British consumers are Europe's heaviest spenders on light meals with the average consumer spending £286 (€409) per year on light meals, compared to £244 (€349) and £241 (€344) in France and Germany respectively, claims a new report from analysts Datamonitor.
But an overly strong focus of what traditionally constitutes a meal means opportunities to target other food types for the light meal occasions are being missed by manufacturers.
"The key factor to successful marketing of light meal solutions is the flexibility in the positioning or the product," says Daniel Bone, author of the report at Datamonitor.
Ready meals, for example, can be revamped such that they move beyond consumer perception that they are a full hearty meal but also simultaneously, a suitable light snack, he adds.
Datamonitor claims that light meals facilitate the diet regimes of many health conscious consumers, building yet more evidence to suggest that food manufacturers must continue to roll out health-positioned food products in order to gain market share in the growing functional food market. Recent research from Mintel forecasts that in the UK alone the current £835 million functional market will more than double in the next five year to reach £1.7 billion.
Categories benefiting from the light meals trend include hot snacks, meal replacement bars, prepared sandwiches, salads and small ready meals, says Datamonitor.
The analysts define a "light meal occasion" as all breakfast, lunch and evening meal occasions viewed by consumers as smaller and less filling than their perception of a conventional meal, but where that occasion acts a substitute for a full main meal.
Secondly, all in-between mealtime consumption where the eating occasion is larger and more filling than the "perception of a typical snack. Often what is consumed acts as a substitute for a main meal that has either already been missed or for a future meal."
In the UK 40 per cent of lunches are now light, compared to just 26 per cent of evening meals, according to the report, due to the fact that demand for indulgence starts to supercede health concerns as the day goes on and because the evening meal is comparatively more orientated around family time and enjoyment.
For the majority of consumers, in-between food consumption consists of a small snack but this is changing. In the UK 23 per cent of all in-between meals eating consisted of more substantial light meals rather than small snack occasions, a phenomenon that Datamonitor forecasts will rise to 26 per cent by 2008.
"Consumers skip more and more meals and they often seek to compensate for their nutritional and calorific deficits by consuming more substantial snacks or light meals," write the analysts.
The market value of light meals eaten in-between main meals in the UK, valued at £2.51 billion in 2003, is slated to reach £3.4 billion by 2008. Again, the trend is also particularly pronounced in the UK with 23 per cent of all in-between meals actually constituting a light meal, compared to 18 per cent for Europe overall.
Out of Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the UK in 2003 the Spanish spent the least, £116 per head, on light meals, followed by the Italians with £175.