THE FRENCH LAUNCH OF "NUTRIONAL BALANCE PROGRAMME", A WORLDWIDE PROGRAMME TO PROMOTE HEALTHY AND VARIED EATING
Accor Services, through its Ticket Restaurant® flagship product, and the UMIH (French Hotel and Restaurant Association) launches "Nutritional Balance" in France. This is a worldwide innovative programme that restaurants will relay to promote a healthy diet among their customers.
The aim of the programme is to help French people eat more balanced food in restaurants.
"We want to encourage restaurants in their wish to participate in an action that will contribute to the consumers' well being. The extent of our network, essential for supporting this programme, and our ability to reach millions of Ticket Restaurant® users, makes Accor Services a powerful vector for promoting a healthy diet," emphasized John Du Monceau, CEO of Accor Services.
This approach confirms the intention of UMIH to support restaurants in their search for simple ways to respond to the new expectations of their customers.
"UMIH has long worked with restaurants to make healthy eating a major plus of the catering profession. So we are in line with the objectives of this programme and count on providing the support necessary for a massive participation of restaurants." added André Daguin, Chairman of the UMIH.
A programme validated by experts relying on the shared commitment of those involved.
Accor Services, supported by the UMIH, is now launching a major campaign to raise awareness and membership in its Ticket Restaurant® affiliated partner network. It freely provides member establishments with all the informative material and signs necessary for preparing and identifying meals compliant with a healthy diet.
Accor Services:
• Distributes a commitment charter and a practical guide for restaurants to implement the programme. It contains the main nutritional principles shared and validated by a Committee of Experts. This committee chaired by Ambroise Martin, Professor of nutrition and biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine at Lyon, is comprised of nutritionists, and representatives of the catering sector.
• Has a dedicated website on line: www.alimentationetequilibre.com
Restaurant owners will find nutritional advice and guidance, ideas for balanced meals, interviews with experts, accounts shared with fellow professionals, etc.
Consumers will find the major principles and nutritional advice made available in the "Guide du consommateur" (Consumer's guide).
• Supplies restaurants that sign the charter with effective signs, established in co-operation with the UMIH to bring the programme to their clients (window stickers, adhesive labels, leaflets for customers).
• Follows up on the operation with the Committee of Experts.
The restaurants participating in the programme undertake to:
• Abide by the charter proposed by Accor Services and its Committee of Experts.
• Propose meals designed freely following the recommendations contained in the guide.
• Use the signs supplied by Accor Services, so that consumers can easily identify the participating restaurants and the meals concerned.
Gustino: A universal mascot to identify the programme
"Healthy Eating" is an easily identifiable programme that is simple to implement.
- For the logo, the "Nutritional Balance by Ticket Restaurant" slogan surrounds a tiny friendly character: Gustino, the programme's mascot.
- Daily companion of the restaurateur and the consumer, Gustino appears on adhesive stickers to identify any meal in a menu that respects the criteria of choice of food, cooking and composition that enables it to retain its nutritional qualities.
Mid-October 2005, 83 Ibis hotel restaurants in France are already using Gustino. The customers of "L'Estaminet", "La table" and the "Café", will find some of the meals of the menu in these restaurants identified by Gustino adhesive stickers. At the same time, the first independent restaurant owner to adhere to the programme, Alice Bardet, Point Bar (Paris, 1st municipal district) will display the colours of Gustino on her menu.
From January 2006, Ticket Restaurant® will begin a vast consumer communication campaign to promote its "Healthy Eating" programme with all those who use its restaurant vouchers. Next year, the programme will be tailored to all the countries in which Ticket Restaurant® is present. A first annual report will be made public during a seminar in Autumn 2006.
copyrights Serge Detalle, Pierre-Jean Rey