Wendy’s pulls Fresh Fruit Bowl, but survey indicates fast food restaurants remain committed to nutrition

Wendy’s recently pulled from its menu a fresh fruit bowl, but fast feeders are saying they remain committed to offering more nutritious options despite the challenges of selling perishable produce, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.

And fast-food customers are claiming that's what they want. A recent survey found not only that customers would like fast feeders to offer more healthful menu items, but that the availability of products like salads could help drive business.

"Because most QSR chains offer only a few healthful items, there is a fair amount of untapped potential to generate increased visitation and trial, even among young males, by offering more of these types of items," said Bob Sandelman, president of Sandelman & Associates, a San Clemente, Calif.-based foodservice market research firm.

However, the results of the Sandelman survey contradicted what Wendy's said it experienced. Officials for the Dublin, Ohio-based chain said lack of consumer interest was one of the main reasons why they took the mixed fruit medley off the menu last month.

The offering included an entrée-sized fruit bowl, priced around $4.19, and a smaller cup, priced around $2.19. The bowl and cup, which were launched nationwide in February with strong marketing support, featured seedless grapes, pineapple, cantaloupe and honeydew. The bowl also came with low-fat strawberry yogurt.

Although the nation's third-largest burger chain, which has more than 6,000 units, reported selling 1 million pounds a week of fruit one month after the introduction, sales had lagged in recent months.

The Wendy's fruit bowl may have been priced too high for customers, observers said. Entrée salads have been more successful than fruit for quick-service chains because customers use them as meals, Sandelman theorized.

According to the study Sandelman conducted called "Consumer Attitudes Toward Health and Nutrition at Fast-Food Restaurants," nearly one-third of all quick-service restaurant users remain "very concerned" about the nutritional content of fast food. More than one in three QSR users say they would visit one of their regular chains more often if it offered a greater number of healthful foods, and 68 percent say they would visit a chain they don't typically patronize if it offered a greater selection of healthful items. The research was conducted from July to September among a sample of 600 fast-food users.

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