Table of Contents
Executive Summary
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- What consumers want and why
- The issues
- Restaurant meals viewed not as healthy as home-cooked meals
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- Figure 1: Restaurant and at-home meal associations, January 2020
- Cost and flavor are largest barriers to healthy eating
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- Figure 2: Reasons for eating healthfully less often, January 2020
- Diners still want to indulge
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- Figure 3: Healthy dining behaviors, by household income, January 2020
- The opportunities
- Personalization is a healthy way to add variety to the menu
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- Figure 4: Healthy dining attitudes, January 2020
- Meal kits are a home-cooked solution for healthy, affordable and tasty meals
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- Figure 5: Restaurant and at-home meal associations, January 2020
- Substitutions give diners control over their health
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- Figure 6: Healthy item interest, January 2020
The Market – What You Need to Know
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- Home-cooked meals shine
- Millennials hugely influential for healthy dining
- Flexitarians drive the demand for less meat
Market Perspective
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- Home-cooked meals perceived as healthy, fresh, tasty and affordable
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- Figure 7: Share of food expenditures for in-home food vs dining out, 2013-18
Market Factors
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- Millennials’ purchase power and healthful mindset will drive menu development
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- Figure 8: Population by generation, 2014-24
- Consumers are eating less meat
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- Figure 9: Restaurant behaviors, by gender and race/Hispanic origin, December 2019
- Childhood obesity calls for solutions
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- Figure 10: Percent of children who are obese, by age, 2001-02 to 2015-16
Key Players – What You Need to Know
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- Lifestyle diets offer a menu hook
- Acceptance of plant-based burgers leads to adoption of other plant-based menu items
- Flavor innovation is lacking
- Newsflash: Fruits and vegetables are plants
What’s Working?
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- Diet-specific menus are part of the playbook
- Lifestyle diets
- Superfoods expand
- Plant-based grows up
- Plant-based across categories
What’s Struggling?
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- Restaurant food is not perceived as tasty
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- Figure 11: Dining out priorities, August 2019
What to Watch
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- Fruits and vegetables take on new roles
- Vegetables replace carbs
- Dessert needs fruit
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- Figure 12: New fruit-flavored frozen novelties launched in 2019
- Snacks and appetizers are ripe for innovation
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- Figure 13: New veggie-centric salty snacks launched in 2019
The Consumer – What You Need to Know
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- The percentage of healthy diners is increasing
- The desire to lose weight sparks healthy dining
- Weekend indulgent eating is common
- Healthy eating shouldn’t come at a premium
- Fast food shines for convenience and kid-approval, but lacks healthful perceptions
Healthy Dining Segmentation
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- Consumers increasingly identify themselves as healthy diners
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- Figure 14: Healthy dining segmentation, December 2018 and January 2020
- Millennials overindex as healthy diners
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- Figure 15: Healthy dining segmentation, by generation, January 2020
- Parents tend to eat more healthfully when dining out
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- Figure 16: Healthy dining segmentation, by parental status, January 2020
- Asians and Hispanics eat more healthfully than others
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- Figure 17: Healthy dining segmentation, by race/Hispanic origin, January 2020
Changes in Healthy Eating
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- Nearly one third eating healthfully more often this year
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- Figure 18: Changes in healthy eating, January 2020
- Weight loss, availability of healthy options are top healthy eating drivers
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- Figure 19: Reasons for eating healthfully more often, January 2020
- Weight loss a stronger driver for women, while men are driven by health conditions
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- Figure 20: Reasons for eating healthfully more often, by gender and age, January 2020
- Healthful foodservice fare has an expensive reputation to overcome
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- Figure 21: Reasons for eating healthfully less often, January 2020
Healthy Dining Behaviors
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- Nearly half of diners treat themselves by dining out
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- Figure 22: Healthy dining behaviors, January 2020
- Young men order the most healthfully throughout the week
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- Figure 23: Healthy dining behaviors, by gender and age, January 2020
- Parenthood leads to increased dining frequency and calorie checking
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- Figure 24: Healthy dining behaviors, by number of children under 18 in the household, January 2020
Healthy Dining Attitudes
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- Operators should focus on customization and nutrition information
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- Figure 25: Healthy dining attitudes, January 2020
- Younger Millennials and Asians are willing to pay extra for healthy meals
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- Figure 26: Healthy dining attitudes, by generation and race/Hispanic origin, January 2020
- Healthy diners expect more nutrition information and the ability to modify menu items
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- Figure 27: Healthy dining attitudes, by dining segmentation, January 2020
- Millennials look for healthy meals and nutrition information
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- Figure 28: Healthy dining attitudes, by generation, January 2020
Restaurant and At-home Meal Associations
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- Consumers most likely to view home-cooked meals as healthy and affordable
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- Figure 29: Correspondence analysis – symmetrical map – restaurant and at-home meal associations, January 2020
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- Figure 30: Restaurant and at-home meal associations, January 2020
- Older diners less likely to view any restaurant meals as healthy
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- Figure 31: Restaurant and at-home meal associations, by generation, January 2020
- Older diners view casual dining restaurants as convenient, affordable, but not healthy
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- Figure 32: Casual dining restaurant and at-home meal associations, by generation, January 2020
- Parents are less likely to view fast food as processed or high in sodium
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- Figure 33: Fast food restaurant and at-home meal associations, by parental status, January 2020
Healthy Item Interest
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- Substitutions for fried items are most appealing
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- Figure 34: Healthy item interest, January 2020
- Combine healthy options to please the most guests
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- Figure 35: TURF analysis – healthy item interest, January 2020
- Young men, Hispanics and parents want to see more meat alternatives
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- Figure 36: Healthy item interest, by gender and age, race/Hispanic origin and parental status, January 2020
- Hispanics are interested in healthier beverages
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- Figure 37: Healthy item interest, by race/Hispanic origin, January 2020
- Millennials show the greatest interest in low-carb, vegetarian and gluten-free options
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- Figure 38: Healthy item interest, by generation, January 2020
Appendix – Data Sources and Abbreviations
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- Data sources
- Consumer survey data
- Abbreviations and terms
- Abbreviations
Appendix – The Consumer
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- Methodology
- TURF Analysis
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- Figure 39: Table – TURF analysis – healthy item interest, January 2020
- Correspondence analysis
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