It’s the answer to many questions that frequently come up in the food service industry – questions about nutritional values, labelling and legislation issues that are becoming increasingly important as new trends and food labelling legislation has created a need for accurate information to be constantly available to consumers.
Food Labelling Ingredients and Legislation Guide
It’s Unilever Food Solutions’ new easy-to-use Food Labelling Ingredients and Legislation Guide, which was developed in South Africa to help food service operators all over the world cater more easily to their guests’ nutritional requirements.
The new guide, which will be released globally following its successful launch in South Africa last year, is demystifying food labels – from nutritional content and additives to allergen information and food safety – while also helping chefs to easily adapt their menus to guests’ specific nutritional needs and dietary requests.
Download the guide for free
Available for download at no cost from the Unilever Food Solutions website (www.ufs.com), the Guide is accessible to all chefs throughout South Africa. “At last nutrition labelling, food safety and special dietary requests are made simple and practical in this new easy-to-use tool” says Unilever Food Solutions nutrition expert Keegan Eichstadt.
Unilever Food Solutions South Africa has distributed over 150 copies of the hard-cover guide to chefs, operators and schools around the country for their use – and it is being hailed as a valuable book that is providing a wealth of the right type of information.
Unilever Food Solutions’ Managing Director Michel Mellis says, “The positive response to the book is encouraging because it indicates a continued growth and maturing in the industry and a commitment to complying with relevant legislation and meeting consumers’ expectations and needs.”
Demand on chefs to be transparent about ingredients
He adds that chefs are facing increasing demands from guests to be transparent about their ingredients. Global research conducted with 3,500 diners in the Unilever Food Solutions’ 2011 ‘World Menu Report: What’s in Your Food?’ survey showed that 90% wanted more transparency in their food when they eat out.
According to Thomas Overbeck, Project Manager for SACA’s National Youth Chefs Training Programme (NYCTP), the book has been distributed to the NYCTP students across the country and it is adding value to the students’ curriculum.
Chef Patron Jenny Howard of Chez Gourmet, one of the training providers that is part of NYCTP, is extremely positive about the guide. She says, “We have received the poster and the book and have immediately put it into action! This is a fantastic resource, and should be mandatory in all cooking school courses as far as I’m concerned.”
Useful in food manufacturing
In food manufacturing too, the book has proved a more than useful tool. Helen Digby of Sally Williams Fine Foods found the book very enjoyable to read, engaging and interesting. “I found that it took the most important points from the relevant regulations and simplified them and made them very easy to understand. It also provided good and practical advice and guidelines on food safety, ingredients and labelling.
Benefits the marketing of restaurants
Mellis concludes, “The guide is not just a way of complying with the various acts governing food safety. It gives chefs the ability to market their operation as one that has the capabilities and knowledge to provide food for any nutritional requirement, which, at this early stage of legislation, is a unique selling proposition for any restaurant.
In the future, however, restaurants that do not have the know-how to provide educated guests with information about what’s in their food will be severely handicapped, and chefs would be well advised to use this opportunity to establish their credibility and reliability in food safety and nutrition to full advantage.”
The guide is available in digital format for free download. For more information or to sign up for it, chefs and operators can go to www.ufs.com.