6 tasty morsels brands should know about summer eating habits
Streetbees spoke to over 3,300 people all around the world to find out what — and how — they like to eat in the summer months
Sun’s out, buns out? We asked our bees across the world — in the UK, US, India, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and the Philippines — how their eating habits change when the summer rolls round each year.
1. Better weather = better eating (especially for Indians)
Over half (53%) of people say they’re more conscious of their food choices during the summer, while 41% say that it doesn’t make a difference to them. The remaining 6% say they pay less attention when it’s hotter outside.
It’s not just people paying lip service to their diets, either: 55% of consumers say they actively eat healthier in the summer.
“It’s bathing suit weather — wearing revealing clothes makes me more aware of my body so I take more care with my food choices,” writes one of our female bees, 55.
“Health is wealth,” says another, 26, sagely. “We should take care of it.”
In India, this shift is even more pronounced — the number of people saying they pay more attention to their eating habits shoots right up to almost two-thirds of the population (65%) during summer.
2. Three is the magic number — unless you’re American
Almost half (48%) of our bees prefer three meals a day, even during the warmer summer months.
The big exception to the rule is the US: the number of Americans who prefer to only eat two meals a day during summer (43%) actually beats those who prefer three (41%).
In the Philippines, meanwhile, though the majority of our bees went for the standard three square meals a day, 1 in 5 (21%) said that they eat an average of four times a day during the summer months — far more than often than in other countries.
3. One out of three consumers splash the cash when the sun’s out
Over one-third (35%) of our bees say they spend more during summer — whether that’s eating out and about or at home.
Across all our survey regions, just 16% of people say they actively spend less during the summer — although in India that number creeps up to almost a quarter (23%) of the population.
Nearly 9 in 10 of our bees (86%) said they buy fresh fruit and veg at least “often” during the summer, and 30% of those said they buy it “all the time”.
4. Fruit is a dish best served raw
Women are big fans of raw fruit in the heat, it seems. When asked their preferred way of eating fruit in the summer, 71% of our female bees opted for raw — far higher than men (47%).
The reason looks to be two-fold: taste and health.
“Fruit is very nutritious — and it tastes good,” says one of our male bees, 21.
For men, fruit juices proved popular, with almost one-third (31%) preferring to drink their fruit snacks instead of chew them. That’s almost three times as many as women (10%).
5. The UK is a big fan of al fresco dining. India? Not so much
Compared to the rest of the world, countries like the UK and US are hotter on the idea of eating outside during the warmer months — especially the Brits.
When asked whether they tend to eat outside more often during the summer than the rest of the year, almost two-thirds of Brits (65%) agreed. In India? That number plummets down to just 29%.
The older generations are a little more inclined to al fresco dining, too — 52% of over-45s said they liked to eat outside more during summer, compared to 43% of under-25s.
6. Fresh produce stays winning
Across the board, our bees said they were willing to spend extra cash on buying fresh fruit and vegetables during the summer months. Almost three out of four (74%) said that they would happily pay more for fresh produce instead of purchasing canned or frozen options.
When asked their favourite ways to eat fruit during the summer, the response was pretty clear on a global level — 60% of our bees are fans of eating fresh fruit served raw.
So what does this all mean for brands?
The writing is on the wall for businesses looking for new opportunities during the hotter weather: summer meals are healthier meals.
Even if the overall majority of consumers aren’t actually spending more on food during the summer, a significant portion, over one-third (35%) of them, are — and they’re focusing on health.
That represents a pretty large population for brands to zero in on, especially in quickly developing and increasingly affluent markets like India, where 85% of people say they’d be willing to spend extra money on fresh fruit and vegetables to support their healthier summer eating habits.
Brands should pay attention to what their consumers are after, and play up their access to fresh produce, healthy snacks and entry-level superfoods.
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A quick word on our methodology: The figures in the article are taken from global Streetbees community members, carried out in June 2018. All of the data was collected by mobile and web surveys, and is accurate to within 3 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
