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Food-Labeling Interview with FoodCALC’s Alyson Mar
Recently I attended a menu-labeling webinar put on by FoodCALC, a San Francisco company that describes itself as a leader in web-based online nutritional analysis solutions for the food industry.
FoodCALC provides services to restaurants and to food manufacturers. With looming FDA menu-labeling requirements that will force restaurant chains above a certain size to provide nutrition information on menu boards and elsewhere set to kick in, the horizon for the 7-year-old FoodCALC looks like a busy one as it works to help restaurateurs comply with the new law.
Seeking to learn more about FoodCALC and what the new menu-labeling rules will mean on a practical level, I interviewed FoodCALC’s Alyson Mar, RD, Director of Nutrition, by email over several days. What follows is an edited transcript of that interview.
Crispy: Tell me a bit about yourselves and FoodCALC. Who are you? What do you do?
Alyson Mar (AM): FoodCALC is the industry leader in web-based nutrition analysis solutions for the US food industry. We have two products: MenuCalc (for restaurants and chefs) and LabelCalc (which creates FDA Nutrition Facts Labels for food manufacturers). We are bunch of nutrition and technology nuts who are striving to make nutrition analysis accessible for all sizes of companies and all ranges of budgets.
Our president and CEO Lucy Logan founded the company in 2003 in response to her frustrations with trying to enjoy meals out with her pre-diabetic father. She eventually learned that the industry was lacking an easy solution to calculate nutrition analysis. An online system seemed like an obvious solution to help restaurant owners simplify the process. We have received exclusive endorsement from The National Restaurant Association—as well as the California, Florida, Oregon, Colorado, and Massachusetts state restaurant associations—to provide nutrition information to restaurant operators.
With a staff of registered dietitians and IT professionals, our mission is to provide the industry with easy and cost-effective tools to obtain nutrition information. Our web-based platform enables our customers to respond to legal requirements, consumer demand, and competition by providing nutrition information in a timely, user-friendly, efficient and cost effective manner.
Crispy: Can you explain to me how your MenuCalc service works? For example, say I’m a restaurateur and I want to provide my customers with nutrition information related to my Cobb salad. How can FoodCALC help?
AM: MenuCalc is FoodCALC’s product designed for restaurant operators. MenuCalc is an online nutrition analysis tool that can easily, quickly, and affordably calculate the nutrition information you need for your Cobb salad. All you have to do is log on to your account from any computer, search our database for each ingredient one at a time, and then enter the amount of each ingredient and your portion size. The database will then produce the nutrition information summary for your recipe. You can then download different reports and formats of your results. It sounds easy, I know. But that’s because it is.
This method of nutrition analysis is very different from the more traditional, costly method of a restaurant having to send a food sample to a lab. Database analysis allows many more recipes to be analyzed in an economical way, yet it is still accurate and FDA-approved. FoodCALC was the first company to bring database analysis for the food industry online—along with all the benefits that a web-based platform offers.
Crispy: What do you think about the recent (July 23) notice in the Federal Register offering non-covered restaurants the opportunity to opt in to the menu labeling regulations?
AM: I think that a lot of “non-covered” restaurants are already beginning to feel consumer pressure and provide this information anyways. Over 80% of our current restaurant clientele are not currently covered by menu labeling regulations and are simply providing nutrition information because their diners are asking for it. The opportunity to opt in provides them the access to some of the protections offered in the legislation that they would not have otherwise, while also giving them the competitive advantage that menu labeling can provide.
Crispy: That’s a really high percentage of clients who offer information even though the government doesn’t require them to do so. I think it’s great that so many restaurants want to provide their customers with information their customers demand. That’s how the free market is supposed to work, isn’t it?
AM: Absolutely! The restaurant industry is very consumer-driven. If you look at the big picture a very small percentage of companies are affected by the legislation itself, but everyone is being affected by consumer demand and by a desire to please their diners. We live in a world of transparency now. And society expects more value for the money.
Crispy: Can FoodCALC help with non-nutritional facets of labeling? For example, can FoodCALC help me to create an FDA-compliant Primary Display Panel (PDP) for grocery packaging?
AM: Our product to help food manufacturers is called LabelCalc. It works much the same way as MenuCalc, with a web-based interface. With it, we also offer our clients and potential clients a checklist that outlines what is required for the PDP to help them design their own labels. In addition we offer final label review services through our consulting options. An FDA-regulation specialist will review the PDP for FDA compliance and provide feedback to the client about how to make the label compliant.
Crispy: What do you think might be the next frontier in nutrition labeling?
AM: I expect we’ll see several changes to packaging itself. For example, front of package labeling with a consistent look, so packages will no longer have the Nascar “sponsored” feel. I also predict a total re-design of the Serving Size display. And definitely a lower sodium daily value. Another example is more single serve packets—not a box of 12 loose cookies, but a box of six packets containing two cookies each.
The biggest shift, though, will be using mobile phones and barcode technology to offer shoppers transparency between comparative food products on the shelf and, for diners, “better-for-you” menu items. Technology will play a role in guiding consumers to the best food choices, moving away from the current expectation that consumers have to learn everything about what’s good for them.
