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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Taco Bell

Yum Brands to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions by ‘Nearly 50%’ by 2030

Restaurant operator Yum Brands announced today its plans to cut greenhouse gases 46 percent by 2030 in partnership with its franchisees, suppliers and producers. The company, which operates Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell, and the Habit Burger, also said today it plans to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

In a statement, Yum said it is “working closely” with its brands, franchisees, and suppliers on these goals, with a plan to focus on emission reductions at both corporate and franchise restaurants, as well as throughout its supply chain. 

Its restaurant brands have already kickstarted a few different initiatives that support its goal. Right now those include:

  • Investing in green buildings: KFC is investing in green buildings in Malaysia, South Africa, and the U.K., with “promising results.” For example, KFC reported 18 percent overall energy savings in Malaysia. 
  • Accelerating renewable energy: By the end of this year, Yum will transition 1,000 of its restaurants to renewable energy. The company has not yet specified which restaurants and where, though it has piloted renewable energy programs at KFC Australia in the past, and in 2020, it moved corporate offices in the U.S. to renewable energy.
  • Collaborating with climate-forward partners: Yum said it joined the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA), an alliance of large energy buyers, energy providers and service providers this year. 

Yum is just the latest high-profile restaurant company publicizing its sustainability goals. Back at the start of 2020, Starbucks announced its own plan to cut carbon emissions, water usage, and landfill waste in half by 2030. (The company is also trialing a reusable cup program in Seattle.) Chipotle just diverted 51 percent of its waste, according to the company’s latest sustainability report. It’s also tying sustainability goals to some executive compensation. Dunkin’, meanwhile, introduced food waste and composting programs in March of this year.

The sheer reach of Yum’s restaurant brands — over 50,000 restaurants in more than 150 countries and territories — means its efforts could have significant influence on the restaurant industry as a whole as sustainability becomes a more urgent priority to address.

Taco Bell Will Expand To-Go Centric Concepts for Future Stores

Taco Bell today became the latest QSR brand to unveil plans for digital-centric store formats that emphasize off-premises meal formats like takeout, curbside pickup, and delivery, according to a press release sent to The Spoon.

The biggest forthcoming development for Taco Bell store design is a major expansion of the brand’s Go Mobile concept, which launched last year. Go Mobile stores feature things like multiple drive-thru lanes, “bellhops” for curbside pickup orders, and minimal space for dining in. The concept, unveiled last summer, when cases of COVID-19 were high in the U.S., seems a direct response to the restaurant industry’s seismic shift towards both digital ordering and off-premises meals. “While the brand will continue building destination restaurants, it will simultaneously prioritize digital elements to maximize efficiency for on-the-go customers,” the company said in today’s press release.

Besides GoMobile, Taco Bell also cited a kiosk-only concept set to open in Manhattan, as well as new iterations of its drive-thru Cantina. In 2020, Taco Bell merged its traditional drive-thru concept with its Cantina concept at a location in Danville, California run by Taco Bell franchisee Diversified Restaurant Group. The restaurant offers the full Taco Bell menu along with a full bar for dine-in customers (when they can actually dine in), an outdoor fire pit, and a games area. More such locations are planned for the future.

Revamping store formats has been one of the major trends to come out of the last year for QSRs. From Burger King to McDonald’s to Sonic, there are many different iterations on the concept of retrofitting the QSR for the pandemic era. All share some common denominators, including more curbside pickup, less dining room space, and lots and lots of drive-thru lanes.

Taco Bell is no exception to this, as the above concepts underscore. The company did not provide any specific timeframes for these developments, saying only that it plans to have a total of 10,000 locations — including old and new — open globally in this decade.

Taco Bell Issued NFTs for Digital Taco Art

Taco Bell jumped aboard the NFT bandwagon this week, releasing five pieces of “limited” digital art on the blockchain.

A quick primer for those unfamiliar with the latest fad sweeping the internet. NFT stands for non-fungible token, and it uses blockchain technology to create scarcity and authenticity for specific digital items. NFTs have generated a lot of headlines and hype over the past few weeks. Musician Grimes made $5.8 million selling digital art, but that number was dwarfed this week when artist Beeple sold a piece of digital art for $69 million at auction.

This is a food tech blog, so we won’t spend much time going into whether spending money on literally nothing is a solid investment or not. But we can say that Taco Bell is the first food brand we’ve encountered trying to ride the coattails of the NFT hype machine.

Taco Bell announced its NFT art sale on March 7 with the following tweet:

The art was sold on the Rarible marketplace, and according to The Verge, the 25 tokens it put up were sold within a half hour. The good news is that this wasn’t strictly a cash grab. According to Taco Bell’s listing on Rarible, “100% of the profits earned from this sale will be donated to Taco Bell Foundation, Inc. to empower youth to discover and pursue their career and educational pathways.”

Will we see more restaurant brands jump into the NFT game? Probably depends on how long this particular fad lasts. A lot of attention is being paid to this nascent NFT space right now, but as more players — especially big corporate brands — get in on the action, that is usually when the public sours on a trend.

But who knows? Maybe we’ll see Impossible Foods release some Heme-based digital art NFTs sometime soon.

Contactless: ‘Easier Said Than Done’

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Achieving a contactless restaurant experience when it comes to the drive-thru lane is easier said than done, according to QSR Magazine’s 2020 Drive-Thru Study, released today in partnership with SeeLevelHX.

Every year, QSR Magazine’s study looks at various aspects of drive-thru performance, from speed of service to order accuracy to the effectiveness of digital menu boards. This year’s study includes all of those things as well as some elements that wouldn’t have made it in there if not for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The so-called contactless restaurant experience is one of them. If you follow the restaurant biz or are a regular reader of The Spoon, you’ll know that restaurant tech companies large and small have lately been championing software that enables contactless ordering and payments. Instead of a customer and staffer passing a credit card back and forth, guests order and pay from their own mobile phones. 

That goes some distance in keeping unwanted germs at bay, but as we’ve said before, there’s no such thing as a truly contactless restaurant experience right now. And as QSR’s data suggests, there’s no such thing as a truly contactless drive-thru, either. 

The survey found that 80.1 percent of all drive-thru orders were handed to the customer directly by the employee. In 16.4 percent of the cases surveyed, the order was placed on a tray. Rounding out the math, 1.3 percent of orders were placed on a window, and 2.2 percent were labeled “other.” Use your imagination. 

QSR’s survey found that 78.1 percent of employees wear gloves at the drive-thru window, while 91.3 percent wear masks. But the survey’s basic conclusion to all of this is that contactless “proves easier said than done” when it comes to the drive-thru lane.

Unlike a physical restaurant space that can be altered to make room for pickup shelves or lockers, there’s not much in the way of architectural adjustments a drive-thru window can absorb that would make much sense. And actually, one could argue that too many alterations done in the name of contactless service would just confuse things, slow down service, and impair order accuracy. 

If the restaurant industry wants a truly contactless drive-thru experience, it’s going to have to do some major overhauling when it comes to the design of the drive-thru process. Burger King hinted at this a while back with its new restaurant prototype that includes a conveyor belt system for retrieving food and a good deal of re-architecting of the physical store layout, among other things. That’s the first of what will likely be dozens more examples over the next year of what the drive-thru of the future will look like. As to whether the industry can ever achieve one that’s truly contactless, stay tuned.

Device of the Week: TableYeti’s Virtual Tip Jar

Besides having the best company name I’ve heard of in a while, hospitality payments company TableYeti also makes a virtual tip jar product called the “Tap to Tip BOX.” The device, which is powered by TIPJAR’s software, can be mounted to a wall, placed on a countertop or stationed at any other location in a bar or restaurant that’s highly visible to customers. 

On its website, UK-based TableYeti says the BOX is meant to replace TRONC, which is the tipping pool system used in many bars, cafes, and restaurants around the country. Essentially it’s the digital version of the big jar of cash you’ll find next to many cash registers at eating and drinking establishments. Instead of dropping a few bills into the jar, you tap a credit card.

It’s a compelling product in this day and age when so much of the restaurant biz is going digital. It also comes at a time when the concept of a virtual tip jar is a little more widely known, thanks to various efforts to help restaurant industry workers during the height of lockdown. TableYeti’s product joins multiple other iterations of this idea, not just in the U.K. but all over the world.

TableYeti’s BOX is only available to U.K. businesses at the moment, though a U.S. equivalent is bound to surface at some point in the near future as restaurants get further digitized and cash gets increasingly less popular.

More Restaurant News

Food ordering platform Olo this week launched Serve, a revamped version of its ordering platform restaurants can use to consolidate order flows and manage their digital storefronts. The redesigned platform, which Olo says enables faster ordering and checkout and higher conversion rates, is available to all restaurant customers using the Olo platform.

Fast-casual chain Fazoli’s put something of a twist on the dark kitchen/virtual restaurant concept this week. The chain had been using some of its restaurants as dark kitchens to test a delivery-only chicken wing product. Said product has proven to be so popular Fazoli’s said this week it will now go on the chain’s regular brick-and-mortar menu. Which just goes to show you that the definitions of “ghost kitchen” and “dark kitchen” continue to evolve.

Taco Bell just launched the “Taco Gifter” on its website and mobile app that lets users, uh, gift tacos to one another. Pick an item, pay for it, and T. Bell will generate a unique URL the recipient can use to retrieve the order. Somehow I suspect this will be popular with those who need last-minute gift ideas for the holidays.

Drive-Thru Times Are almost 30 Seconds Slower in 2020

Around this time last year, we asked whether tech could help drive-thru wait times, which have steadily grown longer over the last couple decades. Tech certainly tried to help this year, as evidenced by the endless updates from QSRs on their new drive-thru innovations. But as QSR Magazine’s just released 2020 Drive-Thru Study shows, wait times are actually longer this year than last.

While service time — that is, the time it takes between placing an order and retrieving it — was actually a little faster in 2020 (238.1 seconds compared to 255 seconds in 2019), total wait time in the drive-thru lane is up. Total times across all brands were 29.8 seconds slower than last year. As today’s press release summarizing the report notes, “slower wait times in 2020 increased the overall total times down, equating to a substantial loss in revenue opportunities with a typical brand losing up to $64,182,668 annually per 2,000 stores.”

In many ways, the longer wait time are to be expected. We are, after all, in the midst of a pandemic that has turned the restaurant industry on its head and more or less forced businesses to go off-premises. That in turn translates to more folks in line at the drive-thru, not to mention more operational pieces to juggle as restaurants adopt  new safety protocols and technologies.

Even so, three QSRs surveyed for the study bucked this trend of slower wait times: KFC, Taco Bell, and Hardee’s improved their wait times this year, clocking in under the average time of 356.8 seconds. (Carl’s Jr. and Burger King also squeaked by beneath the average.)

KFC’s leading spot in the drive-thru realm makes sense when you consider its existing efforts around the drive-thru. The chain launched an in-house digital ordering system last year and is said to be testing automation technology and drive-thru-only concept stores. Taco Bell has also been giving its business a tech-forward facelift of late, including new tech and formatting for its drive-thru lanes.

QSR’s report noted that “COVID-19 is here to stay,” though that statement seems less about the actual illness and more about the world it’s created. Where restaurants are concerned, that means speed of service, shorter wait times, more consistent order accuracy are critical priorities for chains to get right as more of the biz goes off-premises. 

Taco Bell Unveils New ‘Go Mobile’ Restaurant Concept

Two big trends are a foot in the world of quick-service restaurants: orders going off-premises and major chains redesigning their store formats to better meet that demand. Taco Bell is the latest major QSR player to respond to these trends. Today, the chain announced a new restaurant concept, “Go Mobile,” that emphasizes the role of digital in the restaurant experience.

Speaking in today’s press release, Taco Bell President and Global COO Mike Grams called the new format “a completely synchronized digital experience centered around streamlining guest access points.” 

To that end, the new store format includes two drive-thru lanes, with one dedicated to customers that order via the Taco Bell mobile app. New technology integrated into the app will detect when customers arrive to pick up their order and direct them as to where they can retrieve the food. (Sidenote: the tech sounds like geofencing a la Panera, but Taco Bell’s press release did not use the term.) Go Mobile will also feature curbside pickup and “bellhops,” who will take orders via tablet in the drive-thru lane and at curbside. 

Taco Bell also notes that this new store format will be physically smaller than its normal brick-and-mortar locations, which makes sense, given the reduced dining room capacity under which restaurant operate these days. 

Other QSRs have made similar moves in the last few months. Starbucks is reformatting many of its traditional cafes to act as to-go-focused locations. Chipotle, a brand not historically known for drive-thru service, is all-in on its Chipotlanes. Shake Shack is also revamping its focus to include more drive-thrus and digital-forward experiences. Even Domino’s, which has always been an off-premises business, is revamping its format to include more curbside pickup.

Taco Bell’s first Go Mobile store is set to open in the first quarter of 2021.

Takeout, delivery, and curbside pickup are still the main formats through which these big brands can reach customers at the moment. With dining rooms still operating at reduced capacity and the future of full-service restaurants still very much uncertain, we will see more QSRs rethinking their brick-and-mortar locations to fit the off-premises style that’s become, for better or worse, the new restaurant experience. 

Week in Restaurants: A Classic SoCal Diner Goes Off-Premises, Dom’s Still Checking Pizzas

Why are you reading this and not grilling up a delicious Beyond Burger this holiday weekend?

As long as you’re here, let’s take a quick look at the week in restaurants. And what a week it was. With states halting the reopening of dining rooms, it’s clear the effects of the pandemic are far from over in the restaurant industry. Yet business keeps on, and there were a number of noteworthy developments from this week around ghost kitchens, AI pizza checkers, and the greatest diner of all time.

New NORMS

NORMS, a much-loved diner chain in Southern California, this week debuted NORMS Junior, a new store prototype geared towards to-go orders. The company says NORMS Junior will be the model for future NORMS locations — no surprise, given the pandemic’s effect on dining rooms (see above). NRN has some great slides of what this new NORMS will look like.

Next Stop for Wingstop: Ghost Kitchens

Also riding the off-premises wave strong is fast-casual chain Wingstop, who this week opened its first ghost kitchen in its hometown of Dallas, TX. The new facility is less than 400 square feet and is for delivery-only orders. Wingstop says one of its goals is to digitize 100 percent of its transactions. A delivery-only ghost kitchen will aid in that.

Taco Bell Redoes Digital Rewards

Simply dubbed Taco Bell Rewards, the new app-based loyalty program comes five years after the band’s original rewards program. Apparently the idea of a new loyalty app was so popular it sent Taco Bell traffic through the roof and temporarily crashed the site. To access the new rewards program, customers can download the latest version of the Taco Bell app, which includes a beta version of Taco Bell Rewards.

AI Will Continue Checking Your Pizzas

Domino’s and Dragontail Systems said this week they will continue their partnership, which puts Dragontail’s AI tech in Domino’s restaurants to ensure quality. The smart scanner uses advanced machine learning, artificial intelligence, and sensor technology to check the quality of pies before the go out for delivery. (Dragontail’s tech can also be used to ensure proper sanitization in restaurants.) The continuation of the partnership means more of these pizza scanners across more Domino’s locations. So far, the partnership between the two companies has been limited to Domino’s locations Australia. They have not yet said if this extended partnership will bring the technology to stores elsewhere in the world.

Sweetgreen, Taco Bell Using Their Off-Premises Muscle to Feed Hospital Workers Fighting COVID-19

Sweetgreen today announced the launch of its Sweetgreen Impact Outpost Fund, a partnership with José Andrés’ World Kitchen Center (WCK) that aims to get more food to front-line medical workers in hospitals, according to a company press release. 

The new fund comes just on the heels of Sweetgreen’s Impact Outpost program, which launched two weeks ago to get free Sweetgreen meals to hospital workers and medical personnel. Outpost is Sweetgreen’s delivery-catering hybrid service that operates portable drop-off sites for deliveries. Up to now, Outpost has been seen more commonly in corporate offices.

The Impact Outpost program places these drop-off stations in hospitals. After launching the program, Sweetgreen received a ton of feedback from both large corporations and individual customers wanting to support it through donations. The new partnership with Andrés’ non-profit is a way to provide this as well as increase the number of hospitals receiving meals from Sweetgreen.

From the press release:

“Through the fund, corporations, sponsors and customers are able to join sweetgreen and WCK’s efforts to feed more front-line medical personnel working in hospitals, while also helping fund new Outposts in relief sites, including schools, senior centers and in vulnerable and high-risk communities.”

You can donate directly to on the fund’s website, and even make a donation in memory or honor of someone. The site notes that this fund will remain open “for as long as needed,” and that right now, the goal is to deliver at least 100,000 meals to workers. 

Sweetgreen is one of several notable restaurant brands now using their established off-premises platforms to deliver food to frontline workers. Also this week, Just Salad announced a partnership with Mount Sinai to deliver 10,000 meals per week across seven hospitals in NYC boroughs Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.

Taco Bell has turned its Taco Trucks, which are food truck versions of the QSR, into mobile commissary kitchens that bring food to frontline workers. “While most of our restaurants are operating only through the drive-thru, this leaves some truck and ambulance drivers unable to quickly order from us,” company CEO Mark King said in a letter. He added that the chain is working with its franchisees to make this service available “where possible.”

Finally, Chipotle, another QSR with a booming digital business, is giving away free burrito boxes to healthcare facilities. The boxes come with 25–50 burritos, depending on how many are needed, and will be delivered between April 6 and April 10. DoorDash, with whom Chipotle has an ongoing delivery partnership, will handle the last-mile fulfillment of the orders.

There are bound to be plenty more restaurant brands using their existing digital and delivery strategies to more easily and efficiently get meals to workers while the pandemic lasts. And judging from the latest news, that could be a while. Stay tuned.

Newsletter: COVID-19 Could Help Us Build a Better Restaurant

Welcome to the first-ever Weekly Spoon newsletter that’s entirely focused on restaurant innovation. That we chose to launch this just as a pandemic is sweeping across the globe is entirely intentional. Of all the food tech sectors out there, none has been hit so hard or will change — forever — as drastically as the restaurant biz.

With that in mind, let’s kick this thing off by not rehashing the gloomy stuff. Instead, let’s highlight some ways in which the current restaurant business meltdown is spurring a ton of initiatives that could make a better overall industry in the long term — if we let it.

The Virtual Tip Jar Will Stick Around

As anyone whose ever waited tables, tended bar, or delivered pizzas knows, tips are an important portion of workers’ incomes. With most bars and dining rooms closed right now, an astounding number of what are basically virtual tip jars have popped up online. We first got wind of this last week, when we came across a site called chatt.us that lets at-home drinkers leave tips for service workers in Chattanooga, Tenn. via Venmo or CashApp. 

A little more digging uncovered more of these virtual tip jars in, well, pretty much every state from Maryland to Idaho. One site in particular, serviceindustry.tips, lets you choose specific cities from a list and direct your funds to workers in that area from a very user-friendly web interface. Others are simple spreadsheet interfaces, though no less popular from the number of entries on some of them.

While these virtual tip jars can’t make up for the lost wages and job layoffs many restaurant workers now face, they could at least provide some aid to those currently struggling.

They could also be a valuable tool for the restaurant industry even when dining rooms re-open. As one restaurant owner explained to me recently, in-house staff prepping the off-premises orders don’t see any of the tips left through third-party ordering platforms. A virtual tip jar could be a way for customers who wanted to hand over a little extra to tip those employees for their work. There are also well-documented issues around tipping delivery drivers in general. Since fewer folks seem to carry cash these days, a virtual tip jar could be a way to bypass that aspect of the platform, thereby making sure it’s the worker who gets the tip — not the tech companies.

Ditto for Contactless Delivery and Payments

Three months ago “contactless delivery” wasn’t even a phrase, at least not in the vernacular sense. In an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus worldwide, what started in China (see above image, courtesy of Yum China) has now quickly caught on. All the major delivery platforms as well as grocery sites like Instacart and individual restaurant chains now either use contactless delivery as the default option or make it clearly available through their apps.

I doubt we’ll revert back to the old method once this horror show is over.

At their most basic, contactless delivery methods as well as contactless payments are just more hygienic. Fewer germs can spread when cash and cards aren’t being handed back and forth over a counter, or when customers and their delivery couriers stand a certain distance apart during a drop-off. I doubt I’m the only person who’s ever ordered delivery while having bronchitis. Contactless delivery would go far in protecting workers — many of whom do not get paid sick leave — from illnesses their customers might be carrying while they’re stuck at home. Vice versa, too.

And if this look into China’s (sort of) newly reopened restaurant scene is anything for the rest of the world to go by, mobile payments will see a boost, too. More customers will be using apps like Apple Pay, CashApp, and Google Pay to avoid constantly handing over a credit card.

Simpler Menus Will Beget Better Service

“Pare down your menu” is a directive I’ve been hearing a lot as restaurants quickly pivot to serving customers through takeout and delivery channels. That means offering only the items that are easy to produce, will travel well, and are ones that customers actually want. 

That’s not breakfast, at least not right now. In a statement this week, McDonald’s announced it was temporarily pulling breakfast items from its menu and will focus on serving its most popular items. Taco Bell also nixed breakfast items for now. More chains are likely to follow.

Of course, these moves are in response to the potentially billions of dollars the restaurant industry will lose over the next few months. I suspect, however, that slimmed down menus could actually improve certain aspects of the restaurant industry, particularly where tech is concerned. Have you ever tried to navigate a Taco Bell self-service kiosk? Finding Waldo inside Google Maps was an arguably easier task.

Smaller menus could also speed up times in the drive-thru, improve AI-powered upsell recommendations, and use fewer ingredients overall, thereby reducing food waste.

In no way am I suggesting that menus need to look like this one from 1973. And who knows? Breakfast and Monster Tacos might go back on the menu at some point. But maybe this strange, unsettling shift in which we now find ourselves can show us that simpler menus leads to better experiences for everyone involved.

Keep on truckin’,

Jenn

Taco Bell to Give Its Stores a ‘Tech-Forward’ Facelift, Launches Veggie Mode for Kiosks

Like many quick-service and fast-casual chains these days, Taco Bell is responding to the demand for digital and off-premises orders in part by revamping its physical locations. Case in point: Today, the chain unveiled plans to build out new stores under its Cantina concept as well as convert some traditional Taco Bell locations into Cantinas. 

The Cantina is Taco Bell’s somewhat more upscale concept the chain has opened around urban areas over the last few years. To be clear: the Cantina format is still quick-service, just a higher-end version that often features alcohol and includes new technologies like self-order kiosks and digital menu boards.

The company said today it will open its “most technology-forward Taco Bell”  in fall of 2020 in NYC’s Times Square. The press release is vague on details, however, stating only that “the upcoming New York Cantina will utilize new digital features that not only allows for a smooth ordering experience but showcases digital moments throughout the restaurant like never before.”

I’m intrigued as to whether “technology-forward” means the new Times Square store will simply have more of the brand’s existing restaurant tech or if Taco Bell has something up its sleeve it hasn’t yet revealed to the general public. After all, in-store kiosks, mobile order capabilities, pickup shelves, and digital boards are fast becoming the standard not just in Taco Bell locations but across most major QSRs.

Whatever it means, Taco Bell is clearly trying to go after a new audience with the store format that in some ways feels like the Sweetgreen of traditional fast food.

Taco Bell will also convert three of its traditional restaurants into Cantinas to test the concept in more suburban areas. After a period of evaluation, Taco Bell will expand the Cantina concept to other traditional locations.  

Taco Bell has in the meantime also announced a new feature for its self-order kiosks called Veggie Mode. According to an email sent to The Spoon, the function is essentially a way for users to filter menu options so they don’t see any meat-based meals among their selections. Users simply slide a button on the kiosk’s touchscreen to activate Veggie Mode. 

The new features is part of Taco Bell’s ongoing push to appeal to vegetarians or those simply wanting to cut down on the amount of meat they consume. The Veggie Mode feature will be available starting March 12 at Taco Bell kiosks across the U.S., and presumably included in the ones that launch with the new and revamped stores the chain has planned for 2020.

Food Tech News: Taco Bell Goes Plant-Based, plus GIF Peanut Butter

Greetings from New York City, where we’re recovering from the whirlwind of Customize, our first-ever food personalization summit. We’ll have videos of our sessions — including a case study with Kroger Health and a deep-dive into microbiome-based nutrition — coming your way over the next few days.

But until then, we’ve rounded up a few cool food tech bits for your perusing pleasure. This week we’ve got stories on Taco Bell’s plant-based plans, a new device to detect deadly mushroom toxins, and a GIF-based campaign from J.M. Smucker. Enjoy!

Peanut butter pronunciation: Jif vs. GIF
J.M. Smucker has teamed up with GIF search engine GIPHY to create a co-promotion around, of all things, peanut butter. According to the computer scientist who devoped it, the GIF is pronounced with a soft G, like the popular peanut butter brand. However, to assert its name independence and stir up some media publicity, this week J.M. Smucker sold 2,000 peanut butter jars with a label that reads “GIF,” with an implied hard “g” sound (h/t Wall Street Journal). To no one’s surprise, peanut butter-y gifs (jifs?) ensueD.

Taco Bell will add plant-based meat by 2020
Looks like Taco Bell will soon live mas plant-based. This week, the QSRs CEO Mark King told Nation’s Restaurant News that the fast-food chain would “definitely do something with plant-based protein and probably by the end of the year.” Which brand will grace its tacos and chalupas? TBD — King said that the company has met with both Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods but hasn’t declared a partner yet.

New device can detect deadly mushroom toxins
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have developed a test strip that can determine whether or not a wild mushroom is poisonous, according to The Counter. Within 10 minutes of exposure to the mushroom (or urine of someone who has consumed the fungi), the strip can detect if dangerous amatoxins are present. Scientists hope that this strip can help foragers (and their dogs) avoid poisoning from deadly species like so-called “death caps” and “destroying angels.”

Taco Bell Outlines Plans to Make Consumer-facing Packaging Sustainable by 2025

Taco Bell announced this week its goal to make all consumer-facing packaging — cups, wrappers, etc. — recyclable, compostable, or reusable by 2025, according to a press release. 

This pledge applies to all materials that come into contact with consumers when they order food, from taco wrappers to cups to those $5 Cravings boxes. While the press release doesn’t delve too far into what materials might be used to make some of these items more sustainable, it does note that PFAS, Phthalates and BPA — chemicals associated with health problems like cancer and thyroid disease — will be removed from all consumer-facing packaging. 

The chain will also install recycling and composting bins in locations “where infrastructure permits,” meaning any city that supports those waste streams. 

In an interview with Fast Company, Missy Schaaphok, Taco Bell’s global nutrition and sustainability manager, offered some hints as to what future packaging might look like. That includes things like food baskets for dine-in customers and compostable or paper straws “in places that legally require them.”

Taco Bell already has some sustainability initiatives in place. It introduced recyclable cups and lids for cold drinks in in early 2019, and as Schaaphok told Fast Company, “a good portion of [the chain’s] packaging today is already recyclable or compostable.”

That’s all well and good, but a major challenge for QSRs nowadays is convincing customers to dispose of recyclable and compostable materials properly instead of just chucking them in the garbage. In some states, this will be easier. California, for example, passed AB 827 last year, a law that requires limited-service restaurants to make recycling and composting bins available, as well as provide signage to guide customers as to which items go in which bins.

Getting customers to actually recycle and compost their waste is not a Taco Bell-specific issue. As The Spoon contributor Stephen J. Bronner pointed out in a post this week, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Subway, and others have all pledged sustainability initiatives. Many of them are around packaging. All of them will have to contend with how to best communicate the importance of sustainability to the consumer.

For QSRs, who have always relied heavily on disposable packaging for both in-house and to-go orders, making the “reduce, reuse, recycle” concept easy for customers will become paramount in terms of actually keeping trash out of the landfills.