Reversing years of steadily increasing prices, the cost of beef is expected to decrease between 10 percent and 17 percent across all primal cuts in 2016 in what amounts to "the biggest story of the year" for chain restaurant operators, said DeWayne Dove, vice president of risk management for supply chain management firm SpenDifference.

While operators need to closely monitor the avian flu, which has caused the destruction of more than 30 million chickens and turkeys, chicken production is up 3.1 percent compared to last year, says DeWayne Dove, vice president of risk management for SpenDifference. This increase in production, coupled with a decrease in exports, has industry experts forecasting a 6 percent decrease in cost versus a year ago. Eggs, however, are in short supply, with prices up more than 10 percent. Tom Turkey breast is up approximately 10 percent.

The majority of America's chain restaurants held the line on price hikes the first part of the year but plan to start raising them, according to a new survey from SpenDifference, a restaurant supply chain co-op.

America's chain restaurants this year plan to ask customers to dig a bit deeper into their pockets, hoping to offset higher food costs and put a bit more cash in their wallets, according the latest national menu price survey conducted by restaurant supply chain co-op SpenDifference.

The cost of food products that chain restaurants use will increase overall by 2 percent in 2014, according to the newly released purchasing cost outlook by SpenDifference LLC, the chain-restaurant purchasing cooperative.