DUBLIN, Ohio -- Fresh Fruit. That's what consumers who are looking for tasty, nutritious menu options will soon find at Wendy's Restaurants. "We're giving our customers an easy, convenient way to add more fruit to their daily diet," said Tom Mueller, president and COO of Wendy's North America.
That's how the fast-food chain touted its fruit offering in a January 2005 press release. But in a blow to those efforts to promote healthier food choices, Wendy's has now removed fruit salads from the menu at all of its restaurants in the United States and Canada [image-nocss] after disappointing sales, reported The Financial Times.
The fruit cup was promoted as providing half the daily intake of fruit as recommended by the government's new food pyramid. Wendy's said on Wednesday that while it had "put a strong effort" behind fruitit was "not meeting our expectations.
Bob Bertini, a company spokesperson, told the newspaper, "It did well, but what we found was that fruit tends to be more a seasonal product. We've removed it from the menu."
The move affects 6,300 restaurants, said the report.
Fruit has in the past year become a fresh battleground for efforts by food chains to draw in more customers. Eric Larson, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, told the paper that with its decision to remove fruit, Wendy's was "apparently refocusing on its core menu to become more competitive against rivals McDonald's and Burger King.
Wendy's fruit bowl and cups, which cost about $4 and $2 respectively, came after McDonald's last year launched "AppleDippers, a bag of apple slices with caramel dipping sauce. McDonald's followed up this year with apple and walnut salad.
The Wendy's fruit offerings included a bowl and cup featuring fresh cantaloupe and honeydew melons, pineapple chunks and red seedless grapes supplied by Del Monte. The fruit was offered with a low-fat, strawberry-flavored yogurt for dipping.
Wendy's pioneered the use of fruit in a fast food setting by becoming the first such restaurant to offer it as part of a salad bar in the 1970s, the report said.
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