Page 12 - Food & Drink Magazine Nov-Dec 2018

LIVE: THE CONVENIENCE CULTURE
Convenient truths
The convenience niches that are ripe for innovation were revealed at our LIVE breakfast forum last month. Here’s a glimpse at what went down.
AUSTRALIANS are embracing healthier habits than in decades past, but chronic busyness is trumping good intentions in the kitchen, and driving new opportunities in healthy convenience.
That was a key theme to emerge at last month’s Food & Drink Business LIVE breakfast forum, The Convenience Culture.
Consumers are exercising more, are watching what they
eat and drink, and almost half of them are concerned about sugar intake, according to LIVE keynote speaker Laura Demasi from Roy Morgan Research.
“We’re more careful about what we eat and drink but when life gets in the way, convenience is still king,” Demasi told attendees. “Despite our best efforts, our waistlines continue to expand.”
Demasi, who is the director of Social and Consumer Trends
at Roy Morgan Research, said a whopping one in five now say they just don’t have time to cook, and more than fifty per cent of consumers eat takeaway food regularly.
This consumer time crunch is also driving demand for food delivery services such as UberEATS and Menulog, and meal kits such as HelloFresh and Lite n’ Easy, and also pre-packaged ready meals in supermarkets, Demasi says.
ABOVE: LIVE keynote speaker Laura Demasi from Roy Morgan Research.
LEFT: Food & Drink Business publisher Lindy Hughson (left) with Brownes Dairy marketing and sales director Natalie Sarich-Dayton, Tetra Pak Oceania marketing director Jaymie Pagdato,
Dr Angeline Achariya CEO of the Food Innovation Centre at Monash University and Iain Blair of Birdstone Collective.
12 | Food&Drink business | November-December 2018 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au