Business Insights estimates the U.S. and European diet food and beverage market at roughly $116.5 billion and growing, but it also has found that, even among products with a weight-management positioning, taste is the overriding factor influencing consumer preferences, even ahead of the product’s effectiveness at managing weight.
Some efforts at reducing consumers’ calorie consumption may, in fact, be backfiring to a degree. Technomic research finds nearly half of consumers (48%) indicate they now snack at least twice a day, compared with 25% in 2010. Restaurants, to capitalize on this snacking sentiment, are offering quick, portable, smaller-portioned and reduced-calorie options, a strategy that has led restaurants to capture 22% of consumers’ snacking occasions, sharply up from the 17% share just two years ago.