How to Craft a Sourcing and Transparency Story

Operators depend on distributors for support as they strategically strive to strengthen their brand by committing to ingredient transparency. After all, distributors have all the goods—including the information behind them. Elevated ingredient specifications are just the beginning. The real impact comes from sharing the story behind those ingredients, turning the operator’s ideals into a powerful marketing tool. By working together, culinary teams and distributors can assemble engaging stories that connect with customers and build lasting trust and loyalty. Here are a few methods.

Create a tagline

Develop a concise, resonating tagline that succinctly captures your refined commitment. Let it serve as the title of your mission or ingredient story. For example, Shake Shack boasts the slogan, “Stand For Something Good.” Its website defines this as “taking care of our team, sourcing premium ingredients from partners with the same dedication to quality…” 

Be sure to choose the most impactful ingredient ideals to build your catchphrase around. For instance, 1,000 consumers representing the general population were asked to weigh in on the most important claims when purchasing poultry at a restaurant. The top four were clean label (53%), no antibiotics ever (50%), humanely raised (40%), and raised in the USA (40%).¹ Highlighting these attributes in your messaging increases the likelihood of purchase. Seventy-six percent of surveyed consumers would be more likely to buy poultry promoted as clean label and no antibiotics ever. Meanwhile, 73% would likely purchase chicken or turkey products humanely raised, and 71% would likely purchase those products if raised in the USA. Additionally, 84% of diners in the study would return to a location they had avoided if premium poultry items were added to the menu.1

Shake Shack’s Stand For Something Good ethos translates into its chicken purchasing specs shared on its website: No added hormones, no antibiotics ever, vegetarian fed,  humanely raised.² 

Spotlight a “no-no” list

On the “values” section of its website, Chipotle prefaces its no-no list with the statement, “Real is better. Better for You, Better for People, Better for Our Planet.” It follows by boasting “No artificial flavors, colors or preservatives” and “No freezers, can openers or shortcuts.”

If it sounds negative to state what the menu doesn’t have compared to what it does have, consider that consumers care and are willing to pay more for what aligns with their views. Seventy-three percent of surveyed consumers indicate they would be willing to pay more for items that claim no antibiotics ever.¹

Distributors can help operators identify these products by making them searchable by claims. As a supplier, Perdue makes this easy by including the important claims in the title of its products. For example, operators who plan to add turkey for the approaching holidays can easily identify PERDUE® NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER Ready to Cook, Boneless, Skin-on Turkey Breast or PERDUE® NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER Ready to Cook, Uncured Turkey Bacon. Beyond the title, the descriptions of these two products point out a 100% Vegetarian Diet with No Animal By-products from turkeys hatched, raised and harvested in the USA. 

Revisit menu descriptions

Don’t bury the premium qualities on the website. Put them out in front in the menu description. Some operators do a form of this with easily identifiable icons such as vegetarian (V), vegan (VE), and gluten-free (GF). But to tell a story, you can go further. On its menu, Burgerfi describes its New Buffalo Chicken Sandwich as “hand-breaded, antibiotic-free chicken breast” and its Chicken Tenders as “all-natural, cage-free chicken breast tenders.” 

Elevation Burger’s menu says of its Crispy Chicken Sandwich, “our organic chicken breast tenders are coated in gluten-free breading…” 

Building a story with proper ingredient sourcing and transparency like this cultivates trust and loyalty. By working together, operators and distributors can leverage strategic messaging to showcase their commitment to quality, making a lasting impact on customers and ultimately the bottom line.

Sources

1. Perdue Proprietary Consumer Research, May 2022

2. Shake Shack, U.S. Animal Welfare Policy, 2024