As the years have gone on, more and more people are choosing to follow a vegan lifestyle. There is no wonder why. We are all becoming increasingly more aware of the moral issues that eating meat and consuming dairy has. This has been reflecting in our society and the drastic increase of people choosing to cut dairy and meat out of their lives. Though you may have noticed this among the general public, you may not have noticed that the catering industry is also cutting back on its use of dairy.
In recent years, restaurant owners have cut down on the use of dairy in their dishes for a number of reasons, but why exactly is this?
To keep up with society
As I have previously stated, many more people are choosing to have a dairy-free life. Because of this, the amount of dairy-free consumers that could potentially eat at a restaurant has drastically increased. Before now, most people with dairy-free lifestyles had no choice but to eat a salad or something not very appetizing. If restaurants were not to cater to their dairy-free customers, they may lose a lot of possible profit margins. After all, if a dairy-free person can only get tasteless food in a standard restaurant, why wouldn’t they just go to a restaurant that caters to their diet and produces delicious food.
Shelf life
As you may know, dairy has a lot of active bacteria in it which means that it can easily go out of date. I’m sure you have experienced this with milk that has gone out of date after a few days of buying it. Cutting out dairy means that chefs have less food to worry about in terms of its shelf life. Dairy alternatives can usually be used for a much longer time, which means less profit loss for the restaurant. It also means fewer regular stock updates are required.
Health reasons
Depending on your aims as a restaurant owner, you may have the desire to make food that poses to be less of a risk to your health. As I previously stated, dairy has a lot of active bacteria that could be bad, which usually means that someone who enjoys dairy may have to also take a lot of probiotic pills to combat any nasty bacteria. Cutting out dairy from the food that they serve means that restaurants can offer healthier alternatives to their customers, which may also encourage their customers to try and improve their own eating habits.
Inclusivity
As well as improving their own profits and maintaining the customers that they already have, a lot of restaurant owners are choosing to cut out dairy from meals in order to be more inclusive. Restaurant owners want nothing more than the chance to share their delicious food with the mass public and by making their food more accessible, they are doing so. This means more people will get the chance to try a chef’s dish and will increase the popularity of a restaurant.
