NEW YORK – The most important meal of the day is increasingly being consumed twice, reports the Wall Street Journal, and we’re not talking about all-day breakfast.
“After years of fretting that people had stopped eating breakfast, or simply nibbled on the go, food makers and restaurants are discovering” that people want to eat breakfast more than once in the morning, notes the news source.
“We see a lot of people grab something when they’re rushing out the door, then they have a second breakfast once they make it to their desk,” Siggi Hilmarsson, founder and CEO of Skyr Corp., maker of Siggi’s yogurts, told the Journal. In January, the Icelandic company introduced its first single-serve yogurt drink and soon realized through social media that consumers were drinking the product as an early morning, pre-work meal. A more substantial breakfast would typically follow later in the morning, he added.
Pret A Manger locations in the United States experience high-traffic volume between 8 am and 9:30 am, and then a second rush around 10:30 am. “[Customers] are having that second breakfast,” Jo Brett, U.S. president of Pret A Manger, told the Journal. “People are eating more little portions, more often.”
In response to demand for smaller servings, Pret A Manger is expanding its selection of pots (small portions of foods like fruit, yogurt and hard-boiled eggs), and new pots will include more protein and vegetable options.
Food manufacturers are also realizing that the second breakfast is more than a late-morning coffee break. The Journal notes that Jimmy Dean, for example, brought to market a line of microwavable hash browns stuffed with ingredients like sausage, cheese, bacon and veggies for the growing “midmorning meal occasion,” according to Tracy Fadden, director of marketing for Jimmy Dean, a unit of Tyson Foods Inc. Fadden adds that portability is also crucial, since most people often eat breakfast while driving or typing.
Nielsen says that increasing popularity of double breakfasts is also boosting sales of “convenient breakfast foods,” with sales of frozen breakfast entrees increasing 24% over the past five years, and frozen breakfast sandwiches increasing 30%. “It’s a smaller format that fits in your hand while commuting and fits the idea of the snackification of breakfast,” Jordan Rost, Nielsen’s vice president of consumer insights, told the Journal.
Jeanine Bassett, vice president of global consumer insights at General Mills Inc., commented that the second breakfast tends to be smaller and slightly more savory than first breakfast. This year the company launched Yoplait Dippers, a line of Greek yogurts with snacks for dipping. “It really skews second breakfast,” Bassett told the Journal.
The company’s new Nature Valley line of granola cups, made of peanut or almond butter poured over oats and nuts, are also geared toward the late-morning eaters. “This is about food that I can eat when I’m working at my computer, when I need something smaller that’s less messy and less involved,” Bassett said.
Read more about maximizing the morning daypart in the January 2016 NACS Magazine cover story, “The Most Important Meal of the Day.”