For the past year, AllergyEats founder Paul Antico has encouraged restaurants to better accommodate food allergic and intolerant diners because it's the right thing to do. Now, the financial expert is demonstrating another benefit to catering to the food allergy community: it can significantly increase restaurants' profits.
Antico, a former stock fund manager with 17 years at Fidelity Investments, leveraged his financial analysis background to determine how much economic power the food allergy and Celiac disease community can influence.
"Millions of Americans – or roughly 5% of the general population – have known food allergies or gluten intolerance, and restaurateurs should recognize the tremendous spending power of this community," Antico explained.
Assuming that 20% of the food allergic population will never feel comfortable dining out, while another 20% will try to eat anywhere, that still leaves 9 million food allergic diners that can be won over by allergy-friendly restaurants. Yet this number dramatically underestimates the true economic value of serving the food-allergic population, given that most diners eat out with other people.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Medical News Today (East Sussex, United Kingdom).
