New Research Reveals How Americans are Eating

USAgNet - The National Pork Board released the first report from its ambitious and comprehensive Insight to Action research program on Thursday. The report, Dinner at Home in America, examines the contextual occasions in which Americans are eating dinner in the home. The research identifies areas of growth opportunity for pork, serving up a bold new challenge to the pork industry: innovate or risk losing relevance with today's - and more importantly tomorrow's - consumer.

"People live, shop and eat differently today. The pork industry has tremendous momentum with consumers, and that can be leveraged further through innovation in product development, bringing contemporary eating solutions to consumers," said Jarrod Sutton, vice president of Domestic Marketing for the National Pork Board. "This research helps us intimately understand the needs and constraints that influence consumer dining choices, and provides a clear path for industry innovation that is rooted in data."

Dinner at Home in America is the first of several reports the National Pork Board will publish in 2019 as part of the Insight to Action research program. The research approach, which combines 10,000 interviews with demographic and spending data to provide a comprehensive look at how U.S. consumers eat, is a first-ever for the meat industry.

Altogether, the National Pork Board uncovered nine unique dining occasions, or needs states, happening in homes on any given night of the week, ranging from solo dining to celebrating with extended family. During the course of any week, the same person can experience multiple eating occasions as their needs throughout the week change.

Sutton emphasizes this research is groundbreaking because it goes further to answer questions around what people eat and why.

“We are looking at who is at the dinner table, but we move beyond that to pinpoint the varied dinner occasions occurring every night,” he said. “With these insights, the industry can better understand the needs, behaviors and influences for each dining occasion. Most importantly, the research identifies opportunities for the industry to adapt and innovate.” The Dinner at Home in America report provides the food industry a veritable roadmap for product innovation and positioning.

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