Related: The 5 Worst 'Healthy' Fast-Food Meals for Kids
"I think it's meaningless, almost, now," Mark Crumpacker, the chief marketing officer of Chipotle, told Slate. "I don't think there are any rules around 'fresh.' You can just say it with impunity. And I think lots of people do."
"Fresh is a magic word in restaurant marketing today," says Aaron Allen of Global Restaurant Consulting.
"It conjures the most positive associations for consumers. Americans
are not yet ready to eat 'healthy,' but they will eat foods that are
perceived as 'healthful.' Foods that are fresh are implied to be more
healthful."
But the appropriation of the word "fresh" isn't new -- it's a trend that restaurant insiders identified years ago.
The prediction was on target. A
National Restaurant Association survey of 1,800 chefs found that on-site
gardens, locally grown produce, and locally sourced meats and seafoods
are three of the top 10 menu trends for 2013 and, for many diners,
"local" is another way to say "fresh."
"Fresh" also crops up in
descriptions of how food is prepared, where it's sourced, how long it's
been sitting on a counter. It's become a kind of code for "superior,"
and that can refer to the menu item, the company that's selling it, or
even the person who is buying it.
"In most ways, fresh has nothing
to do with food at all," writes S.T. VanAirsdale at Slate. "It's become a
convolution, tied up with manufactured images of authenticity,
transparency, and even morality-the fleeting ecstasy of doing what
consumers are persuaded to believe is the good, right thing."
Here you can watch a video - http://shine.yahoo.com/video/fast-food-fight-over-being-213700432.html
Text by Margaret Bristow , Shine.com
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