How We Eat: The Changing Face of Global Mealtimes

the move from set meal times to anytime eating

While eating styles remain very strongly influenced by tradition and culture, many consumers are moving away from a pattern of eating three fixed meals a day towards a much more flexible pattern of snacking and grazing during the day and eating at any time that is convenient.

This has led to the rising importance of snacks, which now need to serve a nutritional purpose, as well as just fill a gap between meals and to habits of eating smaller meals with little regard to the time of day.

Where consumers eat:  home, restaurant or on the go

Where consumers eat is also shifting; spending on eating out is growing faster than spending on packaged food. Where consumers eat out has moved from formal restaurants to eating at work, on the move and in casual, grazing-based settings, such as street food markets.

Eating at home needs to be quick

Time spent on preparing food at home is limited, with most meals in most markets being prepared in under 30 minutes. Consumers are looking for exciting, healthy food but it needs to be on the table quickly.

Eating alone, at home or in restaurants

Meals used to be social occasions, but it is becoming more common for people to eat alone; out of choice or necessity. Technology is filling this gap, with consumers interacting with devices while eating at home, whether alone or with family and with restaurants starting to cater specifically to lone diners.

Breakfast is the most flexible meal

Breakfast is a meal that is often skipped, eaten on the go or consumed while performing other tasks. Lunch is the most fixed meal, in line with school and work lunch hours, while dinner is increasingly casual, with the formal family dinner often being replaced by grazing.