Meat delivery sits at the intersection of two large habits: Americans’ continued reliance on meat for home meals and the growing use of online grocery shopping. In 2025, U.S. meat sales reached $112 billion, while more than 98% of American households purchased meat. The online grocery figures below are broader than meat alone, but they show how pickup and delivery fit into grocery purchasing.
Contents
- The meat market at a glance
- How often Americans buy meat
- Online grocery shopping and delivery
- Why shoppers use online grocery services
- Price, pack size, and value decisions
- Meat in home cooking
The meat market at a glance
The latest figures from FMI Power of Meat 2026 put 2025 U.S. meat sales at a record $112 billion. Meat pound sales increased 2% year over year, and more than 98% of American households purchased meat during 2025. These are national U.S. figures for the full year, and the sales total describes the meat market overall rather than delivery-only sales.
The 2025 report also describes a strong home-meal role for meat and poultry. Shoppers prepared an average of 5 dinners at home per week, and 90% of those dinners already contained meat or poultry. At the same time, 45% of shoppers were actively trying to prepare more meals containing meat or poultry. Millennials and Gen Z accounted for 67% of unit growth in 2025.
Younger shoppers were particularly prominent among people increasing meat-centered meal preparation. Gen Z represented 50% of shoppers actively trying to prepare more meat or poultry meals, while Millennials represented 57% of that group. These percentages describe overlapping generational shares of the active shopper group; they should not be added together.
For historical context, FMI Power of Meat 2025 reported $104.6 billion in U.S. meat sales in 2025 and a 2.3% year-over-year increase in meat pound sales. Because the two FMI editions report different figures for the same year, they are presented as separate published measurements rather than combined into a single trend calculation. The 2025 edition also reported that 98% of American households purchased meat in 2024.
How often Americans buy meat
Purchase frequency helps explain why meat delivery can be useful even for households that still shop in stores. According to FMI Power of Meat 2025, the average American shopped for meat 54 times during 2024 and spent $16.12 per meat trip. In 2023, FMI Power of Meat 2024 reported that Boomers bought meat 53 times per year, while Millennials spent nearly $17 per meat purchase.
The longer-term figures show broad household participation. Meat was purchased by 98% of American households in 2023, according to FMI Power of Meat 2024, and by 98.3% of households in 2022, according to FMI Power of Meat 2023. In 2022, meat shoppers made 50 shopping trips per year.
The category also remained closely connected with perceived health and diet. In 2024, 73% of Americans viewed meat as an overall healthy choice, 90% said getting enough protein was very or somewhat important, and 81% considered themselves meat eaters, according to FMI Power of Meat 2025. In 2023, the corresponding FMI Power of Meat 2024 figures were 80% viewing meat as a healthy choice, 74% identifying as meat eaters, and 87% of meat eaters believing meat belonged in healthy, balanced lifestyles.
| Published measurement | Key meat-shopping figures |
|---|---|
| 2025 report, measuring 2024 | 54 meat-shopping trips per year; $16.12 per trip; 98% of households bought meat |
| 2024 report, measuring 2023 | 53 trips per year for Boomers; nearly $17 per Millennial meat purchase; 98% of households bought meat |
| 2023 report, measuring 2022 | 50 meat-shopping trips per year; 98.3% of households bought meat |
The figures suggest a large addressable audience for meat ordering, but they do not establish how many of those trips were completed online or through delivery. That distinction matters: broad meat-purchase statistics measure the category, while delivery statistics measure the shopping channel.
Online grocery shopping and delivery
The clearest delivery-specific figures in the supplied research come from USDA Economic Research Service publications about online grocery shopping. In 2022, about 1 in 5 people who usually did the grocery shopping for their household purchased groceries online at least once during the past month, according to USDA ERS, Who Shops for Groceries Online?
Among online grocery shoppers in the 2022 ERS summary, pickup and delivery were chosen almost equally. A related USDA ERS report summary gave grocery pickup a 49.1% share and home delivery a 48.7% share among online grocery shoppers. These percentages are channel shares within the online grocery shopper group, not the share of all U.S. grocery purchases and not meat-only delivery shares.
USDA ERS Amber Waves reported that 19.4% of U.S. grocery shoppers aged 15 and older bought groceries online at least once in the past 30 days in both 2022 and 2023. The age threshold, 30-day measurement window, and U.S. geography are important when comparing this figure with the household-shopping measure from Who Shops for Groceries Online? The two statistics use different populations and descriptions of the shopper.
The USDA ERS research also records a major access change: online grocery purchasing through SNAP was expanded to all 50 states and the District of Columbia in April 2020, according to USDA FNS information cited by Amber Waves. That is a policy and availability milestone, not a percentage of shoppers or a meat-delivery sales estimate.
For meat shoppers, an older FMI Power of Meat 2019 report provides a useful baseline for online behavior. In 2018, 21% of shoppers had purchased any meat or poultry online, and 14% had purchased fresh meat online. Among current online shoppers, 45% expected to buy more online during the coming year. These measurements describe 2018 behavior and expectations; they should not be read as current delivery adoption.
Why shoppers use online grocery services
Time is a central reason for online grocery shopping. More than 2 in 5 online grocery shoppers cited time constraints as the main reason for buying groceries online in 2022, according to USDA ERS Who Shops for Groceries Online? The finding applies to online grocery shoppers generally, so it does not show whether meat buyers cited time constraints at a different rate.
The broader meat-shopping research points in the same direction. In 2024, 86% of Americans said saving time on meal preparation during the week was very or somewhat important, and 87% were interested in recipes and tips for creating restaurant-style meals at home, according to FMI Power of Meat 2025. Americans prepared 4.8 dinners at home per week in 2024, and 90% of those dinners included meat.
In 2023, Americans prepared 4.6 dinners at home per week, with meat or poultry included in 87% of those meals, according to FMI Power of Meat 2024. The same report found that 30% of Americans ate out less than in the prior year. Among meat eaters buying restaurant meals less often, 75% tried to recreate restaurant-type meals at home.
These figures help explain the potential appeal of delivered meat: a shopper may be trying to save a store trip, secure ingredients for several home dinners, or reproduce a restaurant-style meal. They do not prove that any one motive led to a delivery order, so the evidence is best used to describe the surrounding demand for convenient grocery purchasing and cooking.
Price, pack size, and value decisions
Price affects both what shoppers buy and how they plan meat purchases. Meat department prices rose 9.3% in 2022, while total food and beverage prices rose 12.4%, according to FMI Power of Meat 2023. The same report said 78% of shoppers adapted the amount of meat and poultry they purchased, 76% adapted the kind, 74% adapted the cut, and 71% adapted the brand in 2022.
Cost was also visible in shoppers’ pack-size choices. In 2023, 54% of meat shoppers said they looked to save money at the grocery store, according to FMI Power of Meat 2024. That year, 43% of Americans bought larger bulk packs to save money over time, while 30% bought smaller packages to save money immediately. The two choices reflect different timing preferences and are not mutually exclusive across all shopping occasions.
In the same 2023 research, 9 in 10 shoppers said they would spend extra on meat for special occasions. Better-for attributes also remained relevant: 83% of meat shoppers considered at least one better-for attribute when buying meat. In 2022, 33% of shoppers tried to reduce their meat and poultry consumption, and 52% of those reducing intake cited cost as the reason, according to FMI Power of Meat 2023.
Shopping format and presentation can matter alongside price. In 2022, 70% of shoppers valued the full-service meat counter, while 86% believed case-ready meat was as good as or better than meat cut or packaged in-store. Manufacturer or private brands were preferred by 63% of shoppers for fresh meat and poultry and by 70% for processed meat.
Meat in home cooking
Home cooking remains the main setting in which these purchasing decisions become meals. In 2022, 87% of home-prepared dinners contained a portion of meat or poultry, and FMI Power of Meat 2023 said home-prepared dinners with meat or poultry had returned to 2018 levels. In 2022, 35% of shoppers often did not have as much time to prepare dinner as they would like.
The 2018 baseline from FMI Power of Meat 2019 shows several planning patterns. Four in 10 shoppers bought meat and poultry for the next several days, 35% bought more than needed to freeze and use over time, and 23% bought meat and poultry for one meal at a time. In that same year, 74% of Americans tended to draw from routine meals.
Recipe and media discovery influenced meal ideas in 2018. Recipe websites inspired 47% of shoppers, cooking shows inspired 31%, Facebook inspired 29%, Pinterest inspired 26%, and YouTube inspired 24%, according to FMI Power of Meat 2019. These are historical inspiration measures, not current platform usage estimates.
Meal kits offered another route into meat-centered cooking. In 2018, 34% of shoppers had purchased meal kits at retail during the prior year, 13% had purchased meal kits through delivery during the prior year, and 71% agreed that meal kits prompted them to try new meat or poultry items. Preparation technology was also widespread among the surveyed shoppers: 74% used an Instant Pot occasionally or frequently to prepare meat or poultry, and 59% used an air fryer.
Taken together, the figures describe a market where meat remains common in American home meals, while online grocery channels provide both pickup and home delivery. The delivery-specific measurements are still narrower than the overall meat-market totals: the USDA figures describe online grocery behavior, and the older FMI online-meat figures describe 2018 purchasing. Keeping those populations and dates separate is essential when using meat delivery statistics to plan shopping, recipes, or cooking content.