Top Consumer Trends News

Red Mango Finally Rolls Out Mango Flavor

It’s finally here! After many repeated requests from thousands of fans on Facebook and Twitter, Red Mango is introducing its newest frozen yogurt flavor, mango, in stores nationwide. “I’m very excited to finally introduce our very own mango frozen yogurt to all our fans,” says Dan Kim, founder and chief concept officer of one of […]

Moms Decide on Dining, Especially Among Immigrants

The past 30 years have seen an increase in immigrants from Asia, Latin America, Central America, and South America come to the United States. A new study by Technomic and C3 finds that regardless of ethnicity, moms are the most likely members of their families to make decisions on restaurant patronage and that, despite their […]

Optimize Your Site for Mobile as Fast as a ‘Fiddle’

With smartphones penetrating more of the consumer market every day, one upstart company is helping quick serves and other businesses optimize their websites for mobile devices through a process that takes just a few minutes. Web2Mobile’s new product, FiddleFly, offers a customizable template that businesses can use to adapt their existing websites to mobile-optimized ones. […]

Consumers Don’t Mind Feeding Sweet Tooth With HFCS

Most consumers look to avoid total added sugars, not high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) specifically, according to a recent study designed and executed by Mintel Research Consultancy. In the study, more than 2,000 consumers were asked a series of questions about their dietary habits. By asking participants unaided (or open-ended) questions, the survey helped determine […]

Caribou Expands With Consumer Packaged Goods

Caribou Coffee announced today its partnership with CROSSMARK, a leading sales and marketing services company in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, to assist Caribou with the expansion of its packaged coffee business. "Growing our CPG business remains a top priority, as we continue on our path to becoming a leading, multi-channel coffee company,” says […]

Charley’s Grilled Subs Gets on Board With Korean Trend

As a response to customer demand, Charley’s Grilled Subs will debut its Spicy Asian BBQ Chicken sandwich nationwide this week, capitalizing on the trend of Korean-inspired flavors. The sandwich, offered for a limited time only, is grilled-to-order and is prepared with all-natural chicken,grilled onions, creamy white American cheese, crisp cucumber, and Charley’s signature Spicy Asian […]

Sustainability Will Reign at Northwest Conference

Hosted by Salem, Oregon-based Truitt Bros. on August 14-16, the fourth annual “Northwest Discovery Tour” will go straight to the source of the sustainable movement—the Pacific Northwest—to demonstrate how responsible foods can lead to menus that are more wholesome and healthful to the consumer. From a base of Portland, Oregon, a series of keynote presentations, […]

Consumers Are More Conscious of Portions

Portion control is a tenet of healthy eating, and it appears that consumers are increasingly aware of the importance of managing the portion size of the foods they eat, according to The NPD Group, a leading market research company.  For a recent report entitled Healthy Eating Strategies by Generation, NPD compiled a list of 30 […]

Smoothie King, ExerciseTV Partner for Weight Loss

Smoothie King, the 1973 creator of the nutritional smoothie, in partnership with Nutrition53, unveils its new smoothie designed specifically to help lose fat, curb hunger, and tone muscle, with the debut of its new Lean1 Smoothie. Created to satisfy the increasing demand for accessible weight loss solutions, the nutritious Lean1 Smoothie is formulated with Nutrition53's Lean1 […]

‘Nosh’ On Menu Items, Review Them With New App

A technology start-up hopes its new iPhone and Android app will piggyback on the popularity of restaurant review sites like Yelp, but by focusing not on the restaurant but on the food itself. Nosh, an app released by Firestarter Labs last week, lets users rate and review individual menu items within a restaurant and share […]

Bigger Fish to Fry? Seafood Servings Decline

The decline in seafood servings at U.S. restaurants has less to do with natural and man-made disasters such as the Gulf Oil spill and more to do with the economy and price, according to The NPD Group, a leading market research company. NPD’s foodservice market research finds that total seafood and fried seafood servings have been declining for several […]

SandwichPro Analyzes Trends, Researches Market Strategies

Which sandwich meat is most popular? What breads are customers scrambling to buy? How much more will guests pay for a branded condiment? SandwichPro.com, powered by Unilever Food Solutions, features insightful tidbits based on the company’s years of experience and product offerings, making it easy to find the sandwich information you need. The research tab of SandwichPro.com brings […]

Dunkin’ Wants You to Beat the Heat

This summer, Dunkin' Donuts is once again celebrating the flavorful fun of "Mixology" by adding to its menu an exciting array of new and refreshing Coolatta flavor mixes. The Coolatta drink flavor combinations have expanded with the recent introduction of Dunkin' Donuts' new Cherry-flavored Captain America Coolatta, which offers more variety and endless combinations.   […]

Egg Market’s Not Cracking

Whether it’s hard-boiled, over-easy, or poached; used for breakfast, lunch, or dinner; or in baked goods or sauces, the egg is truly the MVP of the kitchen. Not surprisingly, penetration is extremely high and egg use remains steady at 94 percent of all U.S.households, according to a recent Mintel report. A whopping 92 percent of […]

Fast Food Closing in on Full Service in Customer Satisfaction

The quick-service industry is closing the customer satisfaction gap standing between it and the full-service industry, according to a new study. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), released today, found that customer satisfaction with the quick-serve industry had increased 5.3 percent between 2010 and 2011, to a score of 79 out of 100. The full-service […]

Consumers Turning to Subway for Health

Subway, which recently passed McDonald’s as the world’s largest restaurant chain, is capturing more than 76 percent of the health-oriented purchases made at major fast food restaurants. This is among the findings of QSRDNA, a massive independent benchmark survey of the annual shopping habits of more than 15,000 quick-serve restaurant (QSR) customers conducted by CustomersDNA, […]

Diners Don’t Want to Pay More for Healthy

The expanding waistlines of U.S. consumers have created a flurry of governmental and restaurant industry actions aimed at getting Americans to eat more healthfully. Consumers are slowly getting the hint, but they don’t want to pay more for healthier restaurant food, according to a recently-released report by The NPD Group, a leading market research company.  The […]

McDonald’s Tops BK, But Wendy’s Still Has Most Buzz

For the first time since September, McDonald’s surpassed Burger King as a more “buzzed about” burger brand—but it’s still second to Wendy’s. According to the YouGov BrandIndex, a consumer perception research service of brands, McDonald’s passed Burger King in May in the BrandIndex’s “buzz score,” which measures consumer feedback of brands. As of June 3, […]

11 Restaurant Trends for ’11

ZenMango, a restaurant marketing firm, released 11 trends in 2011 that are influencing the way customers perceive and use the restaurant landscape. The trends include: 1. Consumers are still eating out less: Fourty-four percent of restaurant consumers stated that they are eating out less often. Women, those over 40, and those earning under $35K per year […]

Baked Goods Hit the Spot for Consumers

Baked goods have always provided nostalgic comfort, but today's new offerings also deliver premium twists, global flavor adventure, and never-before-seen convenience, according to the "Baked Goods: Culinary Trend Mapping Report" from Center for Culinary Development (CCD) and leading market research publisher Packaged Facts. Found in nearly every channel, these newsworthy sweet and savory baked foods […]

Americans Want Sweet, Canadians Want Salty

Cross-border differences and similarities between Canadians and Americans have been revealed via two studies by leading market research company, The NPD Group. According to A Look into the Future of Eating-Canadian Marketplace and A Look into the Future of Eating-United States Marketplace, Americans are projected to increase their consumption of sweet snacks and desserts three times more than Canadians […]

The New School Lunch

Parents in favor of healthier lunch options for their kids usually have to choose between preparing the lunches themselves or sending their kids off to school with hopes that they don’t seek out something processed in the cafeteria. But as demands increase across the foodservice industry for healthy, convenient alternatives for kids, one quick serve […]

American Consumers are Getting Saucy

The return to the kitchen that has been seen throughout the U.S. recession has amped up many food and drink segment, and the sauces and marinades market is joining the upward swing. According to latest research from Mintel, the cooking sauces and marinades category gained 20 percent in U.S. retail sales between 2005 and 2010 and […]

LIVE: Yelp Empowers Operators to Fight Bad Reviews

Yelp!, the online retail and service review site, is on the floor at the NRA Show in Chicago for the first time to help restaurateurs learn how to deal with negative reviews. Luther Lowe, business outreach manager at Yelp, told QSR at the show that many restaurant operators are not comfortable “with the idea that […]

LIVE: Making Healthy Kids’ Meals Doesn’t Have to Be Hard

Three prominent dieticians told a crowd at the 2011 NRA Show in Chicago that foodservice operators have many opportunities to help combat the growing childhood obesity epidemic. Joy Dubost, director of nutrition and healthy living for the NRA; Judith Rodriguez, president of the American Dietetic Association; and Amy Myrdal Miller, program director for strategic initiatives […]