Seeing Food ClearlySeeing Food Clearly

“Clean label” and “transparency” are two on-trend terms that are already beginning to reshape how foodservice operators conduct business and interact with their customers — even though consumers themselves don't always agree on their exact definition.

Some individuals use the clean label term interchangeably with “natural” to mean simply that the food does not contain any preservatives or artificial additives. According to Technomic’s “Food Industry Transformation: The Next Decade” report, 82 percent of foodservice operators surveyed agreed that the clean label trend will have a great or moderate influence on purchase decisions in the future. The study also identified other concerns as well. Eighty-four percent of those operators polled m...