This idea is contributed by Sadique Salim 

Since healthy living is very much an “in” thing now, many businesses can now cash in. One of them is restaurants.

While packaged foods mention the calory and other nutritional information, restaurant and fast foods dont. The idea is simple. Every meal in these food joints will publish their calory and other nutritional information for the benefit of the customers. The argument might be that if fast foods publish how unhealthy their foods are, their business might go down. But human psychology works in mysterious ways – and none presents the case more gloriously than tobacco. Publishing cautionary notices in the package never stopped the sell of cigarettes in any part of the world. The same will happen in food business as well. In fact this will benefit the business in 3 ways

 1. Consumers will come to acknowledge that those restaurants actually care for their health. And they will feel comfortable that they are making an informed decision.

2. These rastaurants can introduce “Healthier” version of their normal menu. For example – the restaurant can advertise that a normal double beef cheese burger meal (meal 1) may contribute “234” Kcal. But their “Healthier” burger meal (meal 2) will contribute only 80 Kcal. Now the customers can decide which one he will pick. He can go for the sumptious meal 1 and make the most of the sensations in the taste buds or the modest meal 2 and count his calories.

3. This can help the restaurant to stand apart and differentiate himself in the sea of food joints. Most importantly, they will be gifted with the grand daddy of all brand strengths – Trust.

This might sound like a heavy burden to pull. But this might be a necessity in future for food business. And the early bird may win the day.