With a divide among consumers as to whether restaurants can support their health goals, it’s important for operators to consider how trends in healthy dining affect their business. This report explores—backed with consumer data—the most relevant healthy dining trends affecting the foodservice industry in the US.
Below, we provide the key areas covered and offer handpicked insights from the report.
Key Areas Covered
- How consumers approach healthy dining at restaurants.
- How consumers perceive healthy menu items.
- Features consumers desire in healthy menu items.
- Attitudes towards eating healthy at home and away from home.
Healthy Dining: Market Overview
Consumers usually cut back on dining out first when trying to save money. This puts restaurants with a health focus in a challenging position, as the premium prices associated with healthy menu items may prompt visitors to swerve. Operators can combat this perception of high prices with education, and enable consumers to customise their meals with healthier options at low costs.
The Healthy Dining Consumer: Preferences and Trends
- Consumers don’t think of healthy menu options as the most appealing for taste and price. This includes both healthy and indulgent diners. By focusing on improving taste and value for money, through flavour experimentation, larger portion sizes, and visual appeal, consistent trial can be encouraged.
- Consumers are not looking for a purely functional experience when it comes to dining on healthy options at restaurants. Diners will compare healthy and indulgent options similarly and down to important desired features like being appetising and having a good portion size.
- Less than a third associate fast casual restaurants with healthy options. Few perceive this restaurant type to have healthy options, despite it being a common offering. For fast casual operators, highlighting these options with robust messaging around freshness, quality, and sourcing may prove beneficial.
What’s Next for Healthy Dining?
There is a split among consumers concerning their confidence in restaurants to support their health objectives. It’s now the responsibility of restaurants to regain that trust by reassuring consumers that they can cater to their unique and adaptable definitions of health, while also providing an enjoyable experience that is not restrictive.
This report offers a complete analysis of how to effectively appeal to consumers considering healthy dining options. Buy your copy today and understand your customers’ preferences. For more relevant reports, explore our foodservice market research.
Additional Features Included in Your Report
- Different Digital Formats: PDF for conveniently sharing with your team, PowerPoint for quickly including in your presentations.
- Custom PowerPoints: Incorporate our consumer research data into your own work so you can win over your clients and stakeholders. Select insights from your report to create a custom presentation that is ready to download in minutes.
- Mintel’s Clients Portal: Our portal provides instant access to actionable analysis, podcasts, and trend pieces relevant to your industry that are published almost daily, as well as our annual Global Consumer Trends. You can also browse our extensive library of market research reports.
Expert Analysis
Leading foodservice analyst Varchasvi provides a detailed analysis of healthy dining trends in the US with this report.
As definitions of healthy eating continually expand and shift, restaurants are tasked with making this generally restrictive task feel inviting and enjoyable.
Varchasvi
Research Analyst
Collapse All
-
- Key issues covered in this Report
-
Executive Summary
-
Consumer Insights
- Consumer Fast Facts
- Healthy dining segmentation
- Graph 1: diner segments, 2023
- Graph 2: diner segments, 2023
- Dining habits
- Graph 3: Dining out habits, 2023
- Graph 4: dining habit groups, 2023
- Approach to healthy dining
- Graph 5: Approach to healthy choices at restaurants, 2023
- Healthy dining perception
- Graph 6: attributes associated with healthy menu options, 2023
- Graph 7: attributes associated with healthy menu options, by gender, 2023
- Desired menu features
- Graph 8: desired features in healthy menu options, 2023
- Graph 9: desired features in healthy menu options, 2023
- Graph 10: desired features in healthy menu options, by area, 2023
- Dining considerations
- Graph 11: considerations when dining out, 2023
- Graph 12: considerations when dining out, by financial situation, 2023
- Graph 13: considerations when dining out, by generation, 2023
- Desired health benefits
- Graph 14: desired health benefits in restaurant meals, 2023
- Graph 15: desired health benefits in restaurant meals, by parental status, 2023
- Graph 16: desired health benefits in restaurant meals, by area, 2023
- Healthy dining attitudes
- Graph 17: attitudes towards healthy dining, 2023
- Graph 18: healthy dining attitudes, by gender, 2023
-
Competitive Strategies
- Launch activity and innovation
-
The Market
- Market drivers
- Graph 19: select inflation behaviors, 2023
-
Appendix
Market Intelligence Made Easier With Mintel
The first Mintel Market Intelligence report was published over 50 years ago. Since then, we have provided our unique insights and understanding of consumers, innovation and global markets to thousands of customers worldwide. Here’s why our customers rely on Mintel:
- Gain a comprehensive, 360-degree view of the market: Mintel reports blend consumer research, market forecasts, product innovation tracking, and competitive analysis, allowing businesses to see every angle of their industry and identify new opportunities quickly.
- Make decisions with confidence, grounded in robust data: Each report draws on up-to-date, reliable information from trusted sources and industry experts, ensuring your strategies are based on solid evidence rather than speculation.
- Benefit from expert analysis and practical recommendations: Mintel’s reports are written by experienced analysts who interpret complex data and provide clear, actionable insights you can trust to guide your next moves.
- Stay ahead with actionable intelligence on market trends and consumer behaviour: By combining fresh research with long-term market monitoring, our reports help businesses anticipate changes and adapt strategically. So you’re prepared to make informed decisions and drive growth.
What goes into a Mintel Market Intelligence Report?
Curious about how a Market Intelligence report comes together? We like to think of it as building a detailed puzzle. We start with individual pieces: data from consumers, market statistics, industry trends, and online conversations. Then our expert analysts add world-class human insight and industry knowledge. The pieces are assembled to reveal a clear, comprehensive picture of a market.
The Four Pillars of Our Research
We use a combination of four main research methods when creating our reports, each adding a valuable perspective:
- Consumer Research: Direct surveys with real people, giving us clear, current insights into what people think and do.
- Desk Research: In-depth review of trusted data sources. We use this rich database, plus powerful internal tools that track new products and market sizes, to detect trends and guide forecasts.
- Trade Research: Insights from conversations with industry experts. Their real-world experience helps us understand what’s happening behind the scenes.
- Brand and Social Media Research: Analysis of online opinions and trends. This lets us spot trends, measure brand sentiment, and capture feedback in real time, adding further depth to our research.
Bringing It All Together
Each of these four pillars provides a different piece of the puzzle. Consumer research tells us what customers think, desk research provides the factual framework, trade research offers an insider’s view, and social media analysis reveals public sentiment.
Our expert analysts are skilled in weaving these diverse data streams together. They apply a range of quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques to uncover the deeper story, connecting the dots to deliver clear, actionable insights. This comprehensive, multi-layered process is how we transform raw data into a market intelligence report you can trust to inform your most important business decisions.
For a closer look at a Mintel Market Intelligence Report, take a look at the sample PDF report below:
Please Note: All of the figures, graphs, and tables in this sample report have been redacted.
£ 3,695 (Excl.Tax)
-
Download today with instant access
Pay via credit card or purchase order
-
Multiple formats provided
We send a PDF, Powerpoint and Excel Databook straight to your inbox. An interactive version of the report is also available on our online platform
-
Interactive databook included
Focus on the data that matters most to you with a customisable databook avaliable on our platform
Next Starts Here
Whatever your business needs, we have the solution. From market intelligence reports to customised growth strategies.
Learn moreTrusted by global industry leaders
At Jackman, we believe that powerful strategies are based on human insight. Mintel’s leading-edge reports and insights into consumer attitudes and behaviors are an important input as we develop and execute strategy.
Alana Gavin, VP Research and Insights, Jackman
Working in a customer-obsessed organization means that data and insights have to be at our fingertips. Mintel’s reports help us support anecdotes with real quantifiable insights. The summary sections (which I really like) helps save time by giving a birds eye view of the content before spending time combing through the pages.
Our business review discussions are strengthened by the relevancy of the reports to help us better understand our customers. In addition, the customer service received from the team (especially in crunch periods) makes the process of understanding customer behavior even better.
Ngozi Ngonadi-Nkwoji, Senior Marketing Manager, Amazon
When I’m investigating specific sectors I tend to use Mintel reports for their forecasting, which I’ve always found to be very accurate.
They also offer really broad and deep coverage in their reports. They are very, very detailed. For example, we were able to gain insight across a wide range of business areas from just one report, proving that Mintel is excellent value for money.
So overall, it’s the level of detail and the quality of forecasting that really stand out for me.
Rebecca Green, Market Insight Manager, Wincanton
Mintel is really good for getting a handle on a particular category quickly. If we are working on a new business pitch in an area we don’t have much experience in, it’s a brilliant way to get up to speed with what’s going on, what’s changing and what the key trends are in any category.
It’s very rare now that anyone will plough through a 200-page report – that’s why the summaries are really useful. We know they are backed up by a lot of detail, so if you need to go into something in more depth you know the information will be all there for you.
Pauline Robson, Managing Partner, Mediacom
We’ve found it so useful working more closely with Mintel. They helped support our recent flagship event for our top suppliers by providing a really unique viewpoint on the future of online retailing.
Nick Carroll from their Retail Team was also an excellent panelist, sharing useful and actionable consumer insights. We definitely look forward to working with Mintel again on future projects.
Zac Steele, E-Commerce Trading Development Manager, Waitrose & Partners
Next Starts Here
Whatever your business needs, we have the solution. From market intelligence reports to customised growth strategies.
Learn more
