The Food and Drug Administration has created drafts of two new proposals concerning restaurants now being required to post nutritional information on their menus. The proposals affect chain restaurants, vending machines and many retail food locations. Restaurants can find out the information in the proposals, and if their location qualifies for the new requirements, by visiting regulations.gov.
The National Restaurant Association has released a statement regarding the proposed regulations from the FDA. The Association was supportive of the new proposals that explain how restaurants will have to implement nutritional labeling, saying that the laws were fair in giving restaurants adequate time to change their menus. The NRA is working with the FDA to ensure that they understand the challenges of instituting such as large change.
David Goronkin has been named as the new CEO of the Real Mex Restaurants chain. With over 25 years of experience in the restaurant industry and nearly 7 years in a CEO position of a restaurant chain, he is unique qualified to handle the challenges of the Real Mex brand. They are currently the largest casual Mexican dining chain with 178 locations.
Burger King locations in Latin America and the Carribbean will now exclusively serve PepsiCo products due to a new agreement signed between the two corporations. The fast food chain has over 1000 locations between the two areas in the Southern Hemisphere. Over 90% of these retail locations will serve only Pepsi brand soft drinks.
Dunkin’ Donuts is currently privately backed, but they may be making moves towards an IPO for later in the year. Current speculation says that the initial offering will be at least $500 million, and could be as high as $750 million. However, due to strict laws about IPOs, it won’t be known for sure until the actual release date.
While Ronald McDonald may have dropped out of McDonald’s advertising campaigns for a short while, he’s back in their new round of television commercials. To help encourage children to exercise, he is active in the new advertising campaign, playing games and demonstrating physical activity. The character will also urge children to visit the McDonald’s website to send video Ronaldgrams to their friends.
Carino’s Italian restaurant chain is celebrating their annual Pasta Harvest event with all-you-can-eat pasta and salad dishes, but this year is also a fundraising event for Autism Speaks and the Autism Society. The chain hopes to earn at least $50,000 for the two organizations by selling at least 50,000 unending pasta bowls during April. The event ends April 30th.
Straw Hat Pizza is a California pizza chain founded in 1959, and they ranked 185th this year in FranchiseHelp.com’s “2011 Franchises in Social Media Ranking: Franchises on Facebook” survey. This chain is using social media in new and interesting ways to grow business and promote. As part of being listed in the rankings the company also qualified to be on Entrepreneur Magazine’s list of top franchises.