MenuMine Overview

1,500 Operators:

Covering Chains, Independents and Non-Commercial, MenuMine is truly representative of the Foodservice Industry.  Competitive menu information databases are not representative of the industry including all market segments.  While one competitive database does not monitor independent restaurants (other than fine dining), another unrealistically skews ethnic segmentation towards independent Italian and Pizza, a process that is hardly insightful.  A third database covers chains and independents, but does not provide sufficient menu price data because of their "web scraping" menu collection process.  It is easy to use the web to collect menu data, however, chains are very reluctant to provide menu price information.

• 650 Chains
• 550 Independents
• 300 Non Commercial

152,500 Menu Items

MenuMine has dedicated daypart specific databases for performing analysis of menu activity in breakfast, beverage, dessert and lunch/dinner.  Because these types of items are unique and do not share common traits, each MenuMine database contains fields unique to that daypart.

• 13,900 Breakfast Items
• 110,200 Lunch/Dinner Items
• 13,800 Dessert Items
• 14,600 Beverages

One Operator = One Menu

When collecting and entering menus, MenuMine counts as one menu all menus from each daypart.  While some competitive database services count menus for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert as "four" menus, MenuMine considers this practice to be specious and misleading hype. In MenuMine, menu data from one chain is counted as one menu.

One Menu Item = One Record

Items entered in the MenuMine database are represented as one record, regardless of the number of years the item has been on the menu.  When competitive databases track an item like "Chicken McNuggets" over a five year period, they count the item as five records over five years, rather as one record over a five year period.  MenuMine has tracked the menu prescence and menu price of "Chicken McNuggets" for 14 years and counts this item as one menu record.

Fourteen (14) Years of trendable price data

No other database has the ability to trend and track price and flavor trends with such range and variety. Menus for top chains are monitored continuously throughout the year.  Menus from smaller chains are physically collected at least once per year.  Press releases of all chains and the trade press is monitored daily for information on new items and LTO's.  Even though MenuMine may note multiple price changes for an item several times per year, the menu record is updated to the most current information for the year.   Thus, if Wendy's, as an example, adds a new item in March, promotes LTO's in June, July and August, this information is notated in the "Menu Status" field. MenuMine has found that operators do not make sweeping changes to their menu more than once per year.  The most important considerations should be: "What is on the menu currently?"  and "What changes have occured over time?"

LTO's and New Items are reported as they are announced

Foodservice Research Institute offers a monthly PDF service to MenuMine subscribers called LTO-Trak.  Subscribers are empowered to conduct their own custom analyses of LTO's by simply clicking on the LTO Category Template.  New Item Trak operates in the same fashion.

Each Menu Item is parsed by as many as 90 Unique Characteristics

Every item entered into the MenuMine database is classified by a wide range of variables including: food type, flavor enhancer application, cooking method, cuisine of item, platform and ingredient usage characteristics.  Some competitive databases force menu item variables into three fields, one for Flavors, one for Ingredients and one for Preparation.  The foregoing research process breaks down however, when research specs demand analysis for each of the three fields (or more), such as might occur when investigating Hickory Flavored (flavor field), Chicken (ingredient) that is either "grilled" or "charbroiled" (preparation field).

MenuMine classifies menu data into more than 90 data fields.  Some data fields are broad categorizations, such as Carbs, Veggies, Sauces or Proteins.  Other data fields are "dedicated" to individual foods such as Chicken, Dipping Sauce, Dessert Topping, Fish, Seafood, Peppers, Mushrooms, Breakfast Pastries, Breads or others.  This process allows the user to mine for data more effectively than making assumptions about application of use based simply on item name and item description.  MenuMine coders examine menu text and application of use for each menu item at the time of data entry, taking this burdensome and time consuming process out of the hands of the user.

MenuMine allows filtering and data consolidation on single or multiple data fields.  Menu information databases are all about building a Data Set that represents product-in-use realities.  MenuMine Data Sets are pre-formatted as Category Templates or as Custom Queries.  The reult is that within one or two seconds information is presented to the user and the analysis and interpretaion process for any food, flavor or ingredient may then commence.