Food trends are shaped by both everyday routines and household budgets. In 2023, U.S. residents age 15 and older spent 82.5 minutes per day eating and drinking when primary and secondary eating were combined. At the same time, 2024 food prices continued to rise, while 2025 survey results showed that taste, price, healthfulness, and convenience all influenced what people bought.
Table of contents
- Time spent eating and the place of meals
- Grocery shopping and online buying
- Home food and restaurant food
- Food prices and household budgets
- Vegetables, pulses, and ingredient availability
- Organic food and changing distribution
- What consumers value
Time spent eating and the place of meals
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey Eating and Health Module gives a useful baseline for how food fits into a day. In 2023, people age 15 and older spent 66.2 minutes per day eating and drinking as a primary activity. They spent another 16.4 minutes eating as a secondary activity, for a combined 82.5 minutes per day. Primary eating and drinking time was about 2.4 minutes lower per day than in 2022.
The location of primary eating also points strongly toward meals at home or near home. Own homes or yards accounted for 76.3% of named locations for primary eating and drinking in 2023. Workplaces accounted for 10.1%, while restaurants or bars accounted for 6.9%. These figures describe named locations for the primary activity; they do not measure every meal prepared at home or every food purchase.
Eating has identifiable daily peaks. About 3 in 10 people age 15 and older engaged in primary eating and drinking during both the noon-to-12:59 p.m. peak period and the 6:00-to-6:59 p.m. peak period in 2023. For home cooks, that pattern makes lunch and dinner the clearest points where planning, preparation time, and convenience choices meet.
Source: Eating and Health Module (ATUS) - Summary Findings, U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 2023.
Grocery shopping and online buying
In 2023, 52.6% of people age 15 and older said they usually did a lot or all of their household grocery shopping. Another 32.3% said they usually did a little or some of the shopping. These measures describe people’s usual role in household grocery shopping, rather than the share of all grocery trips made by each person.
Online grocery buying was a meaningful but not universal part of that routine. Among household grocery shoppers age 15 and older, 19.5% had bought groceries online at least once in the prior 30 days in 2023. Among recent online grocery shoppers, 30.6% ordered once in that period, 22.3% ordered twice, and 47.1% ordered three or more times.
Pickup was more common than delivery among recent online grocery shoppers. A total of 52.4% usually picked up their online groceries, while 43.5% usually had them delivered. A further 4.1% usually used both pickup and delivery. The distribution suggests that online buying can fit into a shopping routine through more than one fulfillment model.
Time was the most frequently named reason for online grocery shopping, cited by 48.1% of online grocery shoppers. Convenience was named by 13.9%. Among people who did not buy groceries online, 49.3% said they liked seeing and touching products in person. The result is a split between time-saving digital access and the sensory, in-store experience.
Source: Eating and Health Module (ATUS) - Summary Findings, U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 2023.
Home food and restaurant food
Spending data shows that restaurant and other food-away-from-home spending recovered after the sharp disruption of 2020. Real per-capita food-away-from-home spending fell 15.6% in 2020. It then rose by an average of 10% annually from 2021 through 2023, leaving 2023 real per-capita spending 11.9% above 2019.
Food-at-home spending moved differently in the same period. Real per-capita food-at-home spending declined 2.3% in 2022 and another 3.1% in 2023. These are inflation-adjusted measures, so they describe changes in the amount of spending after removing price effects rather than simply changes in the number of dollars spent.
Longer-term spending levels also show the scale of food away from home. Inflation-adjusted food-away-from-home spending reached $1.41 trillion in 2025, compared with $818 billion in 1997. Inflation-adjusted food-at-home spending reached $1.10 trillion in 2025, compared with $738 billion in 1997. In 2024, food-away-from-home expenditures represented 58.9% of total U.S. food expenditures.
| Measure | Earlier period | Later period | Reported change or level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real per-capita food away from home | 2020 | 2021–2023 | 15.6% fall in 2020; 10% average annual rise afterward |
| Real per-capita food away from home | 2019 | 2023 | 11.9% higher in 2023 |
| Inflation-adjusted food away from home | 1997 | 2025 | $818 billion to $1.41 trillion |
| Inflation-adjusted food at home | 1997 | 2025 | $738 billion to $1.10 trillion |
Sources: Despite inflation, food-away-from-home spending continued to accelerate in 2023, U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service; Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials - Food Prices and Spending. The 2025 values are inflation-adjusted and should not be read as nominal spending.
Food prices and household budgets
Average U.S. food-at-home prices rose 1.2% in 2024, following increases of 5.1% in 2023 and 11.4% in 2022. Food-away-from-home prices rose 4.1% in 2024, after increases of 7.1% in 2023 and 7.6% in 2022. The slowdown for food at home was therefore much larger than the slowdown for food away from home.
Inflation-adjusted spending rebounded in 2024. Real U.S. food-at-home spending increased 1.8% after declining 2.6% in 2023. Real food-away-from-home spending increased 0.4% after increasing 3.0% in 2023.
| Category | 2022 price increase | 2023 price increase | 2024 price increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food at home | 11.4% | 5.1% | 1.2% |
| Food away from home | 7.6% | 7.1% | 4.1% |
Total U.S. food spending reached $2.51 trillion in 2025 in inflation-adjusted dollars. Consumers spent 9.7% of disposable personal income on food that year. Household income still made a major difference in the burden of that spending. In 2024, households in the lowest income quintile spent an average of $5,498 on food, equal to 33.0% of before-tax income. Middle-income-quintile households spent $9,097, equal to 12.2% of before-tax income. Highest-income-quintile households spent $16,989, equal to 6.4% of before-tax income.
Source: As food price inflation slowed in 2024, inflation-adjusted food spending rebounded; Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials - Food Prices and Spending, U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service.
Vegetables, pulses, and ingredient availability
U.S. per-capita availability of vegetables and pulses was 375.5 pounds in 2024. That was down 3.34% from 2023 and was the lowest level in more than 35 years. Fresh-vegetable availability was 148.1 pounds per person, down 3.3%, while processing-vegetable availability was 95.6 pounds, down 8.4%.
Not every category declined. Potato availability was 117.2 pounds per person in 2024, up 0.3% from 2023. Availability of dry beans, dry peas, lentils, and chickpeas was 11.2 pounds per person, up 7.2%. Lettuce availability totaled 28.6 pounds per person; romaine and leaf lettuce declined 9%, while iceberg and head lettuce declined 6% from 2023.
The supply picture also includes a larger import role for some produce. Fresh carrot imports represented 22% of U.S. domestic availability during 2020–2024, compared with 8% during 2000–2004. In January–March 2025, organic carrot free-on-board prices averaged $0.83 per pound, compared with $0.50 for conventional carrots. These price figures are for the stated period and measure, not a general retail price difference for every store.
Source: Vegetables and Pulses Outlook: April 2025, U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service.
Organic food and changing distribution
Organic food sales reached $70.1 billion in 2025 in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to Organic Trade Association data cited by USDA Economic Research Service. Produce accounted for 33% of U.S. organic food sales in 2024.
The production base expanded over the longer 2011–2021 period. Certified organic cropland reached 3.6 million acres in 2021, 79% more than in 2011. Certified organic operations reached 17,445 farms in 2021, more than 90% above the 2011 count.
Online sales also became a larger route to organic food. The internet share of U.S. organic food sales grew from 2% in 2012 to 6.7% in 2024. This measure concerns the share of organic food sales through the internet; it is separate from the 2023 survey measure of people buying groceries online during the prior 30 days.
Source: Organic Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service.
What consumers value
The 2025 IFIC Food & Health Survey shows that taste remained the strongest measured influence on food and beverage purchases: 90% of respondents said it influenced their purchases. Price influenced 71%, healthfulness influenced 57%, convenience influenced 52%, and environmental sustainability influenced 27%.
Among respondents for whom convenience affected purchases, 32% said convenience to cook or prepare had a great impact. The corresponding figures were 29% for convenience to eat or drink, 28% for convenience to buy or purchase, and 27% for convenience to keep food on hand. These are percentages within the group reporting that convenience affected purchases, not percentages of all survey respondents.
Cost awareness was widespread. In the 2025 IFIC survey, 86% of respondents noticed an increase in food and beverage costs over the prior year. That included 62% who described the increase as major and 25% who described it as minor. Together, these findings place creative home cooking in a practical context: flavor still leads, but price, preparation effort, shopping time, and food availability all shape the choices made around the kitchen.
Source: 2025 IFIC Food & Health Survey Full Report, International Food Information Council, 2025.