We hope you will use these and the other resources to share the Menus of Change insights with your peers, your staff, and anyone interested in a healthier, more sustainable future for the foodservice industry. These resources are all part of the broad Menus of Change educational initiative designed to help chefs and the foodservice industry stay ahead of health and environmental issues and trends that are reshaping the future of our industry, our consumers and our planet.
If you have suggestions for future resources, be sure to share them with us through social media using #CIAMOC or e-mail them directly to si@culinary.edu. We also want to hear your stories of how you've used these resources to inform a key decision in your business.
Available Resources:
2024 Plant-Forward Opportunity Report - A Datassential report created in collaboration with the CIA, the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative, and Food for Climate League, that takes a deep dive into consumer interests around the latest plant-forward eating trends.
What's in a Name?: Defining Plant-Forward Diets — Confused about the difference between plant-forward, plant-based, flexitarian, vegetarian, and more? This short series of slides is our take on sorting out the language.
Six Lessons from the Pandemic — Critical lessons from the COVID-19 health crisis that can inspire how we think about the future of food and opportunities for the restaurant and foodservice industry.
Plant-Forward By the Numbers — This CIA-Harvard Chan School document presents a pre-COVID-19 snapshot of this consumer juggernaut, and has all the data you’ll need to make the business case for building future menu directions in your organization around these imperatives.
The Protein Flip: A Delicious Strategy for Change — This strategy document highlights why it is essential to re-imagine the role of protein in foodservice, and how to do so in inventive ways that appeal to diners.
Protein Plays: Foodservice Strategies for our Future — — A toolkit resource to help chefs and operators understand the current research consensus on the impact of various protein sources on our personal health and the health of the environment. This toolkit along with The Protein Flip offers practical strategies to broaden our portfolio of menu options to appeal to a widening diversity of informed consumer preferences around protein, from “less meat, better meat” to flavor discovery and innovation around plant-based protein, meat/plant blends (e.g., the meat/mushroom burger blend), and more.
Navigating Nutrition Studies: What Builds Strong Evidence on Diet and Health? — A toolkit resource to help chefs and operators discern issues around research quality, inaccurate perceptions about scientific consensus (or the lack thereof), and media reports that often represent sources of confusion for our operations and among our customers.
Culinary Strategy Videos — Plant-Forward Kitchens and World Cuisines — From the CIA’s Digital Media team, enjoy these culinary videos filmed in a variety of U.S. and global kitchens with ideas from top chefs and regional cuisine experts on designing flavor in the plant-forward kitchen.
Menus of Change Annual Reports (2013-2019) — In 2020, the Menus of Change editorial team shifted away from producing an annual report and, instead, is focusing on building out targeted editorial resources. You can still view past Menus of Change Annual Reports which are full of scientific insights, case studies of culinary and business innovation.