Often labelled the most important meal of the day, breakfast has the potential to be a bright spot for operators as well as helping you to start the day right. With breakfast eaten by 98% of UK consumers, we spoke to Laura Kirwan, Sustainability Lead at Nutritics about the latest trends around the breakfast table and how operators can throw sustainability into the mix. 

What’s for breakfast? 

COVID and its various lockdowns saw an increase in at-home breakfast occasion, with people having more time in the morning to enjoy something for the first meal of the day – whether that was a simple bowl of muesli topped with fruit, overnight oats prepared the day before (thanks TikTok) or a cooked breakfast. 

With more of us now travelling for work and leisure, the out-of-home (OOH) breakfast market is back on the rise. Recent figures from the bakery company Délifrance showed that 24% of consumers are eating breakfast OOH during the week and 10% at weekends, with almost twice as many people now eating breakfast OOH more than once a week compared to 2018. 

A green breakfast

Whether you’re heading to a cosy café to kickstart your morning or looking for a comfortable and friendly setting to tuck into a full English, we’re seeing that consumers increasingly want to know whether the food and drink on the menu is environmentally-friendly and locally sourced. 

Last year, Nutritics carried out research on the topic of sustainability, which revealed that making environmentally-conscious choices when eating or drinking out is important to nearly half of consumers (44%). With an increasing number of diners trying to make better, greener choices, more people are starting to follow a flexitarian diet, consuming animal products in moderation and avoiding excess intakes. This said, taste remains (as always) the primary driver of food choice2. 

Therefore, operators face the challenge this year of balancing the environmental impact of menus with increasing costs, while maintaining a tasty offering. 

A little flex at brex

While bacon, sausages and eggs will remain an important staple of breakfast menus, operators can appeal to the flexitarian trend by offering a larger number of plant-based dishes, which can preserve natural resources by decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, land and water use. Examples of ingredients to incorporate include fruits (such as berries, apples, and peaches — using seasonal fruits will reduce your footprint further), starchy vegetables (such as potatoes and corn), grains, nuts and seeds. 

And there are even ways to make the humble fry up greener: sourcing higher-quality animal products (such as those with Red Tractor, RSPCA or free-range assurance marks) and adding ingredients such as tomatoes, mushrooms or beans to breakfast dishes can help lower the environmental impact while retaining taste. 

A local breakfast

Nutritics research showed that 40% of consumers surveyed would like to know whether or not the food is local. Offering locally sourced breakfast options has the potential to reduce carbon emissions for certain foods by cutting transport. This allows operators to offer fresh produce and avoid serving out-of-season foods grown in artificially recreated conditions, leading to a greener breakfast offering with a lower environmental impact.

Breakfast is a competitive landscape, with a plethora of at-home and OOH options vying for consumers’ attention. When looking to refresh breakfast menus in 2023, tapping into sustainable food practices could help operators gain a competitive advantage — starting the day in the best possible way.