatang” Alamsyah of Indonesia, Richmond Lim of Malaysia, Muhammad Haikal Bin Johari of Thailand, Jackie Na Xiaotao of Vietnam, and Cyrille Soenen of the Philippines — as they shared their chef journey and their traditional dishes with all of us. We also mingled with the chefs in a friendly cook-off. The Philippine team, composed of Vangie Reyes of PDI, chef Cyrille Soenen and this writer, bagged the Best Collaboration award for our Thai beef curry.

Best in Collaboration: Dr. Lara Ramdin (right) presents the Best in Collaboration award to the Philippine Team composed of the author Lai Reyes, PDI’s Vangie Reyes, and chef Cyrille Soenen.

The lunch that ensued was a feast for the senses. It’s a rare opportunity to sample the specialties of South East Asia’s award-winning chefs but rarer still is the chance to dine with them. And so we savored every moment of it.

POSITIVE FRICTION

The launch of the global authority report forms part of the Unilever Food Solutions’ brand rejuvenation, identifying the first key industry issue to be addressed by chefs, caterers, and the foodservice industry as a whole.Key players in the global food industry have the responsibility to provide greater transparency about what goes into the food they create and, in turn, hand the power of choice back to the guest.

“The brand rejuvenation reflects UFS’s new vision: to support chefs and caterers in satisfying their guests with inspiring, healthy, and nutritious food,” says Dr. Lara Ramdin, UFS research and development director for Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

According to Lara, the nutritionists and chefs at UFS always experience “positive friction.”

Commander in chefs: Chefs Yen Koh, Muhammad Haikal Bin Johari, Jackie Na Xiaotao, Cyrille Soenen, Richmond Lim, Robin Ho Wai Kowng, Eric Chua, and Muchtar “Tatang” Alamsyaht

“We always have a hard but fun time coming up with recipes that are not only nutritious but delicious as well,” Dr. Lara says with a grin. To which chef Yen Koh adds: “When you’re a professional chef working with a nutritionist, there’s a lot of hindrance, especially when it comes to choosing the ingredients. When cooking, we chefs go by our hearts. We always think of how to make our food appetizing to our guests. But when I show my recipe to Dr. Lara, she would cut everything down, and try to replace the ingredients with something they deem healthier. So, how can I make the dishes yummy if they’ll cut down on chicken powder and mayonnaise? (Laughs) In the end, it’s always a good and fulfilling journey for all of us.”

Unilever Food Solutions hopes that the findings in the World Menu Report will be just the first step in encouraging the food service industry to engage in the debate on food transparency.

“Working together to find an answer to this growing need will result in improved global awareness and a chance to galvanize the food industry into action,” adds Conny Bramms, senior VP, UFS Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Well, if there’s one sector that will benefit most from this study, it’s us, the consumers.