Consumers intending to dine out less, report says
December 16, 2008
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Anne-Marie Tobin
THE CANADIAN PRESS
A new report on eating patterns suggests that people in a majority of Canadian households were planning to cut down on dining out.
Eighty-eight per cent of respondents in the report from NPD Group said they intended to decrease the amount of time spent eating in restaurants. The surveys were mainly conducted up to and including March 2008, before the economic downturn began hitting Canada in a big way.
But Marion Chan of the NPD Group said that even though people may intend to cut back on eating out, they've come to rely on pre-made foods so much that they're not going to be able to do it.
"So what they'll have to do is trade down," she said Monday as the Eating Patterns in Canada report was released.
"If they normally went to what we call a casual dining establishment, they might trade down to something that's more family oriented."
"Or they may opt for just going to the grocery store, buying one of the roast chickens that's completely prepared and then taking it home and eating it."
That way, they would be spending less than they did in the past, she said, but still enjoying a prepared meal.
Food manufacturers should see this as an opportunity, Chan added.
More than 80 per cent of respondents said dinner is eaten together as a family, five to seven days a week, the report said.
The findings also suggest that 59 per cent of Canadians are more conscious about the nutritional value of what they're eating than they were three years ago. And 67 per cent of respondents noted that nutrition is an important concern as they prepare their evening meal.
A growing number of people are consuming whole-grain foods, trans fat-free items and low-fat items on a weekly basis.
Fewer carbonated soft drinks, pork chops and hot dogs are being eaten, NPD Group said. For instance, 16 per cent of individuals surveyed ate hot dogs at least once in an average week in 2008, compared to more than 20 per cent in 2006.
"Where we're seeing growth is in areas where food is very flexible – chicken wings and chicken nuggets that can be consumed by parents, by children at dinner, reheated for lunch," she said.
Chan said people are thinking ahead at the grocery store about ingredients they might want throughout the week. And in one-quarter of households, the majority of grocery shopping was the responsibility of a male.
"The most popular dishes continue to be things like pasta," she said. "Chicken dishes, beef dishes, those things tend to continue to be very strong."
And although pork chops are in decline, other pork dishes are on the rise.
"A pork chop is really hard to eat as a leftover because you need a knife and you need a fork," she said, but pork dishes with bite-sized pieces can easily be reheated the next day.
Skipping breakfast is at a 10-year low, according to the findings.
But quick breakfasts appear to be the order of the day, with 84 per cent of them taking five minutes or less to prepare. These mostly consist of ready-to-eat cereals (52 per cent), toast (50 per cent) and eggs (27 per cent).
Lunch is the most often skipped meal of the day, the report said. When it is consumed, sandwiches are the top food, at 44 per cent, followed by fruit at 28 per cent and yogurt at 12 per cent. But the popularity of sandwiches has declined in the last five years, Chan said.
"It may be too much work because they have to have fresh ingredients, because you don't want to make a sandwich with mouldy bread or old meat."
Rather, she said, people are assembling a wide variety of pre-packaged, pre-made foods.
"This is what we call pick 'n' pack meal ... They're deconstructing that sandwich and eating all of the elements of the sandwich, but not actually putting it together."
Evening appears to be the most popular time of day for snacks, with half of respondents admitting they nibbled after the dinner hour.
The Eating Patterns in Canada report is based on a variety of surveys, including a National Eating Trends sample of 1,300 households and their eating habits up to March 2008.
In addition, 310 online surveys go out daily as part of SnackTrack Canada, resulting in a finished sample of about 25,000 individuals generating over 100,000 different eating occasions.
And the Consumer Report on Eating Share Trends is a collection of information from representative individuals who report on their experience the previous day of purchasing prepared foods and beverages at a commercial restaurant. It samples about 35,000 individuals per quarter and data covers a period to May 2008.
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