How America Eats: 2026
"Traditional meal and snack patterns continue to evolve, creating new opportunities for retailers and brands"
John Owen, Associate Director - Food and Retail
A new generation of food consumers continues to blur line between meals and snacks, with daily snacking frequency in the morning, afternoon and evening on the rise. Meal and snack motivations are converging as well, pointing to opportunities for brands and retailers to capture new occasions.
Cooking with fresh foods remains the standard for health and taste, but young consumers turn to a wider array of convenient options, including foodservice. Grocery retailers and fresh food marketers can stay competitive by tapping into interest in cuisine exploration and offering ways to make fresh meal prep a little easier.
Ongoing economic and political uncertainty is impacting how Americans eat, especially those who are struggling financially. Retailers and brands have an opportunity to help shoppers not just with low prices but also with ideas to help them get the most out of their food dollars.
This Report Looks at the Following Areas:
- Meal and snack frequency
- Meal and snack motivations
- Preparation method by daypart
- Factors important to food and drink choice
- Attitudes toward cooking and eating
- Dietary preferences
Collapse All
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- What you need to know
- Outlook for How America Eats
- Opportunities
- Facilitate flexible meal prep with fresh + finished solutions
- Match the motivations of the moment
- Graph 1: meal and snack motivations by daypart – health and indulgence, 2025
- Arm shoppers with ideas to spend smarter, offering value beyond price cuts
- Graph 2: attitudes toward meals, by financial situation, 2025
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THE MARKET
- Consumers and the economic outlook
- Consumer perception of finances has yet to recover from 2022 inflation spike
- Graph 3: assessment of personal financial situation, 2022-26
- Rising food prices could put further strain on consumers
- Financial pressure forces a more selective approach to foodservice
- Graph 4: changes consumers have made or plan to make to their budgets, 2025
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THE CONSUMER
- Meal and snack frequency continues to shift, with snacking on the rise
- Blurring line between meals and snacks creates opportunities for food products that can serve as either
- Graph 5: meal and snack frequency, 2025
- Graph 6: meal and snack frequency – every day, 2020-25
- Meal/snack blurring especially prevalent among younger adults
- Graph 7: meal and snack frequency – every day, by age, 2025
- Shifting motivations across meal and snack dayparts
- An opportunity to match motivations to meal and snack dayparts
- Graph 8: meal and snack motivations by daypart, 2025
- Rise in snacking frequency creates more opportunities for healthful snacks
- Graph 9: meal and snack motivations by daypart, 2020
- Graph 10: meal and snack motivations by daypart, 2025
- For GLP-1 users, snacking can take on new purpose
- Graph 11: meal and snack frequency – every day, by GLP-1 usage, 2025
- Graph 12: meal and snack motivations by daypart – any snack, by GLP-1 usage, 2025
- Meal and snack preparation
- Fresh foods are the priority, but consumers want options for how to get there
- Graph 13: meal and snack preparation methods – by daypart, 2025
- Younger adults more likely to turn to meal-prep time-savers
- Graph 14: meal and snack preparation methods – any meal, 2025
- For younger adults, snacking on the go creates opportunities for QSRs
- Graph 15: meal and snack preparation methods – any snack, 2025
- Opportunity for a more idea-driven shopping experience
- Graph 16: attitudes toward meals, by age, 2025
- Financial uncertainty impacts how America eats
- A growing need to help food shoppers spend more efficiently
- Graph 17: food and drink budgeting behaviors, by financial situation, 2025
- An opportunity to make healthy eating more affordable
- Graph 18: attitudes toward meals, by financial situation, 2025
- Meat stays on the menu even amid interest in plant-based foods
- Most Americans are meat eaters, but a growing proportion looks to limit consumption
- Graph 19: dietary preference, 2022-25
- Leverage cuisine exploration to connect with younger plant-based consumers
- Graph 20: dietary preference, by age, 2025
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PRODUCT, INNOVATION AND MARKETING
- Expanded variety in meal components simplifies meal prep and cuisine exploration
- New brands helping meat snacks thrive at the intersection of meal-snack blurring and protein focus
- More brands look to split the difference between meals and snacks
- Clean label claims hold steady, for now
- Graph 21: incidence of select on-pack clean label claims on food launches, 2020-25
- Clean label prepared meal launches
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APPENDIX
- Report scope
- The consumer
- Consumer research questions
- Consumer research methodology
- Generation groups
- Abbreviations
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