NPD: Consumers Seek Out Restaurants with Healthful Options
NPD: Consumers Seek Out Restaurants with Healthful Options
NPD: Consumers Seek Out Restaurants with Healthful OptionsBy FERN GLAZER Nation's Restaurant News August 11, 2008 As restaurateurs expand the number of better-for-you menu options available to patrons, they also need to do a better job marketing those efforts to the growing ranks of health-conscious consumers, according to new data from The NPD Group. In a recent survey the Port Washington, N.Y.-based market research firm found that consumers are dieting less, eating more better-for-you products at home and increasingly seeking out restaurants that offer such options. “It’s about marketing, it’s not about product movement,” said Harry Balzer, vice president of NPD. “Operators should be flexible, they should be looking for opportunities to provide products that are better-for-you with added benefits that they can add and be prepared to remove them from the menu.” Consumers’ perceptions of health have changed through the decades. Today, many consumers think being healthful means including better-for-you foods in their diets, versus being on diets or eliminating from diets harmful substances or ingredients, such as cholesterol or sodium, NPD found. According to NPD, the number of products Americans consume per day with a label indicating a perceived health benefit, such as organic, light or whole grain, has increased every year for the last four years. In the year ended in February 2008, the average American ate at least two and a half better-for-you products per day, up from just over one and three-quarters in 2004. In addition, in 2007, just 22 percent of American adults said they were on a diet, the lowest number since NPD began tracking such information several years ago. Consumers are not only eating better-for-you-products at home, they increasingly are looking for them at restaurants, NPD found. Last year, nearly 3 percent of all visits to a restaurant were motivated by the desire for something healthful or light to eat. Please click here to read more... Return to Wholesale Meat Industry News Return to Karn Meats Home Page |