It had not been appreciated that since the last contact the FDF with TNS, the company had developed “The Family Food Panel Foodservice”, an insight tool developed by TNS, as the largest continuous monitor of the foodservice market in the UK.

It monitors the out-of-home consumption habits of 11,000 demographically representative individuals who record all details of their food and drink consumption via the TNS Family Food Panel diary.

The Panel offered OHG members and other companies servicing the sector, an analysis and understanding of out-of-home consumption trends and kept on top of the ever-changing consumption dynamics within the foodservice industry. This would enable companies to answer such questions as:

• Who are my products' key consumers?
• What attracts those to a particular outlet type?
• What are the emerging trends in food choice/types?
• How much of a part does health play in foodservice/out-of-home consumption decision?
• What are the key drivers for consumption of my products
• Who is the competition?

Mark Hallums confirmed that TNS analysed the market using the following measures:

• Consumer demographics (age, sex)
• Complementary foods (what else was consumed with the food/drink product)
• Day of week/Time of day
• Life stage (full nester, working adult, empty nester, golden oldies)
• Size of household
• Social class
• Region
• Outlet Type (burger bar, restaurant, workplace/canteen etc)
• Sector (take away, delivered, on premise)
• Need states for foods/drinks and outlet types (need states are the WHY of consumption and outlet choice).

The OHG members viewed the TNS presentation as a major contribution to meeting the sector's data needs and showed how far TNS had come to meeting members needs.

You can also view another TNS article: In Home versus Out of Home in Latest Trends.

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