No more canned tuna?

A December 2018 Wall Street Journal article accused Millennials of killing off the canned tuna industry. Sales are down, the paper claimed, because Millennials “can’t be bothered to open and drain the cans or fetch utensils and dishes to eat the tuna.”

Actually, Millennials are still fetching dishes and using utensils. They’re just not using them to eat canned tuna – or meat in general.

Millennials are vegging out.

According to a new report from the NDP Group, a market research firm, Millennials are eating 52 percent more fresh vegetables and 59 percent more of the frozen kind than their counterparts were ten years ago. Also, 40 percent of under-40s are following plant-centric diets.

The Organic Trade Association reports that parents under age 40 make up 52 percent of organic food customers, compared to 35 percent of Generation X and just 14 percent of Baby Boomers.

BOOMERS TAKE OPPOSITE PATH

Meanwhile, Baby Boomers are eating 30 percent less fresh vegetables and 4 percent less frozen vegetables.

That’s a fact consistent with our “Bye Bye Boomers” Trend for 2019. As we have forecast: “Adding to the dismal plight of many Boomers is the dawn of an unprecedented era of chronic poor health, brought on in large part by a diet of fast, processed food.”

Among the conditions that are rising at historic rates are: diabetes, heart failure, cancer, circulatory conditions, kidney and liver diseases and related illnesses.

In fact, more than 25 percent of Americans over the age of 65 have been diagnosed with diabetes. Astoundingly, some 70 percent of boomers are overweight, and nearly 40 percent are clinically obese. TJ 

TRENDPOST

Millennials’ trend in taste toward fresher, plant-based foods reflects their preferences for less processed fare and for companies whose marketing reflects values of health and environmental care.

As a result, companies such as Kraft or General Mills that are rooted in processed foods are scurrying to gobble up smaller firms with greener identities.

These larger companies may shift from being mainly producers to being mainly holding companies that own a portfolio of smaller, greener brands.