When you take a moment to consider what foods and drinks you associate with summer, ice cream, burgers, grilled chicken, popsicles, and pasta salads probably come to mind. Summer is, of course, the most popular time to chow down on BBQ and drink a beer in the sunshine.
At the same time, this season is also one of the best times to enjoy an abundance of fresh produce. Melons, squash, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh greens, and stone fruit are just a few of the many fruits and vegetables being harvested at this time of the year. Maybe healthy foods such as these aren’t the first thing that pop into your mind during the summer, but it truly is the best season to enjoy a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. After all, you’ll probably want to balance out that plate of BBQ baby back ribs with a seasonal Farmer’s Market salad.
Brizo’s foodservice market analytics platform has access to over 1,203K of eating and drinking establishments, and we decided to pull some data from our platform on establishments serving up healthy and local food throughout the U.S and Canada. Throughout the two countries, 72,361 establishments serving “health food” are listed on our platform.
Using Brizo FoodMetrics food and beverage market analytics, here are ten facts on healthy and seasonal food establishments in the U.S. and Canada:
Big cities typically have the widest variety of cuisine, and an abundance of establishments to choose from. New York City offers 6,267 establishments that identify as serving healthy food. Coming in second is Los Angeles with 4,591 establishments, and Toronto, Canada in third, with 3,672 establishments.
???? Fun fact: The healthy and natural food movement started in Los Angeles in the 1920s.
Using the filter “local sourced or local sourcing”, 95,369 establishments pop-up on the platform throughout the U.S. and Canada. Like “health food” establishments, New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto are the top locations for establishments that serve “locally sourced” food. This shows the overlap that many health food establishments source their ingredients locally, or vice versa; establishments that source their ingredients locally serve healthy food.
Healthy food can be found in all cuisines, and the most common cuisine offering health food is “American”, with 35,523 establishments falling into these two categories. Next is Mexican, with 7,218 establishments and then Mediterranean, with 4,076 locations. The most common category, “Healthy American” food, includes menu items like sandwiches, wraps, salads, and whole grain bowls.
Using Brizo’s ingredient search we found that 67% (597,009) of establishments contain vegetables in their menu items and 59% make use of fruits as ingredients.
We filtered the U.S. & Canada menu data with menu items that contain almond milk, coconut water and vegetable juices. Only 23,296 locations offer all three on their menu.
While health food may sometimes get a reputation for being expensive, this food category isn’t necessarily associated with a fine dining atmosphere. In fact, establishments serving healthy food mostly have a casual atmosphere that is both kid-friendly and family-friendly.
Areas that are less populated and have more rural land tend to have fewer establishments serving health food. In the U.S. Wyoming and Alaska have the fewest, while in Canada, the province of Saskatchewan has the lowest amount.
A vegan or vegetarian is often associated with health food, and there are plenty of establishments that offer healthy menu items, sans-animal products. Throughout the U.S. and Canada, 53,700 foodservice operations that offer health food also offer vegan or vegetarian options.
Chain restaurants and quick service establishments are not necessarily associated with “health food”, but there are a few foodservice operations that do indeed provide healthy options. In the U.S. and Canada, 35,688 chains identify as offering “health food”. One of these being Chipotle, which has the most locations out of the chains offering healthy menu items. With 2,732 locations throughout the U.S. and Canada (the chain only has 25 locations in Canada), Chipotle offers menu items with a higher nutritional value than other QSRs, such as burrito bowls and salads.
Some people can only tolerate a cup of coffee in the morning, while others must have a hearty breakfast to get going. The first meal of the day has always been touted as the most important, and if you’re on the run, luckily quite a few establishments (25,289 to be exact) offer a healthy breakfast. More are chain establishments (14,360) like Panera, Subway, and Tropical Smoothie Cafe, but 10,929 are independents.
Better food and beverage market analytics, greater insights
If you found these insights helpful, you may want to also check out 8 BBQ Facts in the U.S. and Canada, or 10 Foodservice Facts About Chicago. In addition to data on restaurants, the Brizo FoodMetric’s platform provides over 800K+ contacts, and information on over 200 million menu items. For establishments offering healthy menu items, Brizo has 75,308 unique contacts.
Using filters like “health food” or “local food” is just a very small example of how you can search for exactly what you’re looking for on Brizo’s data analytics platform. Cuisine, ambiance, chain or independent, ingredients, menu items, number of reviews, delivery availability are just a few other filters that can be applied to find exactly what you are looking for on the platform.
Curious about what other Brizo data analytics can be pulled from our platform? Reach out today for a free trial to check it out for yourself!
