U.S. consumers continue to use fewer dishes, ingredients in meals

U.S. consumers are using fewer dishes and ingredients in meal preparation in favor of one- and two-dish meals. Dinner has seen the greatest contraction in dishes and ingredients, while breakfast has actually gotten a little more involved with the popularity of eggs, states The NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based information company. Additionally, the number of food and beverage occasions consumed by the average American is flat. As a result, food marketers are struggling to find growth in a changing marketplace where legacy brands are ceding share to smaller new entrants and the store perimeter is outperforming center of the store.

Food marketers, including retailers with store brand programs, must also contend with consumers’ increasing demand for purity in their foods and beverages. Consumers are avoiding "adulterated" elements and processed foods and are instead looking for natural and fresh food and beverages at grocery stores. Millennials, in particular, desire products that are "fresh," processed in a limited way and "natural." Given millennial’s integration of fresh and natural foods into a healthy lifestyle and the fact that NPD’s 30+ years of eating pattern trend shows that consumption of fresh foods increases with age, the long-term outlook for fresh foods is strong, NPD said. 

Generational and multicultural attitudes are also influencing U.S. consumer consumption patterns and the business of food. Millennials are more diverse than the generations that preceded them, with 44 percent part of a minority race or ethnic group. Even more diverse are those Americans younger than age 5, with 50 percent identified as a minority race or ethnic group. By 2044, the U.S. Census Bureau projects that more than half of all Americans will belong to a minority group, NPD stated.