Mealtime Habits: Lunch

Consumers, faced with diverse demands on their time, are finding that the traditional concept of the midday meal is being eroded, often replaced with abbreviated on-the-go occasions or skipped altogether. This poses distinct challenges for packaged goods players, making it essential to track and understand the shifting trends and underlying causes of this increasingly fragmented behavior.

Report Highlights
Consumers are showing a growing propensity to sacrifice lunch as a regular meal. The number of lunches skipped per person is rising in all the tracked countries, with forecasts predicting this to continue through 2012. The number of lunches skipped by the average US consumer (66.6 lunches in 2007) is almost three times the European average (24.0).

The US has the lowest number of lunches consumed at home. This is a week round phenomenon, as US consumers have a high propensity for eating out at the weekend. Convenience, erosion of traditional meal preparation skills, and the breadth of third place options fuel this.

Lunch is very important in the context of the working day. Its content, as well as whether it is consumed, has an impact on consumers' health and wellness, influencing afternoon productivity and concentration. Skipping has been connected to falls in productivity, but over-eating can also be detrimental to afternoon function.
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Overview 1
Catalyst 1
Summary 1
Table of Contents 2
Table of figures 3
Table of tables 4
THE FUTURE DECODED 5
Introduction 5
TREND: Consumers are skipping lunch more frequently 5
US and BRIC country consumers are most likely to skip lunch 6
Lack of time is cited as the main reason for skipping lunch 8
Lunch skipping is connected to afternoon ""grazing"" 8
Key takeouts and implications: lunch is easily sacrificed by time-hungry consumers 10
TREND: Lunch is being consumed in a wider variety of locations and forms 10
The majority of European lunchtime occasions still take place in the home 11
Rising desk-based lunches reflect workers' desire to protect their free time 14
Desk-based lunching increases with age and responsibility 15
The number of packed lunch occasions in Europe is increasing 16
Packed lunches are placing pressure on 'third place' foodservice channels 17
Packed lunches have value-for-money appeal against a recessionary backdrop 18
Third place lunch occasions are becoming more common across Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific 18
Key takeouts and implications: the fragmentation of lunch behaviors offers increased diversity of options but threatens the scale of certain market segments 20
INSIGHT: The number of skipped lunch occasions vary between gender and age 21
Males are more likely to skip lunch than females 21
Teens and Young Adults have a greater propensity to skip lunch 24
Teen and Young Adult preferences are clashing with health messages 25
Aging populations will lead to more consistent lunch consumption habits 25
Key takeouts and implications: effective targeting should be guided by age and gender considerations 26
INSIGHT: The nature of lunch can effect health and productivity 27
There is an attitude-behavior gap over the health dimension of lunch consumption 29
Time is also perceived as a barrier to healthy lunch behaviors 29
Desk-based lunching is a key example of the attitude-behavior gap in healthy eating 30
Working environments do not facilitate healthy lunch behavior 30
Top-up shopping is connected to lunchtime fragmentation and can have consequences for healthy eating behavior 31
Light and informal lunches offer advantages for both consumers and CPG actors 31
Key takeouts and implications: small changes in consumers' lunchtime behavior can benefit health and productivity 31
ACTION POINTS 33
ACTION: Make casual eating and lunch ordering experiences as quick and convenient as possible 33
Develop technology that allows consumers to purchase food and drink with minimum hassle 33
Online ordering and delivery services offer further opportunity for innovation 35
ACTION: Respond to the increase in grazing occasions by offering ""better-for-you"" snacks and lighter meals 36
Portion controlled products emphasize health and responsibility 36
Promote healthier afternoon snacking by releasing products in 100 calorie pack formats 36
ACTION: Look to answer or co-opt the threat posed by homemade lunches 37
ACTION: Reduce preparation time and enhance convenience through novel packaging ideas 39
APPENDIX 41
Methodology 41
Further reading 42
Ask the analyst 42
Datamonitor consulting 42
Disclaimer 42
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Table 1: Consumer survey: consumer propensity for skipping lunch on a weekly basis in 15 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America and the US, 2008 7
Table 2: Consumer survey: consumer propensity for snacking on food in the afternoon, on a weekly basis, in 15 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America and the US, 2008 9
Table 3: Consumer survey: weekly frequency of eating a meal on-the-go in 15 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America and the US 11
Table 4: The number of per capita lunch occasions, by location of consumption, Europe, the US, Australia and New Zealand, 2007 14
Table 5: The number of desk-based lunch occasions per person per year, by age group, 2007 15
Table 6: The number of packed lunch occasions per person per year, by country, 2007-12 17
Table 7: Spend per lunchtime occasions (US$), at-home against out-of-home, by country, 2007-12 19
Table 8: Consumer survey: frequency of eating a sit-down meal in a fast or casual restaurant, on a weekly basis, in 15 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America and the US, 2008 20
Table 9: Consumer survey: consumers who skip lunch at least once a week or more, by gender, across 15 countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America and the US, 2008 23
Table 10: Number of per capita lunch occasions by type and gender, Europe, US, Australia and New Zealand, 2007 24
Table 11: Number of skipped lunches per person, by age group, Europe, the US, Australia, and New Zealand, 2007-2012 26
Table 12: Consumer survey: degree of attention paid by consumers to their mental wellbeing (alertness and ability to concentrate) in 15 countries across Europe, Asia Pacific, South America and the US, 2008 28
Figure 1: US consumers have the greatest propensity to skip lunch 6
Figure 2: Desk-based lunching by time-scarce consumers is also strongest in the US 16
Figure 3: Lunch time occasions away from the home do not vary between weekdays and weekends in the US 19
Figure 4: US consumers view lunch as the least important meal of the day 29
Figure 5: Foodservice outlets are using technological innovations to save queuing at lunch times 34
Figure 6: Case study: online ordering and delivery offers opportunities to conveniently cover the full range of lunching needs for individual to corporate consumers 35
Figure 7: Case study: Lunch4Kids offers the benefits of convenience, health and personalization parents, their children and schools 38
Figure 8: Packaging or storage solutions that emphasize hygiene have marketability within the desk-based lunching context 40
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