The Halo of ‘Better-4-You’ Continues to Drive Food Sales

 

Time starved, lacking a skill-set to cook all of the different flavors of food Americans have been exposed to over the past 10 years consumers are finding alternative avenues of fresh food distribution for food items that have the halo of better-4-you and are full flavored according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

In a new report by The NPD Group found, “Today, the focus is on customized diets, nutrient intake and functional foods, according to NPD's recent "America’s Health Pulse: Closing the Gap Between Wants and Needs" report.  

They found, “Four macro needs drive all consumption: fueling, wellness, connecting and gratifying. Fueling is the top driver, influencing one-third of all eating occasions. The need for wellness grew throughout the pandemic and is second to fueling as a consumption driver. Wellness now directly impacts 21 percent of all eating occasions, which amounts to billions of occasions annually. With most meals sourced from home — a behavior established long before the pandemic — NPD expects wellness as a consumption driver to remain elevated into the foreseeable future.” Let’s see what else they found.

“Although consumers seek wellness overall, they are also homing in on specific areas. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic brought a new focus on the food as medicine movement. Concern over the highly contagious and potentially deadly COVID-19 virus led many to consider their food choices to help build immunity, concluded NPD. The importance of strong immunity remains a top wellness focus from a holistic standpoint rather than specifically fighting the virus.

Foods and ingredients that build immunity, like elderberry, jackfruit, and bone broth, are popular with consumers. Additionally, the aging baby boomer population is looking to food as medicine in order to find remedies to either cure or manage health conditions.   

Consumers customize their health and wellness eating goals with a variety of tools. These tools include social media and following social media influencers, personalized eating and fitness plans from healthcare providers or trainers, apps and technology-enabled exercise equipment, and forecasting health using genetic markers, NPD stated in the report.

Darren Seifer, food and beverage industry analyst at The NPD Group and author of the report stated, "The pattern of consumer attention to health and wellness shows increasing awareness and adaptation across the board," ... "This means consumers no longer think of health and wellness as an add-on, but as an integrated part of how they live their lives; that, in turn, opens opportunity for brands to become a permanent solution."

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869