From the Farm to Your Menu: Consumers Care About Sourcing
February 2018
For today’s diners, nutritional benefits are only part of what makes up a healthy diet. Whether consumers are at the grocery store or in a restaurant, they want to know details about the food they’re buying. They want to know how the animals were raised. They want to know the types of fruits and vegetables they’re eating and where they were grown. Sharing the whole story behind the ingredients you use can help build trust with diners, turning them into advocates for your food and your brand.
Diners are seeking locally and regionally sourced ingredients on menus—68% say they’re more likely to choose a restaurant that features local food items than one that doesn’t. Local produce can taste fresher, and when chefs adopt a local-only approach to fruit and veggie ingredients, their menus will often change with the seasons. This gives diners something to look forward to as they enjoy new menu specials based on the local harvest.
When it comes to protein ingredients, it’s important for chefs to use quality sources they know and trust. No matter where they’re purchasing meat, poultry and seafood, traceability is key. That’s because consumers are becoming increasingly interested in sustainable farming practices, humane animal treatment and how products move through the supply chain.
Butterball’s commitment to our animals’ health and well-being begins on the farm. Together with our farmers, we work to ensure our flocks’ welfare, and all our products bear the American Humane Certified™ seal. We’ve also pledged to use antibiotics responsibly, eliminating any labeled as growth promotants. We have reduced by half the use of antibiotics and intend to make further reductions in the coming years.
As the world’s largest vertically integrated turkey processor, Butterball ensures quality and traceability through every step of the process. It applies to our feed mills, hatcheries, farms and processing facilities. All along, we hold our practices to a strict set of standards.
To give chefs and their diners more options for turkey, we also offer a line of no-antibiotics-ever, all-natural turkey products, raised on local family-owned farms and fed an all-vegetarian diet. Butterball products labeled as no antibiotics ever (NAE) mean just that. From the egg to the day of hatch to processing, these birds receive absolutely no antibiotics of any kind, as long as they remain healthy. We comply with a process the USDA has reviewed and approved.
Learn more about our stance on antibiotics and our responsibility—the ways we make sure Butterball customers are serving products they can be proud of.
SOURCES
Staniforth, Jesse. Transparency: The Must-Have Ingredient for Food Companies, April 2017.
Demand for local food on the rise, National Restaurant Association, March 2016.
