Today’s edition (7 May) of The Sun newspaper devotes its front page to the ‘exposure’ of Pizza Express serving only halal chicken in its UK restaurants – but without publicising the fact to its customers.
Apparently Pizza Express decided to serve chicken that is killed in line with Islamic law after feedback from Muslim customers, and no doubt the practicalities and cost of keeping both halal and non-halal chicken resulted in the apparently logical decision to use only one.
The fact that halal chicken is being used is not mentioned on menus and, understandably, staff only tell customers when asked. Should customers be given the choice?
In a diverse society such as that of the UK, it is inevitable that restaurants will come under increasing pressure to satisfy more and more customer requirements based on a wide variety of grounds – religious, dietary and medical amongst them.
Restaurants will not be able to meet all such demands for reasons that will include both practicality and cost, but it is going to be increasingly essential that they communicate what they are doing – or risk the adverse ‘feedback’ that social media, in particular, makes both swift and easy.