Have you noticed how dairy-forward many drive-thru menus are today? Whether you’re picking up Taco Bell, McDonald’s or Domino’s, you’ll likely order an item coated in or with a side of cheese. It’s not an accident, but a well-developed plan.
“My job is to make sure dairy has a presence on the menu,” says Mike Ciresi, Dairy Management Incorporated (DMI) senior dairy scientist for Taco Bell.
At the Taco Bell headquarters in Irvine, Calif., Ciresi cooks and develops new cheesy items. You’ve probably tasted his work, which includes the Grilled Cheese Burrito and the Pineapple Whip Freeze.
“Ideas here come from anywhere and everywhere,” Ciresi says. “We pick a topic and brainstorm.”
Pile on the Cheese
About a decade ago, DMI, a dairy checkoff program, approached food CEOs to add more dairy to menus.
“The average amount of cheese on a taco five or six years ago was 0.25 oz.,” says Paul Ziemnisky, executive vice president of global innovation partnerships with DMI. “We wanted to understand how to use dairy as a growth platform.”
The partnership with Taco Bell started in 2012, when the company had no dairy beverages on their menu and offered fewer cheese-focused products.
“They viewed dairy as a garnish,” Ziemnisky says. “Cheese was just like lettuce and tomatoes.”
In addition to Taco Bell, DMI works with McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Domino’s Pizza and KFC. Since the program started in 2009, the group says U.S. annual dairy sales have grown by an average of 3%.
One restaurant helping drive that demand is McDonald’s, where 70% of the menu items include dairy. Chad Schafer, head chef for U.S. menu development with McDonald’s, joined the team just as the nation’s largest fast-food chain started adding real butter back to their menu. That alone helped drive 500 million milk equivalent pounds of demand in just the first year.
From McCafé to Quesalupa, today’s menus prominently feature dairy.
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