Latest Food Industry Facts and Statistics

Last Updated on 06/02/2022 by TheDigitalHacker

Introduction

The food industry has seen rapid growth over the years and it is among one of the industries in the world. The revenue generated through home deliveries alone makes this industry attractive for business enthusiasts. Large food chains like McDonald’s, KFC, Dominos, etc. are constantly expanding and reaching new markets. The following stats cover areas related to technology, fast food, online trends, digital marketing, etc.

General Overview

1. World food retail sales generate over $4 trillion per year.
2. The industry is not concentrated, with the 50 leading food manufacturers representing under a fifth of world packaged food sales.
3. The fruit and vegetable market leads the food industry at almost 64%.
4. The Asia-Pacific region accounts for over 45% of the overall market.
5. In the frozen food segment, meat leads at over 40% of overall market value.
6. The EU holds close to 38% of the market.
7. Brasil Foods is the world leader in the frozen foods market, accounting for 5% of the overall market share.
8. Revenue in the Food market amounts to US$8,945,354m in 2021. The market is expected to grow annually by 4.50% (CAGR 2021-2026).
9. The market’s largest segment is the segment Confectionery & Snacks with a market volume of US$1,592,401m in 2021.
10. In global comparison, most revenue is generated in China (US$1,346,515m in 2021).
11. In relation to total population figures, per person revenues of US$1,186.10 are generated in 2021.
12. 7.1% of total consumer spending on food, drink, and tobacco products will be attributable to online retail in 2021.
13. In the Food market, volume is expected to amount to 3,079,107.8mkg by 2026. The Food market is expected to show a volume growth of -0.2% in 2022.
14. The average volume per person in the Food market is expected to amount to 364.4kg in 2021.
15. The 15 leading global supermarket companies represent around one-third of global supermarket sales.
16. The food industry encompasses several categories of food including dairy, fish & seafood, eggs, fruit and vegetables, luxury food, organic food, meat & poultry, packaged food, cereal-based products as well as functional food such as vitamins and nutraceuticals.
17. Areas exhibiting market concentration include sales of branded goods such as baby food and breakfast cereal.

Top 5 countries in Revenue Generation

1. China 1,346,515
2. United States 985,605
3. India 737,828
4. Japan 737,709
5. Indonesia 306,176
6. Before the pandemic, more than one million restaurants were operating in the United States. After the novel coronavirus hit, 110,000 dining and drinking venues closed down temporarily—or for good—as of Dec. 1, 2020. (Biz New Orleans, 2021)
7. Restaurant sales dropped $240 billion in 2020. Previous projections hit $899 billion. (Biz New Orleans, 2021)
8. Over 200 million US consumers went to a sit-down restaurant in 2018. (Statista, 2021)
9. 65% of restaurant guests like to control how much they tip, rather than adopt the tip-free movement. (7Shifts)
10. 13% of consumers are brand loyal to their preferred restaurants. (Facebook, 2019)
11. People in Alaska spend the most money on dining out, as they shell out an average of $3,572 per year. (Business Insider, 2019)
12. 60% of restaurants that offer delivery generated incremental sales. (Restaurant Business)
13. The average American household spends an average of $3,008 per year dining out. (CNBC)
14. 39% of adults are not eating out at restaurants as often as they would like. (NetWaiter, 2020)
15. 72% of diners prioritize the quality of food above other conditions when choosing a restaurant to dine in. (NetWaiter, 2020)
16. With the cannabidiol or CBD industry flourishing, the restaurant industry is also exploring its creative uses in the food and drink. Indeed, 75% of chefs said that CBD-infused drinks are trending in the sector. (NetWaiter, 2020)
17. Gen Zers make up 10% of food service traffic. (Meat+Poultry, 2019)
18. 5% of operators opened virtual or ghost kitchens since the start of the pandemic. (Nation’s Restaurant News, 2021)
19. Nearly 64% of consumers would still prefer going to a restaurant over delivery and ordering via smartphone or tablet. (Nation’s Restaurant News, 2021)

Restaurants in the Time of the Pandemic

1. There was only a 38% increase in searches on Yelp for Chinese food around Lunar New Year in 2020. (Eater, 2020)
2. Chinese restaurants’ share of phone calls, website clicks, delivery orders, reviews, and similar decreased by 20% in the first three weeks of February 2020. (Eater, 2020)
3. People reduced their visits to casual dining restaurants; visits declined 8% to 12% around February 24, 2020. (Eater, 2020)
4. Full-service restaurants also experienced a 31% drop by March 3, 2020. (Eater, 2020)
5. Restaurant sales are anticipated to rise 10.2% in 2021. However, this may not be enough to help the industry recover from pandemic-induced losses. (Nation’s Restaurant News, 2021)
6. Visits to full-service restaurants in the United States have declined by nearly 50% because of Covid-19 restrictions and fears. (Statista, 2021)
7. As of February 2, 2021, the global year-on-year change in seated restaurant diners is -65.19%. (OpenTable, 2021)
8. As of January 25, 2021, the year-on-year daily change in seated restaurant diners in the US is -65.91%. (OpenTable, 2021)
9. From March 21, 2020, to April 30, 2020, the year-on-year daily change figure was 100% because of the total lockdown in the United States enforced due to Covid-19. (OpenTable, 2021)
10. The United Kingdom and Germany are the worst off with almost 100% year-on-year daily change as of February 2, 2021. This coincides with the tighter restrictions in the two countries due to rising cases as well as new variants of Covid-19. (OpenTable, 2021)
11. Globally, as of February 2, 2021, the percentage of diners at restaurants open for reservations is 55.33%. The highest it has been so far being 91.46% on January 31, 2021. (OpenTable, 2021)

Digital Marketing Statistics for Restaurants

1. 56% of traffic to food brand websites comes from search engines, making SEO the best marketing strategy for their business. (The Business Journals)
2. 88% of restaurants use a marketing service to advertise their store. (National Restaurant Association, 2020)
3. 90% of customers take the time to research a restaurant before dining. (Upserve, 2019)
4. Local searches for restaurants using mobile devices are increasing 50% faster than overall mobile searches. (NetWaiter, 2020)
5. Google search for the string “Can you freeze” hit an all-time high of 99.62% sometime after March 15, 2020. This is most likely due to people wanting to extend the shelf-life of foodstuffs they bought. (Eater, 2020)

Use of Social Media in the Food Industry

1. Facebook ($6.28 CPM), Instagram ($5.68), and LinkedIn ($2 CPM) are the best ways to advertise your business at a low cost. (Small Business Trends)
2. 79% of Americans are currently active on social media. (Edison Research, 2019)
3. 67% of restaurants pay for social media ads in 2019. (Toast, 2019)
4. 33% of restaurants use Instagram as their social media platform of choice. (Toast, 2018)
5. 92% of diners read restaurant reviews before visiting. (Upserve, 2019)
6. 77% of restaurant-goers trust peer reviews rather than critic reviews. (Upserve, 2019)
7. 33% of consumers refuse to go to restaurants that have fewer than four stars on their reviews. (Upserve, 2019)
8. 35% of diners say that online reviews help influence their decision when choosing a place to dine. (Toast, 2019)
9. 84% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust their friends’ opinions. (NetWaiter, 2020)

Fast Food Industry

1. The fast-food industry revenue in the US alone makes about $110 billion annually. (Statistic Brain)
2. 50 million Americans eat fast food every day. (Statistic Brain)
3. A complete fast food meal is 37% of your daily calories. (Statistic Brain)
4. McDonald’s is more recognized than the Christian Cross. 88% of individuals in a survey correctly identified the fast-food giant’s logo compared to 54% who recognized the Christian symbol. (Marketing Week)
5. Fast food restaurants are expected to keep growing at 2% annually through 2020. (Brandon Gaille)
6. There are nearly 200,000 fast-food franchises in the US as of 2020. (Statista, 2020)
7. Since fast food’s introduction in 1921, it has become one of America’s preferred ways to dine. One of the reasons service in these establishments is fast is thanks to their POS systems that keep lines short.

Retail Food Industry

1. $2.97 billion was spent on ads for grocery stores in 2019. (Schonfeld & Associates, 2020)
2. 4.8 million people are currently employed in the grocery industry in the United States. (Brandon Gaille)
3. Grocery stores hold a 92.4% market share in traditional food store sales. Brandon Gaille)
4. 50% of US households spend $110 a week on food at their local supermarket. (Brandon Gaille)
5. 21% of shoppers frequently use coupons for their food delivery purchases. (Brandon Gaille)
6. 79% of Millennials like to experiment with products from different countries. (Global Data)
7. The retail and grocery store industry earned a total of $660.6 billion in revenues in 2018. (Plunket Research)
8. 50% of shoppers and diners prefer printed receipts, 36% digital receipts, and 14% don’t want a receipt at all. (Toast, 2019)
9. When cities started preparing to enforce full lockdowns, visits to bulk-buy grocery stores such as Costco and Sam’s Club spiked. In Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City, visits were up almost 39% from February 19 to March 13, 2020. (Eater, 2020)

The Packaged Food Industry

1. Packaged Food Industry is valued at $377 billion. (Supermarket News)
2. Packaged food sales in the US reached $372.77 billion in 2017. (Brandon Gaille)

Employment

1. There are 15.1 million restaurant industry employees in the United States. (National Restaurant Association, 2020)
2. 10% of the overall US workforce is in the restaurant industry. (National Restaurant Association, 2020)
3. 70% of restaurant employees want hands-on training with their managers. (7Shifts)
4. 40% of restaurant employees say there is a lack of team-building events and activities. (Upserve, 2020)
5. 1 in 3 Americans worked in a restaurant for their first job- 6 in 10 adults worked in a restaurant at some point. (National Restaurant Association, 2019)
6. Restaurants in the US have a 75% turnover rate, an all-time high. (Toast, 2019)
7. 53% of restaurants in the US offer food safety and alcohol certification training. (Toast, 2019)
8. The total number of hours worked for restaurants dropped by 40% by March 17, 2020, as restaurants were ordered to close. (Eater, 2020)
9. The number of hourly workers in restaurants went down by 45%. (Eater, 2020)
10. The food industry lost almost 2.5 million jobs in 2020. (Biz New Orleans, 2021)

Latest Technologies

1. 80% of restaurants are turning to technology to reach more customers. (National Restaurant Association)
2. 6% of orders placed in restaurants are made via smartphones. (Fortune)
3. 68% of customers say that a server tablet improves their experience. (Fast Casual)
4. Online grocery shopping is expected to be a $100 billion industry by 2020. (Supermarket News)
5. 37% of restaurant operators consider customer orders as the most crucial area of technology development. (National Restaurant Association)
6. 81% of restaurants use an electronic registration system. (National Restaurant Association)
7. Digital ordering and delivery saw a 300% increase since 2014. (National Restaurant News)
8. 45% of consumers agree that mobile ordering and loyalty programs make them more likely to do business with a store often. (National Restaurant News)
9. 47% of restaurant owners say that if they had the resources, they would update or repair their current equipment. (Toast, 2019)
10. Only 31% of restaurants offer a mobile payment option for their customers. (Toast, 2019)
11. 73% of diners say that restaurant technology helps improve their dining experience. (Toast)
12. 21%–that is the average increase in orders in restaurants after they utilized in-house kiosks. (NetWaiter, 2020)
13. A digital menu board can increase sales anywhere from 3% to 5%. Customers’ perceived waiting time reduces by around 40% with this technology. (NetWaiter, 2020)
14. Instacart, a grocery delivery app, had a 215% increase in downloads between February 14 and March 15, as Americans started choosing to eat inside the house rather than dining out. (Eater, 2020)
15. 25% of restaurant owners enabled customers to order through apps after the pandemic hit. (Nation’s Restaurant News, 2021)
16. Part of the food industry market growth is incorporating the top accounting software. And so, together with state-of-the-art hardware, it helps keep your business up and running smoothly.

Most Popular Restaurant Management Software

1. Upserve: Upserve, a restaurant point-of-sale software, has built-in payments and restaurant-grade terminals. Learn more in our full Upserve review.
2. Clover: Clover is an integrated POS software that supports small and medium restaurants. Our Clover review touches on some of its key features.
3. Sapaad: an affordable, user-friendly POS software designed for restaurants, cafes, and fast-food chains of all sizes and hosted in the cloud. We discuss more of its capabilities in our Sapaad review.
4. Oracle Hospitality: Our Oracle Hospitality review details its features designed to help businesses in the hospitality industry streamline operations and elevate the guest experience.
5. Revel Systems POS: An intuitive POS tool for re-shaping your business, whether in food or retail. Our Revel Systems POS review reveals its complete feature set.

Conclusion

Social media platforms are proving to be a great source for advertisements that reach out to a large number of people at an affordable cost. Advanced software is put to use by restaurants to track customer orders, deliveries, manage inventories, and many more operations. These factors lay out a steady and positive path to the success of the food industry.