The “chickenisation” of menus has seen the poultry become the most popular protein group in the eating-out sector, according to Allegra Foodservice’s Menu & Food Trends Report.
Chicken was the main protein ingredient on 31% of menus across all segments of the market in Q2 2014, followed by beef (22%). Vegetarian protein options were marginally more popular than fish or seafood options (18% against 17%), with pork on 11%.
Chicken’s popularity is especially high in fast food, where it’s the main protein item on 49% of menus, linked to the popularity of chains such as KFC and Roosters Piri Piri. The figure for beef is just 20%.
In casual dining restaurants, chicken is ahead on 29%, with the next three most popular groups (beef, fish/seafood, and vegetarian) evenly split on 20% each.
Pubs are the one sector where beef is still marginally more popular than chicken (27% against 25%), although here there’s still significant interest in the poultry; for example, Allegra highlights JD Wetherspoons’ Chicken Club promotion.
Speaking at a strategy forum for the new report, Allegra research analyst Peter Linden said chicken has “enduring appeal” across all religious and ethnic divides in the UK.
Elsewhere, the research found that 69% of brands follow the classic menu segmentation structure, although Allegra questioned whether this would be the case in five year’s time given the rise of smaller plates and sharing platters. While 100% of pub restaurant brands follow the traditional menu structure, for casual dining restaurants the figure is now 76%.
Allegra highlighted a limited provision of healthier eating initiatives across the sector, with just 36% of brands containing full or limited calorie information. And it found that value-led brands have the highest product counts - 139 on average - while new fast food operators have the lowest (an average of 56).
Meanwhile, the rise of barbecue food has seen barbecue sauce become the most popular sauce on menus in the second quarter of 2014 based on the number of operators offering the product (the research excluded tomato sauce). In total 13% of operators make barbecue sauce available, ahead of tomato salsa (10%) and sweet or hot chilli (10%).
