A low-cholesterol menu in a steak restaurant.

Overview

A twelve-month pilot project was conducted to test public reaction to a special restaurant menu identifying food choices low in cholesterol and saturated fat. The Houston steak house in which the "Help Your Heart" menu was tested prepared foods according to guidelines from dietitians of the Diet Modification Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine. Two newspaper articles, a brief magazine feature, and regularly scheduled radio advertising spots publicized the special menu. At the end of each month of the test period, the number of orders from the special menu was tallied for fourteen randomly selected days. Monthly sales from the special menu ranged from 2.5 to 5.1 per cent, with an overall average of 3.4 per cent. There was no statistically significant change from the mean of the percentage of total sales from the special menu over the months. Despite the relatively low percentage of total sales, restaurant executives were pleased with the results of the study and planned to offer the low-cholesterol menu indefinitely, eventually in an expanded form.