It's the time of year we look ahead and make some educated guesses about how foodservice news and innovation will evolve in 2012. While current retail shopping patterns appear strong, consumers are still slow to return to prerecession spending habits, especially when dining out.

Recent surveys show that 63% of consumers believe it is too expensive to dine out regularly. Unemployment and underemployment rates remain high, and 23% of consumers indicate that they will be spending less at restaurants this year. Add higher food costs to the foodservice mix, and it's safe to predict that operators will continue to keep value top of mind in 2012.

For these reasons, many of the following five trends for the year relate to better business efficiencies and giving consumers greater dining value in more innovative ways.

Trend 1: Double-Sided Menus

Dining out used to be a special occasion and it still is and should be. But it's also an everyday occurrence for more and more people, and menus need to allow people to choose between splurges and steals and calorie bombs and better-for-you (BFY) options.

This is where menus take on split personalities in terms of offering value menus, everyday meals, snacks and quick-fixes for busy families that coexist with premium choices, especially in more affordable segments, like quick-service restaurants (QSRs), fast casual restaurants and family restaurants.

Double-sided menus also list indulgent, splurge-worthy dishes alongside BFY options, meeting the demand for people who are out for a treat and others who are dining out by necessity and need to have affordable, nutritious options available.

Trend 2: Consumer Control

Customization has gone far beyond choosing what we want on our sandwiches and has moved into all aspects of the dining experience, from the way a diner places an order — often with some form of technology off-site — to more self-service options. Diners are also in control of what they eat when, prompting more operators to offer breakfast all day, late-night menus, snacks and other nontraditional dayparts.

Trend 3: Slow It Down

Increasingly, we see a greater emphasis being placed on quality — with both thoughtful preparation and careful ingredient sourcing. The more food-savvy consumers are both driving and defining this. When we asked consumers which preparation and menu descriptions most appealed to them, they zeroed in on those terms that communicate quality — like fresh, real, authentic and made-from-scratch, which was the second-most appealing descriptor.

On the other end, some terms that have started to pop up on restaurant menus may not be receiving the same welcome. "Signature," which can take on any number of meanings, is less likely to have appeal. A term like "artisan," which it seems has been everywhere recently, can become suspect.

Choosing words wisely is important because carefully prepared food communicates a "made for you" attention and a dedication to quality beyond efficiency. Restaurants are looking beyond efficiency and returning to the menu to help market themselves.

Trend 4: American Regional

From fine dining to food trucks, menus across the country are showing American pride. Over the past 10 years or so, the foodservice industry circled the globe in terms of culinary interests and has learned a lot about Mediterranean, Asian and Latin cuisines. Now chefs and diners are turning inward and looking at America's rich culinary heritage.

The focus on local, regional and seasonal food sourcing has inevitably led chefs and diners to knowing more about which states have the best crops. Now consumers are interested in seeing how even basic items, like iced tea or a steak sandwich, can have different meanings from state to state and even from city to city, and we're narrowing our interests from regions like the Mid-Atlantic to Chesapeake Bay seafood to Baltimore-style crab cakes. This pattern can already be seen in the number of regional or city-specific ingredient references. For instance, St. Louis references grew by 51% from Q3 2008 to Q3 2011. The same goes for Memphis, which has grown by 195% in the 3-year period. Many sandwich, hot dog and burger chains ran American regional promotions in 2011, accounting for a big bump in "Philly-style" (up 108%).

Trend 5: Imported Ideas

American menus have been importing international flavors, ingredients and techniques for decades. Italian, Mexican and Chinese food choices are arguably just as popular as hamburgers and American chicken fare.

Instead of just bringing global flavors to the United States, we are increasingly seeing multinational restaurants not only tailoring their menu offerings for local, international markets but also bringing back the best ideas to the U.S. market. These companies are drawing inspiration from global cuisines and ingredients and also using international locations as key test markets. And this isn't limited to menus and food; it also includes operational developments and innovations, such as self-serve kiosks.

We believe this is starting to occur because international markets are more attractive right now. Certainly, the U.S. foodservice market is the biggest in the world, but it's been growing slowly, around 3% or so, for the past decade when we weren't in a recession. For multinational chains, those international markets give operators insight into what's growing, and their menu strategy reflects the importance of markets such as China, Brazil and even France.