Explore new ways customers are breaking into breakfast

Traditionally, breakfast has been thought of as the first meal of the day and little else. Many operators wouldn’t offer breakfast due to limited cross-use ingredients, and those that did would often stop serving breakfast by 11 a.m. or only offer “breakfast for dinner” items as LTOs. But times have changed. For consumers today, “breakfast” isn’t bound by a time of day, a way of dining or a type of experience. Consumers are breaking the rules of traditional breakfast and relying on food for emotional value, rather than just functional use. 

Breakfast busts out of the daypart

Let’s face it: there’s never a bad time for breakfast. And consumers are making it breakfast time all the time with 66% ordering breakfast foods outside of traditional breakfast hours, a 4% increase since 2021, according to Technomic’s 2024 Breakfast Multi Client Study. They know what they want, when they want itand how they want it, and are redefining what breakfast means. In fact, 34% of consumers define breakfast by the food it includes rather than by the time of day, and they expect foodservice operators to adapt to their new definition, with 68% of consumers interested in an all day breakfast menu, according to Technomic.

At the end of the day, operators have to maximize the use of every ingredient on the menu–and integrating new breakfast ingredients, on top of existing ones, may be seen as a challenge to accomplishing that. But due to this change in perception of breakfast, and consumers' growing desire to fuse flavors and ingredients, there are countless ways to apply traditional breakfast offerings creatively across other menu parts.

W.K. Kellogg Co. cereals, for example, have countless, innovative recipe applications such as Dave and Busters cereal-flavored cake topped with marshmallow cream icing and cotton candy, surrounded by sweet vanilla cream sauce and Jumbo Froot Loops® Cereal to amp any dessert menu or Kellogg’s® Cereal Milk Lattes for unexpected twist on an around-the-clock favorite.

Everything is a snack—especially breakfast favorites

Consumers are living in the age of portability, and no daypart is immune. Technomic found that 51% of consumers like to eat breakfast foods as snacks, while 6 in 10 consumers have said that they prefer to eat many small meals throughout the day as opposed to a few large ones, according to Mondeléz and The Harris Poll’s State of Snacking 2023 Global Consumer Trends. With 60% of consumers believing there are not enough hours in the day to complete their to-do list, according to Wisconsin Meetings’ 2023 report Is Busy the New Status Symbol, an increasingly overscheduled culture has Americans prioritizing convenient snacks to keep them fueled throughout their day.

It’s crucial to provide modern day consumers, who live their lives on-the-go, with portable options that fit into their lifestyles. W.K. Kellogg Co.’s LTO Tool Kit provides great grab-and-go cereal inspiration, from bundling concepts to activation ideas that could be menued all year long.

To consumers today, breakfast is more than food, it’s also:

More than a third of consumers say food is a way they convey their personality, according to Mintel’s 2023 Expressions of Identity report. Food and lifestyle have never been more closely tied, and the rise of chef personalities—whose images are even more important than the food—is proof of the power personality has in food culture. Food and fashion are even converging to create a new world of pop culture with items like Froot Loop Crocs for anyone who wants to sport the stylish and colorful Toucan Sam.

Eating isn’t just a task. It’s an opportunity for escape and excitement. Consumers today grapple with a lot of mental and emotional stress, and they turn to food as a mini-escape from their anxieties. In fact, Mintel’s 2024 report Snacking Motivations and Attitudes found that 40% of Gen Z and 35% of Millennials snacking to relieve stress. There are many ways operators can transform areas of their location into those mini-escapes for customers to enjoy—like the cereal station, with this Cereal Destinations Tool Kit that includes signage, content and inspiration to drive consumer demand and delight. 

These days, everything “old” is becoming new again. While older generations are excited to see items from years past come back on the market, Datassential’s 2024 Trend Report notes that many Gen Z consumers are experiencing these nostalgic foods for the first time. So a fusion of old and new plays well across generations. Nearly half (47%) of all consumers enjoy foods that offer a twist on the familiar, according to 2023 Food Navigator data, giving operators the opportunity to provide inventive, yet nostalgic menu items to consumers. The Stir It Up Brochure from W.K. Kellogg Co. shares creative, modern takes on some of customers’ favorite breakfast cereals with recipes like Tropical Mermaid and The Circus. Want to learn more? Click above!

Today’s biggest flavor trends are untraditional, unique and maybe even a little weird. Datassential’s flavor macro-trends Menu Adoption Cycle provides fresh insight on where flavors are going and what profiles will appeal to consumers. For example, a popular combination that’s gained significant attention in the past decade, and is currently at Ubiquity in the Menu Adoption Cycle, is Sweet and Salty. Kellogg’s® Krave™ Sweet and Salty Caramel Mix is a perfect flavor fusion favorite. Regional Global is a fast-moving trend currently at the Proliferation stage, so consider recipes like this regionally inspired Baklava with Kellogg’s® Granola. Another trend is “chaos cuisine”: the mix of unlikely ingredients together, which is at Inception in the Menu Adoption Cycle. A piece of fun recipe inspiration that lives into this trend is Tiger Bacon – bacon slices crusted in Kellogg’s® Frosted Flakes Cereal. Why? Well, why not!

Consumers are breaking breakfast, so it’s important for foodservice operators to follow suit, keeping an eye out for ways to incorporate breakfast—creatively, unexpectedly, but also efficiently—onto menus.