Hospitality management

September 8, Hospitality Management Do restaurants have the responsibility to offer its s healthy menu items and reasonable portion sizes? Discuss the issues regarding this controversy – which comes first, profitability or good nutrition, for a restaurant company. One strongly believes that restaurants have the responsibility to offer its customers healthy menu items and in reasonable portion sizes. As service organization whose products being offered contribute directly to the health and nutritional status of its clients, restaurants have the obligation and responsibility to adhere to prescribed standards as defined by government agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as local state health organizations to ensure that the food that these restaurants would serve comply with the health and safety codes, among others. Concurrently, restaurants would not be made to operate without complying with the necessary work permits and licenses from the local health departments pertinent to abiding with specified food codes. Likewise, restaurants are also expected to abide by systems and procedures that ensure compliance to safety, cleanliness, limiting any potential hazards, especially with regards to the ingredients used in the food to be prepared and served to the customers. All of these requirements are prerequisites before restaurants are given permits to operate. Likewise, the state health representatives are expected to regularly monitor and inspect their premises and food that they serve to determine compliance to the noted standards and to determine if consistency in cleanliness, good customer service, use of right and nutritional ingredients, and appropriate adherence to serving sizes, are being observed. Therefore, in terms of responding to the alleged controversy regarding profitability or good nutrition, one strongly affirms that both are of equal importance. If good nutrition is not observed, the customers might file legal complaints when the ingredients that these restaurants use would jeopardize the customers’ overall health and well-being. Therefore, if there are significant amounts of customers’ complain, ultimately, local government agencies that monitor their performance could decide on closing their establishments, if these were not immediately and appropriately addressed. Thus, by not focusing on good nutrition, the financial success and performance of restaurants would surely be compromised. Concurrently, if the restaurants would focus on providing good nutrition, delicious food, exemplary customer service and compliance to the standards posed by local government agencies, these restaurants could be rewarded in terms of increased patronage of customers, good reviews, and high volume of customers to regularly seek and purchase their food products. All of these would eventually result to the generation of higher profits and financial success. Therefore, it is really not a matter of which comes first, profitability or good nutrition. It is a matter of prioritizing the need to adhere to stipulated food standards that adhere to safety, good nutrition, and using appropriate resources (equipment and supplies, nutritional ingredients, appropriate training to the personnel who serve and prepare the food), which would all, in turn, reverberate to the generation of profits, through customer satisfaction and continued patronage of the food and services that they offer. If one element is not duly taken into consideration, a customer complaint, or demotivated staff, could create bad publicity and potential risks in compromising the image of the restaurant; which would significantly affect their bottom-line.