Blue Book Services, a website that provides marketing information for the produce industry, says overall fruit sales are declining in the US. Why the recent downturn? The rising popularity of the keto diet!
Blue Book Services: Fruit sales shifts reflect a fad diet's power over consumersMatt Lally, associate director for Nielson, a market research company that tracks what people buy, notes that in 2018, 37 % of households were following some form of diet, but keto eating was taking a sizeable portion of that.
Six percent of households in the US say they're following the keto diet. One of the core philosophies of keto is avoiding high sugar fruits, which Lally said correlates with lower fruit sales.
Berries, however, are seeing a rise in sales of both fresh and frozen, and seem to be the only exception because they are allowed on the keto diet, Lally says. The new statistics were detailed in the United Fresh Produce Association's May retail report.
Overall there seems to be a connection between diet trends and consumer behaviour, particularly with the keto diet and fruit.
Although we cannot confirm the accuracy of the estimate that 6% of US households are doing the keto diet, a Google trends analysis shows that the search term "keto diet" increased 400% between 2016 and 2017.
Diet Doctor even gets a shout-out in the article. Pamela Riemenschneider, author and retail editor for Blue Book Services, highlights a list of keto-friendly fruits that produce suppliers could focus on to increase profits. She recommends referring to Diet Doctor for our guide to keto-friendly produce.
This sales trend is great news, because it's proof that by voting with our dollar we are showing food producers what we want - and more of us are wanting to eat low-carb!
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