Nearly fifty per cent of consumers spend ten minutes, or less, preparing and eating breakfast, UK group IGD recently reported, but at the weekend indulgence is the beat with 40 minutes spent consuming the first meal of the day.
Squarely-positioned at convenience, product trackers Mintel state that oats specialists Quaker foods have just launched a new 'creamy wheat' cereal onto the breakfast category.
Enriched with vitamins, minerals and iron, the cinnamon-flavoured product claims to be free of fat, cholesterol, and sodium; and ready in the microwave in under 2.5 minutes.
Ingredients are farina, cinnamon, reduced iron, niacin, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, and folic acid.
Kellogg's has launched a 'Komplete oven baked muesli' product, said to be "an indulgent blend of fruit, grains and nuts with no artificial colours."
The product claims to be high in carbohydrate, fibre and a good source of vitamins and iron.
Ingredients include:cereals (wheat, barley, rice), brown sugar, dried fruit (sultanas, paw paw, apple), skim milk powder, wheatflour, vegetable oil, (soyabean and/or cottonseed and/or sunflower), yoghurt coated currants and vitamins (niacin, vitamin C, riboflavin, thiamin, folate).
US firm Joseph Campione targets convenience, and indulgence, positions with the launch of 'Toast Delights': toast slices are thick and lightly covered with a "creamy buttery margarine".
The sweetened topping is available in four flavours: cinnamon; blueberry; raspberry; and apple cinnamon.
Among the extensive ingredients list are partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil, wheat gluten, malt, dough conditioners, sucrolose, potassium sorbate (used to protect quality), artificial flavours, vitamin A (palmitate), beta carotene (for colour).
Despite the IGD report based on 1000 consumers, recent figures from Datamonitor suggest that breakfast is the meal most likely to be skipped.
UK consumers are already more likely than their European counterparts to miss breakfast: in 2003, British skipped on average 113 breakfasts a year per person, and Datamonitor forecasts this will increase to almost 120 in 2008.
New product design, and line extensions, will not only have to meet convenience and 'enjoyment' needs, but also rein in consumers that have long decided to slice breakfast out of their daily routine.