1.25 BILLION chicken wings. And chips, dips, guacamole, salsa, chili, sausage. All washed down with an ocean of beer and soda. And crime rates traditionally drop during the four hour event.
Yup, Americans are ready for some football.
An ageing population, weight-watching and nascent health consciousness have changed the menu slightly (lite beer outsells all other types) but this is traditionally a day on which diets and prudence get a pass: praise the commercials and pass the potato salad. JL
Valerie Bauerlein reports in the Wall Street Journal:
All kinds of foods crowd onto the field—short ribs, dumplings and chili—making Super Bowl Sunday the second-biggest eating occasion of the year, after Thanksgiving, according to NPD Group.
People looking to dodge food-prep and clean-up duties turn to restaurants. An estimated 12 million adults will go to a restaurant or bar to watch the game, according to the National Restaurant Association. Another 48 million adults are expected to order takeout or delivery.
Some new foods are muscling their way onto the Super Bowl buffet: baby carrots, yogurt, whole-grain pretzels and other healthy fare.
The Super Bowl is the largest single event for carrots," says Bob Borda, marketing director for Grimmway Farms, one of the biggest distributors of baby-cut carrots. Grimmway sees about 25% higher carrot consumption on Super Bowl Sunday than on a typical Sunday, Mr. Borda says.
Likewise for Bolthouse Farms, another large carrot distributor, which ships 28% more baby carrots during Super Bowl week than in the weeks before or after the big game.
Nutrient-rich avocados, the main ingredient in guacamole, have seen a fourfold growth in sales over the past decade, with 71.4 million pounds expected to be consumed Sunday. Of course, guac lovers aren't necessarily thinking health food as they dip in a chip. "Avocado people are party people," says Emiliano Escobedo, executive director of the Hass Avocado Board, an industry trade group. "If you go to a party and you don't find guacamole, it is kind of weird."
Dannon would like yogurt to find a place on the party table, especially plain or Greek yogurt used in dips. Dannon doesn't track yogurt sales specific to Super Bowl weekend, but January is already its biggest month, thanks to post-New Year's dieting, says Michael Neuwirth, a spokesman for the brand, owned by Danone SA.
Still, hot wings, pizza and beer aren't going anywhere. The country's Super Bowl menu has stayed pretty constant over the past 30 years, though trendy items and ingredients pop up, says Harry Balzer, vice president at NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y., market-research firm. "I wouldn't be surprised if you see more whole-grain things this year, or chipotle wings," he says.
Instead of turkey, though, Americans will be eating chicken wings—more than 1.25 billion of them over the weekend. That's four wings for every man, woman and child in the U.S., according to the National Chicken Council. Wings are three times more likely to be eaten on game day than any other time of year.
An estimated 4.4 million pizzas will be ordered from Pizza Hut, Domino's Pizza and Papa John's on Sunday. Pizza Hut says 80% of its pizzas will likely have pepperoni, the most common topping no matter the time of year. Domino's Pizza will have 50 computer experts on hand to watch over the online ordering system.
Beer sales are only so-so for the Super Bowl, far below July Fourth, Memorial Day, Labor Day and other warm-weather holidays and long weekends, according to Nielsen. The reason is a combination of the weather and school-night dynamics, says Benj Steinman, publisher of Beer Marketer's Insights.
But if people are drinking beer, it's probably light beer. Bud Light is by far the most popular beer, followed by Coors Light, which recently passed Budweiser in the rankings, according to Beer Marketer's Insights.
Soda sales are also fizzier in warm weather, says John Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest, a trade publication.
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