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.
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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
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- Key issues covered in this Report
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Executive Summary
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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
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Competitive Strategies
- Launch activity and innovation
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The Market
- Market drivers
- Graph 19: select inflation behaviors, 2023
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Appendix
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