The Shape of Eating Now
What emerging routines reveal about real demand
By now, it should be clear that the structure of meals is dissolving. It’s a reorganisation of demand itself. Today, behaviour responds to context, not the clock.
This behavioural reset is visible in a host of measurable ways — and it’s happening fast.
Across six major European markets, the number of total eating and drinking occasions is down –1.1% in 2024 vs. 2023. But it’s not an even decline. It’s highly concentrated in specific types of moments. The sharpest reductions are in snacking occasions, with consumers dialling back less essential bites while preserving those that feel purposeful or emotionally relevant. Even meals that once felt untouchable are changing shape.
What’s replacing them? Three territories stand out.
1. Restore & Replenish: The rising Demand Moment
Restore & Replenish is now the fastest-growing Demand Moment across Europe. It’s a macro moment that makes up 23% of all food and drink occasions, up +0.7 percentage points in just one year, surpassing even “Taking Time Together” (23%) and “Unwind & Relax” (15%). These are moments of functional recovery — a quick, nourishing, solo reset, often during the workday or post-activity.
What drives this moment?
Product availability is the top trigger, with an index of 145 — if it’s in the fridge, it’s consumed.
The need to consume before expiry is high (index 133), reflecting pragmatic, low-waste decisions.
Health benefits (index 103) and diet alignment (index 106) also factor in, showing a strong connection to nutritional intent.
These aren’t indulgent or leisurely experiences. They’re utilitarian — but meaningful. They reflect a shift in how people care for themselves amid the demands of modern life.
2. Simple & Healthy: Where health meets speed
The second key shift is the emergence of Simple & Healthy, a subset of the broader Restore & Replenish territory — moments where consumers want food that’s good for them, quick to make, and easy to eat. These moments now account for 11% of total occasions and skew heavily toward weekdays, older demographics (Gen X, Boomers), and preparation windows between 11 and 20 minutes.
They’re defined not by what’s cooked, but what’s not. No starter. No dessert. Often, no side dish. The food still needs to feel complete, but not complicated.
3. Breakfast: Changes from within, the new menu logic
Breakfast is where these signals are most pronounced. Savoury breakfast is up 1% year-on-year and 6% compared to 2019. In Spain, savoury breakfasts now account for a staggering 38% of all breakfast occasions, with fast-rising items including eggs, avocado, nuts, cheese, and cooked ham.
This signals two things:
First, a desire for protein, satiety, and real-food nutrition at the start of the day.
Second, a shift in how categories are used. Products once confined to lunch or snacks — like cheese or cooked ham — are now crossing into morning territory.
Categories are crumbling.
These shifts are all part of a broader simplification. In the past, formal meals were structured and multi-layered. Today, they’re flatter.
The single-bowl trend is one of the clearest illustrations of this shift. People aren’t building full plates; they’re assembling cohesive meals in one dish. That opens space for new product roles: sauces, toppings, grains, and enhancements. Items once seen as accessories can now anchor an eating occasion if they deliver substance and satisfaction.
And there’s more. While total eating occasions may be slightly down, cuisine diversity is increasing. In the UK, France, and Spain, ethnic dishes and pizza are both up +1% year-on-year, while potato-based dishes are up +7%. At the same time, salads (-7%) and pasta (-3%) are in decline. This points to a preference for meals that offer warmth, comfort, and variety, often shaped by restaurant or foodservice trends around the world.
The implication for brands is clear: fixed category roles are fading. Food is being reinterpreted based on context. Yoghurts, once seen as end of meal in France, are becoming a central element in breakfasts. Sauces become mainstays. Cheese moves from board to a between-meal snack.
And while many brands continue to invest in new SKUs or flavour variants, that alone won’t drive growth. What matters more is use case versatility — the ability to show up in different moments with relevance. That’s where Spread Score becomes essential.
Because every one of these shifts — from Simplified Menus to Savoury Breakfast, from Restore & Replenish to Global Cuisine — is a signal that real demand is fluid. And only brands that move with it will grow.
Stretch with integrity, grow with purpose
Brands today face a consumption landscape where categories leak into each other and behaviour resists prediction. In this world, brand presence can rarely be enough. Success will come with flexibility; on being able to meet people where they are, with what they need, in the moment.
Enter Demand Spread Score: a behavioural KPI built for a fragmented world.
Traditional metrics like penetration, share, or sales volumes tell you how much your brand is bought. Demand Spread Score tells you how widely and evenly your brand is used across real-life moments. It captures relevance, not just reach.
Demand Spread Score is built on two simple but powerful dimensions:
Why it matters: The growth link
The numbers are compelling. Across 5,000 brands in Great Britain, those with increasing Spread Scores were four times more likely to grow in consumption occasions year-on-year. In Spain, the multiplier is threefold, based on a similar study across 5,600 brands. This pattern holds consistently across six major markets we examined.
Why does Demand Spread Score correlate so strongly with growth?
Because versatile brands flex with behaviour. They’re not tied to a single occasion or rigid usage pattern. They migrate with ease — from snack to ingredient, from solo treat to shared meal. They don’t chase trends. They fit naturally into new ones.
CASE IN POINT
Let’s take two well-known brands in the UK:
Kit Kat ranks 18th in Worldpanel’s Brand Footprint (BFP), but it’s slipped two places, partly because its Demand Spread Score is relatively low at 31. That means it’s present in fewer types of eating occasions.
Snickers, by contrast, is ranked much lower at 176 overall, but it’s gaining ground — up five places — and has one of the highest Demand Spread Scores in the UK at 50.
Snickers shows up in more types of moments (100% coverage) and spreads its presence across a wider range (50% dispersion). Kit Kat appears in fewer occasions (86% coverage) and is more concentrated in just a few types (36% dispersion).
This isn’t necessarily bad — it reflects different approaches. Kit Kat focuses on format and flavour innovation within a core moment like “sofa and chill.” Snickers, on the other hand, stretches further: it’s found in ice cream, cereal and protein bars, and even dairy desserts — making it more present in meal occasions too.
Heinz — a brand deeply associated with cooking and meal moments around the world — shows that even a global icon sees demand shaped very differently by market.
In the UK, Heinz scores 37 on our Demand Spread Score, with 85% coverage and six distinct demands accounting for 80% of its consumption. That makes it a highly versatile brand. In Brazil, by contrast, Heinz scores just 16. Coverage drops below 60%, and only four core demands explain most occasions. Here, it plays a narrower, more specialised role.
What’s behind the gap? Portfolio breadth. In the UK, Heinz spans six or more categories — from table and cooking sauces to soups, ready meals, and canned tomatoes. That allows it to show up at many points in the cooking process and across a wide range of meals. In Brazil, it’s primarily a ketchup and table sauce brand. That limits its ability to stretch into new needs and occasions.
This illustrates a critical point: brand versatility depends not only on equity, but on presence. Where a brand shows up, how it’s used, and how many moments it participates in all shape its relevance. For ingredient brands in particular, local portfolio strategy plays a central role in unlocking growth.
This is proof that versatility drives relevance, and relevance drives frequency, penetration, and growth. In other words, it’s not a popularity contest.
Brands with high Spread Scores behave differently. They become “Everywhere Brands” — products that turn up in unexpected but meaningful ways. A cheese brand that used to sit on a cracker now powers a protein-rich breakfast. A soft drink once seen as indulgent now plays in refreshment and recovery.
These brands move in two directions:
Upward: Scaling from snack to meal, from supporting role to centreplate.
Sideways: Crossing into adjacent categories or dayparts — without changing the product, just reframing its job.
And crucially, Spread Score helps quantify this shift early. It reveals the bridges between moments, showing where a product’s next opportunity might live.
