Food Consumption
Providing data, analytics, and expertise about:
Food
Drinks
Snacks
No one knows more about how people eat and drink than The NPD Group. For decades, we’ve been the definitive source of information on food and beverage consumption, both at home and away from home. By tracking consumer behavior, attitudes, and usage motivators, we help you stay on top of the latest food industry trends. We also offer a suite of forward-looking reports to guide your data-driven decision strategy with expert insights and food industry forecasts.
Insights @npdfood

February 22, 2021
From Animal Meat to Fungi, U.S. Consumers Tap into A Host of Sources to Get More Protein into Their Diets
January 13, 2021
Over the Past Five Years, U.S. Consumers Added 25 Between-Meal Snacking Occasions Per Capita
December 9, 2020
Despite COVID Surges, U.S. Restaurant Transaction Declines in November Improved Slightly from October with the Help of Quick Service Restaurant Chains
November 19, 2020
Consumers’ Top Plant-Based Choices at Home Are Dairy Alternatives, and from Restaurants, It’s Meat Analogues
September 29, 2020
How Purchasing for the Home Has Changed: Implications for Holiday 2020 and BeyondData
National Eating Trends®
National Eating Trends® (NET®) monitors thousands of individuals’ eating habits each year to provide a complete view of food and beverage consumption in the U.S. Go beyond supermarket scanner and purchase panel data and understand when, where, why, and how food is consumed.
Contact usSnackTrack®
Uncover attitude, behavior, and usage drivers behind the consumption of snack and convenience foods.
Contact usHealth Aspirations & Behavioral Tracking Service
Monitor dieting, other food related health strategies, attitudes, and more to compare to actual consumption habits and fully understand how consumers think and act.
Learn More Contact usNET® Kitchen Audit
Identify new opportunities based on the items consumers already have or do not have on-hand. Step inside America's kitchens with the most comprehensive view of the foods, beverages, gadgets, and other products in home kitchens.
Learn More Contact usPath to Consumption®
NPD can reveal consumers’ Path to Consumption® with a view of what happens after food and beverage products leave the store. This view includes understanding the motivations and needs consumers face each day and throughout the day when making meal and snack choices and how these needs are addressed.
NET® Shopper Insights
Links in-home consumption patterns captured by NET® to actual shopper behaviors so you can tailor your story when speaking with retailers, becoming the knowledge leader in your category to win at retail.
Learn More Contact usPrescriptive Analytics
NET® In-the-Moment Trigger Studies
These studies are automatically deployed when a consumption-related behavior of interest occurs, giving clients the opportunity to ask consumers questions to gain deeper insights while the event is top of mind.
Learn More Contact usThe Future of Dinner
Learn about the behaviors that will drive growth at dinner over the next five years in order so you can develop targeted products and determine the most effective ways to market them. Make confident, data-driven decisions with thorough, fact-based forecasts on how aging, macro-trends, and population shifts will affect food consumption in the future.
Learn More Contact usThe Future of Morning
This new report reveals how morning occasions will look in the future, uncovering your most promising opportunities for growth over the next five years. It Identifies potential risks and barriers to morning success so you can understand threats and take advantage of positive meal trends.
Learn More Contact usThe Future of Plant-Based Snapshot
Benefit from a current and forward-looking view of how consumers source and consume meat and dairy alternatives. It’s the key to understanding today’s plant-based consumer, examining the drivers of alternative meat and dairy categories, and preparing for expected changes.
Learn More Contact usThe Future of Snacking
Discover what snack food consumption will look like in the future and explore your most promising opportunities for growth over the next five years. The report identifies potential risks and barriers to snacking so you can understand threats and take advantage of positive trends.
Learn More Contact usReports
Eating Patterns in America, Annual Report
No other source tells you more about what Americans eat and drink… and how they think. Eating Patterns in America is your playbook to understand the future outlook for total food and beverage consumption, how the COVID-19 disruption has reshaped the foodservice landscape as well as eating behaviors, what’s in American’s pantry, the outlook for plant-based eating and more.
Learn More Contact usReturn to Workplace Report
The Return to Workplace Report follows the latest trends, tracking consumers who worked outside of the home prior to the pandemic and who have now begun to return to the workplace. It’s a new resource for guiding your decisions related to product, marketing, merchandising, and sales strategies so you can align with the consumer behavior changes in the new normal environment.
Learn More Contact usPlant-Based Report
Our Future of Plant-Based Report provides a current and future forward view of how consumers source and consume meat and dairy alternatives in home and away from home. Findings will help manufacturers, retailers and operators better understand today’s plant-based consumer, drivers of alternative meat and dairy categories, and prepare for expected changes.
Contact usInternational Food & Beverage Habits Study
Expansion into international markets offers large rewards but can come with substantial risks. Maximizing return by minimizing risk happens when the understanding of local behaviors and markets are used to create well-planned strategies. NPD’s study provides a view of consumption habits by capturing all foods and beverages consumed during a typical day both in and away from home.
Contact usConsumption Drivers: How Needs Shapes Choices
This report delves into the myriad choices and motivations at all day parts. See the motivations that drove each dining occasion and what’s truly behind our choices at all meal occasions.
Inside America’s Kitchens
For more than 20 years, we've asked American consumers to provide details about what they have in their kitchens and how they prepare and cook their meals. Get new insights from our report, Inside America's Kitchens, and learn how convenience and ready-to-eat food items are transforming the American kitchen.
Learn More Contact usMake It Happen for Gen Z
We find that personal value, more than brand loyalty, drives purchase behavior among Gen Zers. See what you need to do to meet this young generation’s needs when it comes to food.
Read More Contact usA Generational Study: The Evolution of Eating
Find out how the food and beverage consumption of key generations – Gen Z, Millennials, and Boomers – is set to change as these groups move through life stages. Our new report, A Generational Study: The Evolution of Eating, reveals whether their patterns will be similar to, or different from, those of previous generations. It’s how to develop marketing strategies and make long-range plans that position your business for growth.
Contact usSatisfying Our Thirst for Beverages Report
Beverages have shown waning popularity over the past several years, with sales declining by 4 percent since 2010. The industry expected an improving economy would bump up beverage orders. In fact, it seems consumers’ thirst for beverages at foodservice is not bouncing back. How can you give beverages a boost? Our new Satisfying Our Thirst for Beverages Report evaluates consumers’ beverage choices to determine why they order one beverage over another, what’s behind outlet choices when it comes to beverages, how beverage variety factors into their decisions, and more.
Contact usHow Consumers Define Clean Eating
Now you can determine whether targeting clean eaters is the right move for your business. Our new report, How Consumers Define Clean Eating, sizes the clean eating market, profiles the consumers engaged in clean eating, and reveals how primary grocery shoppers shop for foods that fit into this emerging lifestyle. You can use the report’s deep data and expert insights to understand consumer awareness of this trend and consumers’ ideas of what clean eating means.
Contact usIndustry Expertise
"Today, convenience is as highly valued as ever, but it’s taking on a new form. Consumers, who now desire natural foods, are shifting from convenient food to convenient preparation and procurement. This contributes to the growth in grocery e-commerce and restaurant delivery. In addition, American kitchens will be home to a variety of appliances and gadgets to facilitate cooking at home."

David Portalatin
Vice President, Industry Advisor