Navigating Nutritional Needs: Using eMenus to Cater to Dietary Restrictions

Restaurant owners are constantly searching for ways to enhance their customers' dining experience. Along with providing great food and flawless service, they also need to ensure safety and hygiene for their guests. However, nowadays, guests are well-informed and want to make informed choices, whether they are shopping or eating out. Today's customers often look for nutrition, allergen, and calorie information when ordering at restaurants.

As a responsible restaurateur, you must provide information regarding the ingredients. Specify calorie count and allergen information to cater to customers who have dietary restrictions such as lactose intolerance or nut allergies.

Paper menus are inefficient as they cannot provide detailed information regarding nutritional details. However, an iPad menu for restaurants can certainly cater to this need and enable restaurants to provide nutritional information. Let’s learn more about this.

Cater to dietary restrictions with a digital food menu:

Take advantage of digital menu custom properties:

A restaurant QR menu from eMenu comes with custom properties that allow a restaurateur to include essential allergen information. When describing an item, list all ingredients and indicate potential allergens. For example, if a dessert contains milk, mention that it includes lactose. Likewise, mention all other allergens and create a list under every dish and beverage. The customers can check out the list while ordering and avoid items they are allergic to.

You can also add a disclaimer and ask the customers to share their concerns and preferences as well.

Update ingredient information in real-time:

A restaurant's menu undergoes frequent changes. If a restaurant runs out of an ingredient, substitutes it with another one, or adds new ingredients to the menu; any changes to the menu should be promptly updated. A digital tablet menu can be updated in real time, unlike a paper menu. The customers will have access to updated information without worrying about outdated information. They can make informed decisions and get updated information about calories and allergens in your restaurant QR menu.

Create labels for special categories:

Along with providing allergen information, you must also create separate food labels for special categories such as dairy-free, vegetarian, and vegan. If your restaurant offers any such food items, you must highlight them separately by creating a separate category for them.

eMenu’s digital food menu contains “Advanced search” feature that allows customers find items they seek; create labels such as “Vegan”, so that if a customer types vegan food in the search bar, they will be directed to vegan food items, it will speed up the ordering process.

eMenu’s QR table ordering system comes with customized properties that allow you to create labels.

Here’s how one can go about it.

In this example, the dish on the menu is Black Truffle Tagliatelle. The recipe and ingredients are described crisply after the image of the dish. The labels applicable to this dish are:

D-Dairy G-Gluten V-Vegetarian

Below, different labels are mentioned:

D-Dairy
N-Nuts
G-Gluten V-Vegetarian F-Fish
S-Shellfish
Ve-Vegan

It is a simple yet highly effective way to inform your customers what the Black Truffle Tagliatelle contains. It is a vegetarian dish but contains gluten and dairy. The customer can check these labels and make informed decisions.

Share additional information on your digital menu:

Share the nutritional value of the dish on the iPad menu for restaurants. The customers are now more health conscious, and they are aware of the nutritional value of different ingredients. While ordering a portion of food, they will want to learn about the ingredients and also calorie count. eMenu’s digital tablet menu has customization features, so use special fonts or styles to highlight the star ingredients of a specific dish and also mention the calorie count. Use animated allergen icons if need be to draw customer attention.

eMenu’s interactive digital menu allows customers to add special instructions to their orders, which are then directly communicated to the kitchen.

In the example below:

The dish is “Kids Chicken”. Below the ingredients list, there is a ‘Special Instructions’ section where the parents can put instructions like:

• No Pepper / Sugar / Salt

The menu page ends with a consumer advisory regarding allergens and food intolerances, asking customers to seek assistance from restaurant staff.

What are the benefits of providing nutritional information?

It enhances credibility:

Being transparent about nutrition and allergens in your digital menu boosts brand credibility. The customers will appreciate the transparency, and they will trust you more. Guests will feel more confident choosing your place. Your establishment may have visitors with specific dietary requirements or intolerances.

Attract new customers:

Customers are now more health-conscious than ever, and they will love to eat at your place due to the transparency you provide. You can cater to these new-age customers who like to stay informed regarding the food they consume. By providing this data, you can also beat your competition.

Boost your restaurant's growth and be a responsible restaurateur by providing nutritional information on your digital tablet menu. Let your customers make informed choices as they order. Contact eMenu for guidance.