Feature a “Festival of Fruits”: Educate your customers about what is available, fresh and in season by tapping the commissions and boards for interesting facts, photography and unique menu ideas to showcase each fruit's versatility in support of your promotion efforts.

Add something extra: Encourage the addition of fruits and vegetables to proteins, grains and other menu items. Everyone is comfortable with celery in tuna salad, so why not almonds, cranberries, walnuts or grapes? Add chopped leafy greens or even legumes like cannellini beans to pasta dishes. Enhance simple chicken, pork or fish entrees with fruit sauces. Top a baked potato with a vegetable sauté. Fruits and vegetables added to everyday dishes increase nutritional value and pump up their flavor appeal.

Capitalize on the global flavors trend. Add interest to all categories of healthful foods by expanding the flavor profile with spices and seasonings and decreasing reliance on less healthful flavor enhancers such as fat. Fish, lean meats and poultry, fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and legumes are more interesting when made into a Mediterranean, South American, Asian or other ethnic dish.

Provide healthy alternative choices. If you always offer French fries or chips as a side to grilled items, consider adding the choice of a healthier alternative. When Stanford Dining tested this, offering fresh California grapes as an alternative to French fries, they realized that they had struck a chord when 30% of those opting for a side chose the grapes. Other possible substitutions might include the option of a grilled portabello mushroom burger or a veggie lasagne choice instead of the traditional hamburger.

Free resources and fresh ideas for healthy eating options are just a call, check or click away for onsite foodservice operators. Call your produce distributor, or commodity board representative, to find out what materials are available. Check in at producers' exhibit booths at state, regional and national trade shows for all the latest promotional items and to share with producers the successes and challenges of your operation.

Finally, don't forget to check the producers' web sites for recipes and many other great ideas. Commodity boards have the information and ideas to help foodservice operators create innovative menus and provide healthful food options that appeal to customers' appetites and make the cafeteria or dining room an engaging place to dine.

Courtney Romano, MBA, RD, is principal of Romano & Associates, LLC, a strategic food marketing communications firm specializing in consumer and foodservice markets. She can be reached at 425-889-8817 , or at courtneyromano@comcast.net.