On the surface, doing the nutritional analysis for your restaurant on your own might not seem so complicated. You log on to your favorite calorie counter app on your smartphone and then enter your restaurant’s recipes.
However, once the process starts, it’s easy to see why so many restaurants and other foodservice establishments are choosing to outsource their nutritional analysis to professionals that specialize in the complexities of foodservice nutrition. When it comes to providing accurate nutritional values in a timely manner, without tearing your hair out in the process, it becomes apparent that those smartphone apps might not be so smart after all.
Here are the top ten reasons to avoid calorie counter apps for your restaurant’s nutritional analysis, and to reach out to the professionals instead:
- Apps use retail foods –
Restaurants that serve hundreds to thousands of people per day need much larger quantities of food to stock their kitchens than a consumer just shopping for themselves. When the pack size of these ingredients are inflated to fill restaurant-sized orders, there will likely be formulation changes to accommodate the different uses. Retail foods should never be assumed to be the same as their foodservice counterpart. Since calorie counter apps are designed for the average consumer who is trying to keep track of what they’re eating, the majority of the data is coming from retail products. That can lead to inaccurate nutritional values, and when scaled to restaurant portions, it can be a big problem for restaurants.
2. Apps let any user upload data –
Many calorie counter apps rely on their users to upload data from the products they are consuming to create a more robust bank of ingredients. However, the accuracy of these entries is entirely dependent on the consumer entering them. Data could be entered incorrectly, an estimate based on other products, or outdated. The only way to know you have accurate and reliable information is to use data from the USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference or to go directly to the manufacturer for nutrition information for a specific ingredient.
3. Apps don’t account for cooking methods –
Other than the occasional salad or sandwich, the majority of restaurant meals involve some sort of preparation that has an impact on the final nutritional values of the meal. Calorie counter apps may not have the right product matches available, and the simplicity of their software likely doesn’t allow for any calculations. Companies that work with these types of calculations on a daily basis know the exact numbers to plug in based on the cooking conditions, and therefore the values generated are much more accurate.
4. Apps don’t let you make sub-recipes –
Scratch-cooking can mean better control of flavor, more cost-effective recipes and more impressed customers. However, it can also mean a big headache for someone trying to do an analysis on their smartphone. Many apps don’t come with the capability to utilize prep recipes. Rather, the restaurant may need to do some calculations to scale a big batch recipe down to a single serving. Calculations leave a lot of room for error, and can be extremely time-consuming.
5. Apps don’t give you the experience and knowledge of a professional team
Foodservice nutritional analysis is a complicated science. It combines culinary, nutrition and food science knowledge. Without the proper training and experience, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and not produce accurate values. Companies that specialize in foodservice nutrient analysis know the right product matches, calculations, and measurements needed to provide reliable nutritional values.
6. Apps require a big time commitment
Tracking a day’s worth of food on a calorie counter app can be done in a matter of minutes. But inputting ingredients, recipes, calculations and final plate builds for an entire menu can be an extremely long task, especially if the software being used wasn’t built with foodservice operators in mind. By outsourcing the task to a third party, the stress of the process is alleviated and the software and manpower from experienced nutritionists provide efficiency and speedy results.
7. Apps don’t offer insurance
Without the proper software and proper food science knowledge, it’s easy to commit errors during the nutritional analysis and present less-than-accurate values to the public. While most of these may go unnoticed, there’s always the possibility that a hawk-eyed consumer or nutrition watchdog group may decide to challenge those values, leading to possible legal action. Based on the insurance policy at the restaurant or other foodservice establishments, those errors may not be covered and turn into very costly mistakes. Professional third-party companies will have insurance policies against errors or omissions, which makes any challenges against data much more manageable for all parties involved.
8. Apps don’t store your information on a secure server
Imagine spending weeks or months conducting the nutritional analysis of you menu items, only to have the app that you’re using crash make you lose everything. Smartphone apps are not built for large data storage, and the possibility of something going wrong and losing data is always a risk. Outsourcing of your nutritional analysis means that the information is being stored on a reliable and secure server that was built for large numbers of recipes and reports.
9. Apps don’t offer allergens or gluten-free reports
Your nutritional analysis is done, your values are posted for your consumers, and you can start to breathe a little easier. Until they start asking for more information, that is. Where are your allergen charts? How do I know what’s gluten-free? With a standard calorie counter app, the ability to automate the allergen tracking process is likely impossible. When it’s done by hand, it can lead to serious errors which could land a food allergic diner in the hospital. Third-party services have software that can track ingredients from the first place it’s being used in the kitchen, up to the final plates being served to the guests. It’s quick, reliable, and a huge benefit for restaurants looking to cater to those with special dietary needs or provide additional transparency.
10. Apps don’t allow for flexibility in reporting
When a nutritional analysis is done on an app, you are at the mercy of the reports the developers have made available. They may only let you see calories, fat, carbohydrates, and protein. If they do let you see additional nutrients such as saturated fat, sodium and sugar, they likely won’t give you the per-ingredient breakdown to know where those nutrients are coming from in the recipe. Working with a company that has the software to create a host of reports based on the needs of the establishment provides a huge benefit. Recipes can be tweaked to meet nutrition goals, quantities used can be tracked to monitor food spending, and required nutrients and rounding rules to meet city, state, county or federal menu labeling rules are built in which means quicker turnaround and more accurate values.
Do you wonder if your nutritional labels are accurate? You should have no doubt in your mind. Contact us for access to our patented, award-winning, software to give you 100% accurate information.
