Changes in Food Preparation Impact Food and Beverage Sales

Changes in Food Preparation Impact Food and Beverage Sales

When it comes to meal preparation, Americans are using fewer dishes and ingredients at a time when food and beverage occasions remain flat, according to the NPD Group. his doesn’t mean that main meals, ingredients, condiments and side dishes are going away, it just requires food manufacturers to reconsider the role of these items in the occasion and how these items can stay relevant to consumers’ new eating patterns.

More one- and two-dish meals are growing at the expense of traditional three-part meals, according to NPD. The trend is most pronounced at dinnertime. The ever new array of available healthy portable snack foods may be contributing to the trend as Americans consume these foods at breakfast, lunch and dinnertime.

Food manufacturers and retailers are also contending with consumer demand for food purity.

Fresh, limited processing and natural are desired characteristics particularly among Millennials.  Millennials are interested in the integration of fresh and natural foods into a healthy lifestyle.

Generational and multicultural attitudes are also influencing consumption patterns as Millennials are more diverse than the generations that preceded them with 44% being part of a minority race or ethnic group, according to NPD.