McCain Foodservice has partnered with Google and leading food and drink experts to identify key trends and insights to create more attractive menus.

“Consumers love their fries and making the experience more memorable and shareable is crucial to keeping them coming back for more,” McCain explains.

According to McCain, Google highlights individuals’ “micro-moments” as factors accelerating consumer expectations for immediate experiences. Mobile search means that everything is at their fingertips and the impacts are high, particularly for eating out.

There are three key factors that operators need to consider. The importance of “best” – mobile searches for best have grown 80% in the past two years, with specifics such as ‘best local restaurant (+85%), and best fries (+75%) up significantly in the last two years. The expectation of “close” – consumers want experiences that are tailored to their immediate location – consumers now just assume their phone will know where they are and deliver information accordingly.

The need for “now” – consumers are becoming more reliant on their smartphones to make spur-of-the-moment decisions. Mobile empowers consumers to be nimble and they expect brands to respond by understanding their needs and addressing them immediately. Accordingly, searches for “where can I get great food now” are up 80% in two years. Over half of consumers will leave a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load.

8 ways in which search in food and eating out is leading and reflecting trends

1. Actually breakfast is the new brunch: searches for ‘breakfast near me’ far exceed searches for meals throughout other day parts.

2. It’s about ultra-convenience: searches for branded restaurant apps that enable things like reservations, tracking orders, and discounts have grown 120% YoY. Search interest in ‘open now’ has tripled in the past two years.

3. It’s about influences: Seasonality is a key driver of food interest.

4. Influencers: Search is intimately associated with mainstream media.

5. Confirming dietary changes: vegan restaurants and menus are no.1 in rising trends.

6. Favorite cuisine types: Search is not just about new. In fact, cuisines like Indian and Chinese remain much higher in search than emerging cuisines like Vietnamese.

7. Rising cuisine types: In one year, Peruvian is up 200%, Korean (+150%), Japanese (+95%), Southern States (+80%), Cambodian (+75%) and Algerian (+70%).

8. Speak the language of search: consumers overwhelmingly search for chips not fries. Chunky, dirty and spicy are among the most searched for types of fries.