Eat your vegetables, mum and dad!

Adult children may need to start reminding their parents to “eat your vegetables”, according to research suggesting younger adults are increasing vegetable consumption, while baby boomers are doing the opposite.

The increased focus on health concerns has seen millennials and gen Zs drive growth in fresh and frozen vegetable consumption, reports The NPD Group, with consumers aged under 40 increasing the annual consumption per capita of fresh vegetables by 52% and frozen vegetables by 59% over the last decade. Boomers, aged 60 and up, on the other hand, decreased their consumption of fresh vegetables by 30% and frozen vegetables by 4% over the same period.

Increased consumption of fresh vegetables is an outcome of the shift to fresh foods among young consumers over the last decade, and the research predicts that millennials and gen Zs will sustain the growth of fresh vegetable consumption as they age into their heaviest consumption years. Over the next several years, fresh vegetable consumption is forecast to increase by 10%, an increase that will be tempered by the lower eating rates of boomers, according to NPD Group’s ‘A Generational Study: The Evolution of Eating’.

Frozen vegetable consumption has reversed its decline and is now on the rise, again due to the interest of more health-conscious millennials and gen Zs.

“Our research shows that their attitudes about eating vegetables will not shift as they age and go through their life stages. Their parents and grandparents, on the other hand, may need a reminder from the younger generations to eat their vegetables,” said David Portalatin, vice president, food industry analyst at NPD Group and author of the report ‘Eating Patterns in America’.