America's Meal Consumption and Snacking Habits

According to findings from the newly released IRI study, What Do Americans Really Eat? ready-to-eat snack products with strong convenience benefits are fulfilling the demand for snacks and meal replacements for on-the-go consumers.

According to Kim Feil, division president of worldwide innovation for Information Resources, 'These study findings directly support the unprecedented change the snacking industry is experiencing as consumers increase their pace of life. Snack and meal solution manufacturers are faced with the opportunity to completely redefine the American diet. To a large degree, snacks and meals have become interchangeable. Manufacturers who successfully position convenient solutions across eating occasions, and even day parts, stand to reap significant rewards.'

According to the study, snacking is ubiquitous and, in fact, is replacing meals to a large extent. An estimated one-third of the study's 1,000 Internet-based respondents regularly skip meals. When they do eat meals, nostalgia takes over: consumers typically prefer to prepare those meals fresh at home, as long as preparation is quick and convenient. Speed and preparation ease are overwhelmingly rated as the top considerations in the food selection process. Portability and ease of consumption are also important. More meals and snacks are consumed on the fly, and increasingly in the car, where handheld food products like snack bars, yogurt in a tube, and portable soups make for easy meals on the go.

What is fuelling this fundamental shift in Americans' eating behaviour? Busy lifestyles demand convenience and the increasing availability of convenient meal and snack solutions. Convenient meal and snack products show no signs of slowing growth. Convenient dinner solution sales have exploded, adding an average of over 385 million meals sold incrementally each year for the last seven years. Consumers want convenient snacks too. Nearly 70% surveyed prefer 'ready-to-eat' products for snack occasions any time of day. When asked to pick the three most important considerations for selecting snacking products, over 45% of consumers cite 'ready-to-eat' or 'no preparation' as a key consideration factor.

Interestingly, survey respondents indicate an interest in nutritional considerations, but convenience comes first. Despite broad press coverage of America's growing 'obesity epidemic,' only 38% of respondents indicate that they avoid high-fat foods as much as possible, while only 42% of consumers said they thought they have balanced nutritional habits. While consumers have demonstrated a willingness to pay as much as two to three times for more convenient versions of their favourite products, the same does not necessarily hold true for nutritional enhancements. Only about one-quarter are willing to pay more for low- or reduced-fat foods.

'To date, manufacturers and retailers have done a respectable job of responding to demands for convenience. However, the convenience trend has certainly not passed. Those who grab the bull by the horns, so to speak, with respect to nutritionally-responsible, convenient food alternatives will raise the bar and define the playing field of the future,' concludes Feil.

Designed to identify and understand the factors impacting selection, preparation, and consumption of meal and snack foods, What Do Americans Really Eat? is a combination of IRI's InfoScan Retail Tracking Service to evaluate dollar sales across supermarket, drugstore, and mass merchandiser channels (excluding Wal-Mart) for all major snack segments and a detailed Internet-based survey of 1,000 consumers used to illustrate consumer attitudes and behaviour across eating occasions.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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