How do you eat yours?

he last year alone has seen fruit and vegetables consumed at more than 24 billion meals - that’s breakfasts, lunches and dinners, at home or out and about, and all the snacks in between.

It can seem daunting to try to establish what is eaten when and how, but this information will make a springboard for the latest trends and help track how the fresh produce category will develop in the future. It’s a secret weapon for the backbone of the sector, from new product development to marketing and even merchandisers.

The latest Kantar Worldpanel Usage figures for the 12 months ending August 2011 show the consumption habits of 11,000 individuals that are demographically representative of the British population. Numbers crunched, they are a powerful tool for getting a handle on exactly where the newest opportunities are for fresh produce players. But what does the data mean for the industry?

There are some key differences between fruit and vegetables, as you would expect. Two thirds of fresh vegetables (66 per cent) are eaten at teatime or as part of an evening meal and 25 per cent are consumed for lunch at home. These three key mealtimes, however, only account for 39 per cent of fresh fruit consumption. Nearly a quarter of fruit (23 per cent) is scoffed when it is taken back out of the home and 18 per cent is had for breakfast. In fact, fruit is preferred by women and children, with kids accounting for 21 per cent of consumption and women over 45 consuming 31 per cent of all meals featuring fruit.

The reasons for choosing fruit or vegetables differ too. The majority of people (70 per cent) eat fruit because it is healthy, but this isn’t as important a factor for eating vegetables (37 per cent) because there is a much wider range of drivers and motivations.

This is mostly because vegetables are mainly cooked and served hot (73 per cent), so being complementary to other foods is a factor (17 per cent) and a further 20 per cent is driven by other practical needs, like whether they are quick to cook (four per cent), filling (four per cent) or habitual (six per cent).

The most popular method of cooking vegetables is to boil them (44 per cent), followed by roasting/baking (19 per cent), steaming (13 per cent) and frying (10 per cent) among the other options.

The figures flag up some concerns. The health message remains inconsistent across the two categories, with fruit the clear winner.

The fact that consumers are going to vegetables for “practical” reasons is a worry and there is potential to refresh traditional cooking methods to show consumers just how versatile they can be.

And interestingly, there is room to appeal to male consumers, who are often marginalised in analysis.

That’s just a start. Danielle Pinnington, MD of consumer insight specialist Shoppercentric, insists usage behaviour becomes relevant when it changes shopping behaviour. The two, she insists, are inextricably linked.

“These findings highlight that people are shopping in a functional way rather than being tempted to consider things that you wouldn’t normally,” she says. “You should be seeing a bigger response to health, but you need a better point of sale to engage consumers in that way.

“Shoppers are always open to ideas but they need to be persuaded when they are shopping, rather than when they are at home. The more a fixture can be brought to life, the more you will drive these impulses and that’s when people spend more than you would expect.”

But the fresh produce industry has yet to reach the level of insight achieved by other grocery products that it shares the shopping basket with. Only the most forward-thinking suppliers track exactly what consumers want, examining both the fixture and asking what happens at home, usually through focus groups and an array of consumer insight analysts.

Anthony Gardiner, marketing director at major supplier G’s Fresh, admits that generally, there is “more to be done at the fixture and on packaging to make vegetables more engaging for the consumer”.

“It’s not that exciting,” he says. “That’s an attitude that’s taken from the fixture into the home. As a company, we have done a lot of work to enhance the fixture. Consumers want to be inspired, but consumer marketing within fresh produce is still relatively untapped. We have not gone the same way as the rest of the grocery market, which has embraced it.”

It is especially important to keep up to date at a time when consumer behaviour is continuing to change in response to economic ups and downs. In fact, the way people are shopping and eating has changed more in the last few years than it has for decades.

“People are being more prudent,” says Pinnington. “There has been a return to home values and home-made food, cooking from scratch and avoiding waste. This has impacted consumer attitudes to fresh produce and how they are buying it as well.

“People are planning their meals more. There is better housekeeping coming through. Shoppers are asking, what meals will I make this week? What do I need? Instead of seeing a promotion and thinking, I’ll have that, they are asking themselves if they really need it.

“This a big change from 2008, before the economic crisis hit, when shoppers were buying whatever was on offer. In terms of fresh produce, there has been a definite kickback against multibuys. Shoppers are thinking, am I actually going to use these things before they go off? What was a bargain now seems like a waste of time. At the same time, there has been a shift towards frozen vegetables as a more effective way of buying products they know they won’t use as quickly as they mean to.

“The question is, are retailers selling produce in the right way? Are pack sizes making sense? Are promotional offers making sense? The supermarkets have to understand the decisions that people are making and stock accordingly.”

This is happening already. Sainsbury’s initiatives such as Feed Your Family for a Fiver and Marks & Spencer’s Dine in for £10, for example, are tapping into these trends and rival retailers have followed suit.

“These solutions messages work brilliantly at the moment,” says Pinnington. “They are tapping into the new consumer mindset. The idea is that here is everything for your meal, packaged in a money-saving way.

“But there is still a need to educate people and help them make the most of what they are buying. If consumers don’t use it all in one go, what else could they do with it? They are looking for inspiration, whether they shop at Waitrose or Asda.”

This is key as shopping and eating habits evolve. Understanding what is going on at home is vital to stepping up the fixture and with that, boosting sales. -