Abstract
This report focuses on specific attitudes and behaviors related to cooking dinner, including cooking motivations, meal preparation times and other activities that occur during dinnertime:
- Under what circumstances do consumers cook dinner at home?
- What do consumers eat for dinner?
- Who typically cooks the evening meals?
- How do work schedules impact evening meals?
- What else are consumers doing while eating evening meals?
- How far in advance do consumers plan dinner?
Dinnertime is one of the most hectic times of the day for most Americans. Consumers are overwhelmed by the challenge of delivering appealing, healthy and cost-effective meals, while still spending quality time with family. Mintel expands on the opportunities for convenience food purveyors to market timesaving dinner solutions.
Table of Contents
- Scope and Themes
- What you need to know
- Definition
- Abbreviations and terms
- Abbreviations
- Terms
- Executive Summary
- The bottom line: simplify and streamline evening meal needs
- Emotional reasons edge out practicality among reasons to cook at home
- Numerous convenient dinner solutions challenge home cooking
- You have to be home to cook!
- The time crunch
- Evening meals require planning and variety
- The composition of the evening meal is evolving
- Future trends
- Americans' reliance on convenience foods continues to grow
- Spending less dining out, eating home more
- Younger diners pose shifts in evening meal plans
- Online ordering
- Smaller households and Baby Boomers
- Long-term health trends
- Market Factors
- Summary
- Reasons consumers cook dinner
- Figure 1: The reason for cooking dinner at home, November 2007
- Figure 2: The reason for cooking dinner at home, by gender, November 2007
- Figure 3: The reason for cooking dinner at home, by age, November 2007
- Figure 4: The reason for cooking dinner at home, by household income, November 2007
- Figure 5: The reason for cooking dinner at home, by race/ethnicity, November 2007
- Figure 6: The reason for cooking dinner at home, by number of people in the household, November 2007
- Attitudes toward cooking dinner
- Figure 7: Attitudes and behaviors related to cooking, September 2007
- Competition for Cooking
- Scratch cooking still popular, followed by many, many other options
- Figure 8: What consumers do for dinner, November 2007
- Figure 9: What consumers do for dinner, by gender, November 2007
- Figure 10: What consumers do for dinner, by age, November 2007
- Figure 11: What consumers do for dinner, by household income, November 2007
- Figure 12: What consumers do for dinner, by race/ethnicity, November 2007
- Figure 13: What consumers do for dinner, by number of people in the household, November 2007
- Restaurants
- Carry out and delivery
- Prepared foods
- Meal assembly kitchens
- Who Cooks Dinner?
- Summary
- Figure 14: Who has responsibility for cooking home meals, by gender, November 2007
- Figure 15: Who has responsibility for cooking home meals, by race/ethnicity, November 2007
- Figure 16: Who has responsibility for cooking home meals, by employment status, November 2007
- Time Factors and the Evening Meal
- Summary
- Leaving work
- Figure 17: When respondents leave work, by gender, November 2007
- Scratch cooking vs. packaged food preparation
- Figure 18: Time spent cooking a meal from scratch compared to one prepared from packaged foods, November 2007
- The dinner hour
- Figure 19: When respondents sit down to dinner when cooked for them on a weekday, by age, November 2007
- Figure 20: When respondents sit down to dinner when cooked for them on a weekday, by race/ethnicity, November 2007
- The weekend dinner hour
- Figure 21: When respondents sit down to dinner when cooked for them on a weekend, by age, November 2007
- Multi-tasking required--activities while cooking and eating
- Figure 22: Activities on a typical evening while cooking and eating, November 2007
- Dinner Planning and Recipe Usage
- Summary
- Advance planning
- Figure 23: How far in advance respondents plan dinners for themselves or their families, by race/ethnicity, November 2007
- Figure 24: How far in advance respondents plan dinners for themselves or their families, by number of people in the household, November 2007
- Short-term dinner planning
- Figure 25: When respondents decide what to cook for their dinners, by gender, November 2007
- Figure 26: When respondents decide what to cook for their dinners, by age, November 2007
- Figure 27: When respondents decide what to cook for their dinners, by race/ethnicity, November 2007
- Figure 28: When respondents decide what to cook for their dinners, by number of children in household, November 2007
- Meal variety
- Figure 29: Number of recipes and meal plans used on a regular basis, by gender, November 2007
- Figure 30: Number of recipes and meal plans used on a regular basis, by age, November 2007
- Recipe ideas
- Figure 31: Where respondents get their recipe/dinner ideas, by gender, November 2007
- Figure 32: Where respondents get their recipe/dinner ideas, by age, November 2007
- Figure 33: Where respondents get their recipe/dinner ideas, by household income, November 2007Figure 34: Where respondents get their recipe/dinner ideas, by race/ethnicity, November 2007
- What Makes up the Dinner Meal
- Summary
- Meat/protein
- Figure 35: Number of meats/proteins used in home-cooked dinner, by gender, November 2007
- Figure 36: Number of meats/proteins used in home-cooked dinner, by age, November 2007
- Figure 37: Number of meats/proteins used in home-cooked dinner, by household income, November 2007
- Figure 38: Number of meats/proteins used in home-cooked dinner, by race/ethnicity, November 2007
- Starches
- Figure 39: Number of starches used in home-cooked dinner, by gender, November 2007
- Figure 40: Number of starches used in home-cooked dinner, by age, November 2007
- Figure 41: Number of starches used in home-cooked dinner, by household income, November 2007
- Figure 42: Number of starches used in home-cooked dinner, by race/ethnicity, November 2007
- Figure 43: Number of starches used in home-cooked dinner, by region, November 2007
- Vegetables
- Figure 44: Number of vegetables used in home-cooked dinner, by gender, November 2007Figure 45: Number of vegetables used in home-cooked dinner, by race/ethnicity, November 2007
- Figure 46: Number of vegetables used in home-cooked dinner, by region, November 2007
- Fruit
- Figure 47: Number of fruit used in home-cooked dinner, by gender, November 2007
- Figure 48: Number of fruit used in home-cooked dinner, by age, November 2007
- Appendix: Trade Associations
