It’s been a well-known secret for years: Food companies are making smaller portions but raising the price, and some chains are even confessing to the practice.
The United States has long been known for its large portions, but with inflation tightening pockets and the ongoing fight against obesity – with the United States ranking in the top 20 countries in the world – some restaurants are skimping on meals.
Restaurants like Chipotle have recently come under fire for their frugal portions, causing customers to resort to tactics like filming employees and using male names instead of female names in hopes of getting a larger meal.
And the frustration won’t stop anytime soon, as several places are redefining their ever-shrinking portions as “low-calorie balanced meals,” or using smaller plates or portions to trick customers (like some Burger Kings that stopped eating 10 servings). chicken nugget pieces until you get eight pieces.
“We are preparing to prepare,” said Chip Wade, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group. The New York Times on the restaurant industry preparing to reevaluate portion sizes.
Surprisingly, most Americans actually want smaller meals, but they want the price to match the portions.
The United States has always been known for its large portions, but with inflation tightening pockets and the ongoing fight against obesity—with the United States ranking in the top 20 countries in the world—some restaurants are skimping on meals, like Chipotle (in the photo).
Restaurants like Chipotle have recently come under fire for their frugal portions, prompting customers to film employees and use masculine names in hopes of getting a larger meal.
Seventy-five percent of customers surveyed by the National Restaurant Association in 2024 they said they preferred a smaller meal for a lower price.
The biggest draws for some restaurant chains right now are deals like Panera’s You Pick 2, where customers get a small discount on each item by bundling them, and Subway’s $3 hot wraps, which lean on the love of customers. younger people for snacks instead of large meals. .
Georgetown University’s Portion Balance Coalition, part of its business school, began a year-long study this month to try to figure out how restaurants can offer smaller meals but without upsetting value-conscious customers. .
The coalition hopes to see at least 10 high-volume chains join in, such as Chick-fil-A and Panda Express.
With inflation greatly affecting food prices, restaurants are feeling the financial strain. If we add to this that around 40 percent of the food served is thrown away, according to a study study 2020and leaves restaurants trying to find a middle ground that doesn’t anger customers but allows them to reduce waste.
Food waste costs American restaurants billions a year, according to the International Journal of Applied Management & Technology.
California, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont and Massachusetts have already tried to limit food waste by restricting how much can end up in landfills, but a science study found them to be ineffective in managing the problem.
With an increasing number of Americans using drugs like Ozempic to curb their appetite, even more food is wasted as customers struggle to finish their meals.
And trends like Girl Dinner (a popular social media fad over the summer in which young women showed off their mismatched plates full of random foods to prepare a meal) show that some Americans just aren’t that interested in eating a full meal. and well balanced. .
“When it comes to quantity, it’s the right size for me or my needs right now,” Shelley Balanko, senior vice president at Hartman Group, said of the snacking trend.
The Hartman Group found that half of what an American eats in a day can be considered a snack.
The biggest draws for some restaurant chains right now are deals like Panera’s You Pick 2, where customers receive a small discount on each item and offer smaller portions of items, as a large majority of Americans want smaller meals at cheaper prices.
Faced with the growing need to combat food waste and meet customer desires for smaller portions, some chains, such as Panera, are offering half-size portions.
ReFED President Dana Gunders, whose company is part of the Georgetown study, told The New York Times that customers can typically “customize everything about my order except the size.”
“People want this option and they don’t get it,” he said.
For years, people have ordered things from the kids’ menu or split meals between multiple people, or even taken leftovers home for tomorrow as a result of the incredibly large portions.
Abby Fammartino, who works for the Culinary Institute of America and is also part of the Georgetown study, told The Times that when she goes out to eat with her husband and son, they only order two meals instead of three “because we know that the portion The sizes are tall.’
Some even order catering and divide the portions for several meals because it is cheaper than buying several individual meals. Others simply feed more people using the catering size than the recommended number.
Three Southern California restaurants, which were not named, conducted an experiment in 2023 in which they offered balanced meals that did not exceed 700 calories, half of what some meals contain on menus. Calorie counts at restaurants typically range between 900 and 1,500, according to The Times.
Kevin Hochman, CEO of Brinker International, which owns Chili’s Grill & Bar, among others, won’t be changing his chains’ portion sizes anytime soon, since not all Americans want the same thing.
Two kept the options after the experience, while another changed its marketing from larger portions to “dinner today, lunch tomorrow,” according to the outlet.
Despite the shift toward smaller portions, not all Americans are willing to give up their giant burgers and endless orders of pasta.
Kevin Hochman, CEO of Brinker International, which owns Chili’s Grill & Bar, among others, won’t be changing his chains’ portion sizes anytime soon.
“There’s a truth about American consumers: People want what they want,” he told The Times. “Our job is to welcome guests where they are and not where we think they should be.”
And for their customers, that means sticking with the concept of leaving disgustingly full like you would at your grandmother’s house.
“Grandma always wanted you to leave too full and feeling like you couldn’t eat anymore,” he told the outlet.
At the end of the day, Deborah Cohen, who led the balanced meals study in California, said most Americans don’t know how to control how much they consume when they are given too large a portion.
And while he acknowledges that changing course will take years, he believes that “we have to go in the direction of changing the environment, not just letting people do it on their own,” he told The Times.
“They are not likely to succeed if everything is against them,” he said. “It’s like trying to swim in the tsunami.”
The United States currently ranks 19th in the world in adult obesity and 22nd in children, according to World Obesity.
More than 40 percent of adults are obese in the United States, while 20.5 percent of children are.
Other countries, such as Australia and the United Kingdom, rank 51st and 86th out of 200 countries for children, and 58th and 77th for adults, respectively.
