March 5, 1998 - Soft Drinks Leading Food Trends, But Meat Also Delivers Strong Showing

by Bryan Salvage, Meat Marketing & Technology

Here's some food for thought. In the '80s and early '90s, the hottest trends at tables throughout America were "better-for-us, easier-for-us" foods. Today, the big news isn't what we're eating, but what we're drinking.

Carbonated soft drinks are the fastest growing food/beverage category served at home and in restaurants during the 1990s, according to the NPD Group's Twelfth Annual Report on Eating Patterns in America.

But there is also some good news for the meat industry. Pizza (at the in-home market), Mexican foods and hamburgers (in the restaurant market) were among the fastest growing foods in the American diet, according to NPD research.

In discussing the carbonated beverage boom, Harry Balzer, NPD vice president, said: "Since 1990, no other product has made its way into our diet as much as carbonated soft drinks. No other product even comes close to matching the increased consumption of this category."

In 1990, Americans consumed soft drinks on 83 different occasions during the year. In 1997, they poured 102 glasses of this beverage -- 19 more 'drinkings' for every man, woman and child, compared to seven years ago. NPD data show that this increase in soda consumption is four times more than that of any other food or beverage item.

The NPD Group is an international marketing information company based in Port Washington, N.Y.