 As vegetarian and vegan food continue to rise on lunch and dinner menus, it makes sense that breakfast would follow. (And operators would be wise to tap the breakfast segment if they haven’t already: Data from the National Restaurant Association indicates that breakfast accounts for 21 percent of all restaurant traffic — and guests are welcoming breakfast foods throughout the day.) So how can operators compete on breakfast? Skift Table reports that Just, a vegan food company that makes an egg protein substitute called Just Egg, is positioning itself as the leader in the category and has new partnerships with casual dining brands that will soon be offering the product on menus. Aside from eggs, breakfast bowls and protein bars — packed with almond or oat milk, chia seeds, quinoa and nut butters —provide a lot of opportunity for building creative, protein-rich combinations too.
 Cannabis-infused food and beverages (those items containing cannabidiol, or CBD for short) are a top trend of the year, according to survey feedback from the National Restaurant Association — and yet the FDA still prohibits the use of CBD in these products. That could change soon as the agency is planning to hold its first public hearing in May to determine how it will regulate CBD, which became legal in December. Cannabis-infused products have spiked 99 percent over the past year according to Upserve research, and yet chefs have had to fly under the radar when offering these items, which claim to ease anxiety, pain and other ailments without altering the mind. To date, CBD has been most commonly found in coffee drinks and mocktails, but food applications are on the rise. Carl’s Jr. recently became the first quick-service restaurant in the U.S. to add CBD to its menu, which in Colorado is featuring a limited-time offer of a CheeseBurger Delight that contains about 5 milligrams of hemp-derived CBD extract in its Santa Fe Sauce, according to CNBC.
 The lines between dayparts are getting fuzzy. As breakfast has grown in popularity as a meal to be eaten at any time of day, ingredients that have long been expected in later dayparts are now drifting onto menus earlier in the day. Mike Kostyo of Datassential told Supermarket Perimeter that ingredients or dishes like chicken or cocktails are now showing up on breakfast menus, while chefs are adding an egg to a wide variety of dishes and calling it breakfast. However, he said, guests still tend to look for higher-energy foods in the morning that can satisfy them until lunch and dishes that can help them relax and wind down later in the day, so bear those rules in mind if and when you reinvent menu items for different parts of the day.
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