Shownotes
In this Omni Talk Retail interview, recorded live from the Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit 2026 in Vienna, Chris Walton is joined by Ruth Lewis, Senior Manager at Bain & Company, to discuss the findings from Bain's new State of Food Habits report and what retailers, brands, and food manufacturers need to understand about the future of consumer eating behaviors.
Ruth shares insights from Bain's latest research into how consumers across the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany are preparing meals, where they are spending their food budgets, and what barriers are preventing healthier eating. She also explores the growing role of food delivery, the long-term implications of GLP-1 adoption, and how AI-powered shopping tools are beginning to influence everything from meal planning and nutrition decisions to price comparisons and grocery purchasing behavior.
Key Topics Covered:
• Key findings from Bain's State of Food Habits report
• Why 70-80% of meals are still consumed at home
• The surprising reality of scratch cooking versus ready-made meals
• How consumers define and approach at-home meal preparation
• The rise of food delivery as a regular at-home meal option
• Why consumers increasingly view food delivery as an affordable treat
• Generational differences in dining and food consumption habits
• The impact of inflation and rising restaurant prices on consumer behavior
• How Gen Z views food delivery versus dining out
• The current state of GLP-1 adoption in the U.S. and U.K.
• Why many consumers discontinue GLP-1 medications
• The long-term implications of GLP-1s for food manufacturers and retailers
• How oral GLP-1 medications could expand adoption in the future
• The growing role of AI and digital tools in grocery decision-making
• How consumers are using technology for nutrition guidance and meal planning
• AI-powered price comparison and promotional shopping trends
• Why product data quality matters in AI-driven product discovery
• How large language models may reshape grocery shopping and brand visibility
• The future of AI-assisted basket building and cross-retailer price optimization
Special thanks to the CGF Leadership Studio sponsored by Vusion for supporting Omni Talk Retail's coverage in Vienna.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy
Transcripts
Hello, everyone.
Speaker A:This is omnitalk Retail.
Speaker A:I'm Chris Walton and I'm coming to you live once again from the Consumer Goods Forums Global Summit in Vienna, Austria.
Speaker A:And we are of course, once again in the CGF Leadership Studio, which is sponsored by Vuzion.
Speaker A:Now joining me is Ruth Lewis.
Speaker A:Ruth is the senior manager for Bain Co. And she's here to talk about some interesting new research.
Speaker A:So, Ruth, tell us about yourself.
Speaker A:Tell us about Bain and all that brings you to CGF to start.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:So, yeah, I'm Ruth and I've been at Bay nearly 15 years.
Speaker A:15 Years.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:And I do most of my work in retail.
Speaker B:And within that, I work a lot within the food space as well.
Speaker B:So food manufacturing, food distribution, and in particular, we like to look in a crystal ball and think about the future and how things are going to change.
Speaker A:Did you always know you'd be in food?
Speaker B:No, but I've always loved nutrition.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Love eating.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Right, right.
Speaker A:Who doesn't?
Speaker A:Who doesn't?
Speaker A:I guess there's probably some people that don't, but I'd say the majority of people probably do.
Speaker A:All right, so you just produced a new report.
Speaker A:Tell us about the report.
Speaker A:What is it?
Speaker B:Yeah, the report is called State of Food Habits, A Baseline for Healthier Eating.
Speaker B:So over multiple years, we've been working with the Healthier Lives Coalition within the CGF and we've produced reports on food technology, but also ultra processed foods.
Speaker B:So we've been doing a lot of work in the space in general.
Speaker B:Now we wanted to create a baseline, we wanted to talk about how consumers eat, where do they get their meals from?
Speaker B:What are the barriers to the them eating more healthily.
Speaker B:And so this report really gives a snapshot into what some consumers are doing in the us, the uk, France and Germany, we focus on these geographies.
Speaker B:But this report as well, it's actually the first report in a series of reports we want to make.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:So we want to expand the focus to global.
Speaker B:We want to really kind of tackle some complicated questions.
Speaker B:And so this is just the baseline describing what we see today.
Speaker A:Got it.
Speaker A:And so is that the impetus for the work, just to create a baseline here to start in terms of what you're seeing in those countries?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:Okay, so some of the key stats as I got a chance to preview the report, you know, the report estimates that 70 to 80% of meals are still consumed at home.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:And is that scratch cooking?
Speaker A:Like, when you say that, like, what does that mean?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:So, like, we looked at all meals that consumers eat.
Speaker B:And about.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:70 To 80% of meals eaten across the globe, across generations, across meal types are eaten at the home.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And within that, at home, there's a spectrum of what we see.
Speaker B:So there could be scratch cooking, which really means, you know, I get the raw ingredients and I chop them up like onions, etc.
Speaker B:You could have cooking with ready made ingredients.
Speaker B:So I buy a tomato sauce.
Speaker B:Okay, you can have ready meals, but that could also be a frozen ready meal, but it could be just sushi from the grocery store.
Speaker A:Like a frozen dinner would count in that.
Speaker A:In that number.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:And then the final one is actually food delivery.
Speaker B:So, you know, restaurant food eaten at home.
Speaker A:Oh, wow.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So within, there's a spectrum of things that, what we see.
Speaker B:And actually about half of at home meals are made from scratch cooking.
Speaker B:Half.
Speaker B:Half, yeah.
Speaker B:And then consumers really find that scratch cooking is the ideal type of cooking.
Speaker B:They, they prefer it and they view it as the healthiest type of cooking.
Speaker B:They, they think that they have better control over the ingredients.
Speaker B:They think it can be better cost, it's more cost effective in general.
Speaker B:And so consumers love scratch cooking.
Speaker B:They idealize it.
Speaker B:And also they say that they want to do more scratch cooking in general.
Speaker B:However, busy lives get in the way.
Speaker B:We don't have time.
Speaker B:We don't have time.
Speaker B:So the majority of consumers say they can't do as much as they'd like, that they're too busy.
Speaker B:Mental efforts, you know, no time.
Speaker A:What are the big deltas in at home meal consumption?
Speaker A:Like, how is at home meal consumption changing based on what you found in the report?
Speaker B:Well, this is a baseline, so we're giving a snapshot of what we see today.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:But another very interesting fact is actually that, so one in three at home meals involves no cooking at all.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So like, you know, a home cooked meal, actually it's not home cooked.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And so what we, what we see there is this is ready meals.
Speaker B:So 2 in 10 is ready meals and 1 in 10 is food delivery.
Speaker B:And we think it's quite interesting that, you know, food delivery, restaurant food at home is becoming a viable kind of at home meal.
Speaker B:And actually, if you compare ready meals and food delivery, people love food delivery because it's an affordable treat.
Speaker B:And ready meals, it's more like almost a reluctant decision.
Speaker B:So consumers definitely appreciate the time saving aspect, but they worry a little bit about the ingredients.
Speaker B:So both nutrition and additives, they worry about what's inside a ready meal.
Speaker A:So, Ruth, I hate asking someone that does what you do this question, but I'm going to anyway.
Speaker A:So would you hypothesize then, if you were to take this snapshot of the report, say in two, three years time, that the amount of people eating at home delivered meals will actually continue to increase?
Speaker B:Yeah, that would be an indication.
Speaker B:And so that would also be reflected in the market data.
Speaker B:So consumers said they want to do more food delivery at home.
Speaker B:They did, yeah.
Speaker B:And then second of all, we see if you look at the kind of market forecasts, so food delivery has been a growing share of consumer food service.
Speaker B:So if you look at all the channels, I eat in a restaurant, I do food delivery.
Speaker B:It's a growing share of total.
Speaker B:And the projections from the data, you know, the big data providers say that they expect it to increase its share of total.
Speaker B:And that's the same in the US and the uk.
Speaker A:Why do you think that is?
Speaker A:Do you have any idea of that in terms of what the rationale is.
Speaker B:That supports that, why consumers want to eat more food delivery at home?
Speaker B:Well, I mean, I know what I value about it.
Speaker B:It definitely feels like a nice treat.
Speaker B:The other thing consumers like is saves time.
Speaker B:It feels kind of exotic.
Speaker B:So they might want good Vietnamese food or you might want really authentic Indian food.
Speaker B:And you might not quite get this with a ready meal in the supermarket.
Speaker B:And sometimes it's really just about mental preparation, as in, even a ready meal requires some prep.
Speaker B:Like you need to have gone to the supermarket, maybe in the days leading up to it, have it in your fridge.
Speaker B:And if you don't have all of that ready, you just kind of go to the food delivery options.
Speaker B:So the prices are accessible, the service level is there, Lots of the food delivery payers are increasing their capacity.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I think these would be the main drivers.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:The one thing that's interesting to me is actually the budgetary aspect of it too.
Speaker A:Like, you know, are people shifting to eating meals delivered at home versus going to restaurants because it's more clearly identifiable how much you're going to pay for that meal?
Speaker A:Do you think there's something to that?
Speaker B:Yeah, well, we know as well that consumers are pulling back on restaurant spending out of home, sort of know, eating in restaurants.
Speaker B:This is, you know, been the Trend since around 22, 23 when there's been the cost of living crisis and everyone is, you know, really feeling the prices go up.
Speaker B:We've seen restaurant prices increase 2x grocery prices.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So that I think that eating out of home consumers really kind of impacted by this.
Speaker B:But there's an additional element which is that Gen Z would rather get food delivery at home than go to a restaurant.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:So I think there's this sort of, know, generational impact of like, yeah, they're very comfortable.
Speaker B:Maybe, you know, at home, virtual world.
Speaker A:Can't get off those screens.
Speaker A:That's fascinating.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:I had no idea.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:I thought they were all.
Speaker A:I thought they were the generation that's all about experiences, too.
Speaker A:So that's kind of, you know, antithetical or in conflict with that whole stereotype as well.
Speaker A:But you never know with the generational analysis.
Speaker A:All right, so next question.
Speaker A:We've covered at home.
Speaker A:We've covered out of home.
Speaker A:My next question is another acronym which, surprisingly, I haven't talked about that much at this conference, which kind of baffles me.
Speaker A:And it's not AI, but it's GLP1.
Speaker A:Did you gain any insight on the GLP1 phenomenon through the research?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, we sure did.
Speaker B:We actually do a lot of.
Speaker B:And I didn't mention this at the beginning, but this is based on a little survey work that one of our center of Excellences does at Bain called the Consumer Lab.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:And we do a regular pulse of consumers.
Speaker B:And so our GLP1 survey, we do once a year in total across all the different survey types.
Speaker B:We're talking to 17,000 consumers on their behaviors.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So the GLP1 data is very interesting.
Speaker B:And before we jump into thinking about what this means for spend and for the food industry, we just need to think about the, you know, what's going on in terms of the medication, adoption.
Speaker B:So 7% of U.S. adults have ever used today.
Speaker A:7% Now.
Speaker B:7%.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:That's the highest number I've heard.
Speaker B:Okay, 7% have ever used today.
Speaker B:No, currently used.
Speaker B:On my.
Speaker B:Beg your pardon.
Speaker B: And then we believe that by: Speaker B:So one in three.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Ever used.
Speaker B: % ever used by: Speaker B:So it's about one in eight.
Speaker B:And so that's a.
Speaker B:That's a lot of adults.
Speaker B:And, you know, if you think about the potential, there is, you know, the obesity rate in America is around 30% and the overweight population is around 40%.
Speaker B:So there's a large market potential in terms of the adults there.
Speaker B:So that's the adoption.
Speaker B:But what we see as well is there's a very high lapse rate on.
Speaker B:So what that means is that typically by the end of year, 1 40% of people have stopped using in the US.
Speaker A:Really?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it's lower in the UK.
Speaker B:It's 20% in the UK and there's.
Speaker B:There's drivers behind that.
Speaker B:But what happens is.
Speaker B:So when you stop using the medication over the next 18 months, people typically put on the majority of the weight that they think.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker B:So when you think about impacts on the food industry, you have to take all of this into consideration to understand, you know, how is this going to impact food production and what we're selling.
Speaker A:On our shelves, what's prompting them to get off it.
Speaker B:Great question.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:So people lapse primarily because of the side effects.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:It's the side effects.
Speaker A:Not just like, I'm thin now and I don't need it anymore.
Speaker B:Yeah, well, that is one of the reasons.
Speaker B:But it's not always the main reason.
Speaker A:Interesting.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I'd say two main reasons.
Speaker B:Side effects and price.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So if we take the US example, for example, like, the price is very high in the US, it is coming down already over the last two, three years.
Speaker B: ut what we expect to see post: Speaker B:But if we talk about the side effects, people get a lot of discomfort, digestive sense, and we think that over time the medication will become more effective.
Speaker B:So you can have a lower dose, and if you have a lower dose, the side effects are less.
Speaker B:This is part of the side effect story, is that it's the high dose that makes you feel very intense.
Speaker B:And so as the medication dose gets smaller, the side effects will be reduced on top.
Speaker B:The clinicians are understanding how to treat it.
Speaker B:So start people on a small dose, work up and, you know, and people themselves, they sort of adapt to the diet.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:And then there's a whole new class of drugs still coming in this arena too.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:There's a whole.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So orals.
Speaker B:The thinking on orals is that of course, some people don't want to take their medication because they have an injection barrier.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:But really, orals is actually going to open the door to overweight populations.
Speaker B:So orals have a lower efficacy than injectables.
Speaker B:So the belief is that injectables will remain the drug used for the obese kind of the BMI over 35 and 30.
Speaker B:But for overweight populations, this is where orals will come into play.
Speaker B:So this opens the door to a whole New population, like I said, at a 30% of US adults who aren't officially clinically indicated today by the medication.
Speaker B:And so that's another set of people who will be potentially using the medication.
Speaker B: And this is more like in the: Speaker B:So longer term horizon.
Speaker A:Right, right.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:All right, so I got to get you out of here on this.
Speaker A:One last topic I want to talk about is around technology because it's been the, it's been the talk of the town for us here at omnitalk for a while, particularly around like how people are using technology, how people are going to use technology to shop for groceries.
Speaker A:I was talking about with Migros CEO earlier today.
Speaker A:What's your take on that in terms of what you're seeing in terms of how consumers are planning or are currently using technology to help them decide how to eat food?
Speaker B:Yeah, so AI is the big buzzword.
Speaker B:You know, ChatGPT, Claude, different tools for us to help us make our decisions.
Speaker B:But actually we see that 50% of consumers are using both AI and other digital tools that have been around for a while to make their shopping decisions.
Speaker B:And so, you know, an example is Yuka as well.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Or even your grocery stores app can help you make nutritional decisions depending on the data they're showing you.
Speaker B:So yeah, we see that 50% of consumers are actively using it already.
Speaker B:Different types of digital and AI tools.
Speaker B:And then the primary use cases we see is nutritional content.
Speaker A:It is nutritional content diet.
Speaker A:Interesting, interesting.
Speaker B:But we also see people using them to compare price and promotion.
Speaker A:That's what I was going to ask you.
Speaker A:Okay, you do, yeah.
Speaker B:And so in the US you see it much more than in Europe, right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So people basically using AI tools to say, you know, which, where do I get the best price on brand X for example.
Speaker A:That'll be interesting to watch longitudinally too as you continue to do this survey over the years, I gotta think.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:Because I think the more people use it, you know, trust increases as usage increases.
Speaker B:And so as people trust this more, they'll kind of, you know, increasingly use it more, but it will impact brand discovery.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And so a lot of what we, when we work with our clients, we're kind of explaining that you'll need to think about what product data you're putting out there into the system so the LLMs can read and understand your product.
Speaker B:There's also an element of consistency.
Speaker B:So if there are inconsistent claims about your product across the system, and that's including, you know, user reviews that you, you do not control.
Speaker B:So inconsistent data across the system means the LLMs don't really know how to use the information.
Speaker B:So they park it and they, you know, they.
Speaker B:So yeah, many, many ways in which brands can think about presenting themselves to the AI tools in order to be, you know, truly reflected in the search in a proper manner.
Speaker A:That's really interesting though that you're already seeing, you know, you're already seeing consumers use these tools to give them a better sense of what they're spending and what their budget is and get the best price.
Speaker A:And the whole technologies from a retailer perspective are so nascent that I don't even think the retailers have figured out how to tap into that psychology yet in the most efficient way either.
Speaker A:So, yeah, a lot more to come.
Speaker B:Yeah, so I mean, so disruptive scenarios.
Speaker B:There's one idea.
Speaker A:Okay, disruptor scenarios.
Speaker A:I know we're going to talk about this, let's go.
Speaker B:Yeah, there's one idea that like for a grocer you say once your LLM knows your typical weekly basket, you could just say, hey, find me the lowest price place to get my, my weekly shop.
Speaker B:And it could split it across multiple grocers.
Speaker B:So you could, you could shop promotional pricing and change each week and then it could do everyday low prices for the rest of your basket.
Speaker B:The question here is will the consumer want multiple pickup or deliveries?
Speaker B:Is that really, truly convenient for them just to save a few pounds and then the other lens is, or can.
Speaker A:That be coordinated too?
Speaker A:You know, like that's the other thing that could happen, right?
Speaker B:Potentially, yeah.
Speaker B:And then the other thing is, you know, within the food space and it varies by geography but you know, if you look at Europe really, you know, food, 5 to 15% of groceries are shopped online in Europe.
Speaker B:It's a small share of total, it remains very store based and stuff.
Speaker B:So you know, will, will it, you know, what share of the online grocery will, the AI, you know, elements take?
Speaker B:So, you know, lots of questions.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's wild.
Speaker A:It's wild.
Speaker A:I'm laughing because like I've, I've actually been saying what you just said for a while.
Speaker A:So the Omnitalk fans that are very loyal will hear, will know that.
Speaker A:And so it's great to hear somebody else pontificate on, on the idea of kind of the, the mixed basket price, you know, shopping that potentially is at our fingertips here.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:He didn't pay me to say that.
Speaker A:No, I did not.
Speaker A:I did not.
Speaker A:Yeah, no, no.
Speaker A:I love disruption.
Speaker A:Like, let's keep talking about it.
Speaker A:Well, Ruth, thank you so much.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker B:It's been a real pleasure to be here.
Speaker A:It's been a pleasure interviewing you, too.
Speaker A:And thank you to CGF and Evusion for making all of our great interviews with executives like Ruth possible at the conference live from Vienna.
Speaker A:And as always, be careful out there.