One Bubble Tea Ordered Every 90 Sec, But S’poreans Also Crave Healthy Food, Says GrabFood Trend Report

As we stayed home and rode out the pandemic, food delivery became a means of supporting local F&B outlets that could not open for dine-in, and a way to try out different cuisines, especially from restaurants that previously did not offer delivery. It was great for days you didn’t feel like cooking, for indulging in food that was difficult to cook at home, and for last minute cravings (fried chicken or caramel macchiato, anyone?)

GrabFood, a leading food delivery service in Singapore and purveyor of a mind-boggling variety of eats, deep-dived into Singapore’s food delivery habits to better understand consumer needs and to keep innovating. Their Food Trends Report 2020/2021 threw up some pretty interesting facts, such as:

● Families with children are the main consumers of food delivery services.

Those who are married with kids made up 64% of food delivery users. When parents have to work from home and deal with bored kids or home-based learning, a nice meal delivered to the door can really save the day.

● The most orders made by a single consumer on GrabFood was 1,670 orders in 2020, or around four orders a day.

This person really, really loves his or her food delivery!

● Among the top 10 food categories searched on GrabFood are bubble tea, pizza, Korean food and mala dishes.

Mala-flavoured dish orders grew by 10 times in 2020! Singaporeans love a good spicy dish.

● Lunch orders grew by 2.7 times in 2020, due to WFH arrangements.

The average budget for lunch per person is $12 to $14.

● Nasi lemak is a local lunchtime fave.

There’s a preference for dry and easy-to-consume meals for lunch, as Singaporeans stayed busy with work during the pandemic. Other popular lunch orders include burgers, fried chicken and wanton noodles.

● The average budget for dinner was $14-16.

We’re most likely to splash out and spend the most on dinner, which is usually enjoyed with three or four people, as opposed to a solo or two-person affair for lunch. We are also more willing to try new things and indulge in a wider variety of cuisines for dinner, with a preference for Japanese and Indian food.

● Singaporeans ordered more than 100,000 siew mais and prawn dumplings during supper in 2020.​​​​​​​

That’s a lot of dimsum!

● Both cake and pizza were searched for more than 1,000,000 times on GrabFood in 2020.

These are the types of food people find too time-consuming and difficult to cook themselves. Also, they’re great comfort food.

● Close to 380 million plastic cutlery sets were saved in 2020 when GrabFood introduced a no-cutlery option.

Two in five consumers indicated willingness to pay up to 30 cents extra for eco-friendly packaging. Many F&B businesses have switched to environmentally-friendly packaging and reduced single-use plastics.

Consumers have become more health-conscious, with two out of three Singaporeans wanting to eat more healthily, and 50% willing to pay more for healthy food. Orders from F&B businesses offering healthier food increased by 2.6 times in 2020. People are keen on food options with less salt, sugar and oil and with organic and natural ingredients. Better yet if they’re locally produced with fresh and high-quality ingredients and come with info that allow us to keep track of calories and nutrition. Popular healthy dishes include salads, sandwiches, soups, wraps and sushi.

Our healthy food recommendations, available on GrabFood

Tuna San, $15.20 from SaladStop!

$10.90 from The Pack Protein & Salad Bar

Chicken Cacciotore with Portobello and Sage, $12.50 from The Soup Spoon

$7.50 from Katong Soup King

Smokin’ Pulled Pork, $10.90 from Knead To Eat

$12 from Cedele Bakery Cafe

Kebab Roll, $7.90 from EPIKebabs

$9.10 from Gomgom

Classic Set C, $18.08 from Genki Sushi

$29.90 from Itacho Sushi

All dishes available via the Food tab on the Grab app, or https://food.grab.com. Delivery is subject to location. ​​​​​​​