Serve Up a Healthier Burger for National Burger Month

April 27, 2016
Trends

A classic comfort food, the burger is a go-to recipe for many Americans. Unfortunately, indulging in one too many burgers comes with the price of increased saturated fat, sodium and calorie intake. With May being National Burger Month, it’s prime time to help shoppers kick their old burger habits and adopt healthier alternatives that are even more flavorful. 

The Blend Meets Consumer and Retailer Needs

Promoting the Blenditarian lifestyle is an easy solution to help your shoppers eat more healthfully. It involves simply blending mushrooms with meat to make everyday dishes, like burgers, more healthful and delicious. By replacing a portion of meat with mushrooms, you can trim calories and fat, deliver a serving of vegetables, and add nutrients like B vitamins, vitamin D and antioxidants to the plate¹.  

As a supermarket dietitian, it can be challenging to create nutrition programming that caters to both the consumer and retailer. On one hand, you have an obligation to the shopper to promote solutions for healthy eating; on the other, you have a responsibility to your retailer to increase sales and improve ROI. The solution is finding programming that will satisfy both the consumer and the retailer, like the Blenditarian lifestyle. Supermarket dietitians who promote The Blend at retail see positive sales lifts in both mushrooms and meat. And with meat department sales on the decline², a positive sales lift in meat is music to a retailer’s ears. 

Make it a BYOB (Build Your Own Blend) Promo

The beauty of The Blend is that it’s totally customizable – any mushroom variety will work. White button mushrooms add delicate flavor and tend to pair better with chicken and pork, while darker mushrooms like cremini and portabella, lend a darker color and richer flavor to recipes calling for ground beef. For your adventurous shoppers, encourage trying maitake and shiitake to add a bold, woodsy flavor and meaty texture to the plate. Here are a few ways you can excite your shoppers to BYOB during National Burger Month:

1. Promote in the produce department byincluding Blend burger signage and recipe cards near the mushroom display. 
2. Pilot selling blended burgers as a ready-to-eat or ready-to-cook item inthe deli, meat, or prepared foods department. Retailers are already doing this with great success. 
3. Sample The Blend byfiring up Blended burger sliders at your next community event or in-store demo. 
4. Pitch your local news station to show their viewers how they can create a healthier burger. See our Retail Dietitian Toolkit for a sample pitch. 
5. Shout it out in ad circulars, magazines, on the blog and other social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. Let us know of any Blend related activities (demos, cooking classes, ads or programs) so we can share it with our board.

The Mushroom Council can help your chain launch and promote The Blend. EmailKara Lydon, RD at kara@karalydon.com or Steven Muro at Steven@fusion-mkgt.com to ask us how we can help! For more resources to promote mushrooms and The Blend at your retailer, visit www.MushroomsAtRetail.com. 

References:

1. Myrdal Miller, A., Mills, K., Wong, T., Drescher, G., Lee, S.M., Sirimuangmoon, C., Schaefer, S., Langstaff, S., Minor, B. and Guinard, J.-X. (2014), Flavor-Enhancing Properties of Mushrooms in Meat-Based Dishes in Which Sodium Has Been Reduced and Meat Has Been Partially Substituted with Mushrooms. Journal of Food Science, 79: S1795–S1804. 
2. Nielsen. Where’s the Beef? Why Consumers are Buying Less Fresh Meat. April 30, 2015.