NFL game day party foods: How big brands cash in

It's the biggest food holiday of the year.

The San Francisco 49ers will face off against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV Sunday, but the main eating event will be Super Bowl spreads across the country as restaurants and food distributors gear up for one of the biggest sales days of the year.

Last year, an average of 44 million Americans hosted a Super Bowl party, spending $14.8 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. This year, nearly 87 percent of Americans say they will host or attend a game day gathering, according to Frito-Lay's annual Snack Index report of 2,200 eaters.

Here’s a breakdown of spending on some of the most ubiquitous bites at tailgate spreads ahead of the Super Bowl.

Chips

Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest sales day of the year for snacks, generating approximately $520 million in one day, according to Frito-Lay's report. With that, the Doritos, Cheetos and Ruffles maker churns out 600 million pounds of snack foods in the six weeks leading up to the big game – nearly 20 percent of its annual snack production and more than 67 million pounds of snacks sold during the week of the Super Bowl alone.

PIZZA HUT, DOMINO'S EXPECT SUPER BOWL FANS TO ORDER MILLIONS OF PIES

Of those, the brand – a $16 billion division of PepsiCo –  says potato chips and tortilla chips are the most-bought snack with 70 percent of Super Bowl watchers expecting the salty snacks to be available at parties, followed by tortilla chips (54 percent).

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
PEP	PEPSICO INC.	165.15	+0.41	+0.25%

“It’s the single biggest snacking day of the year. About 20 percent of sales happen six hours before kickoff or less,” Mike Del Pozzo, senior vice president of sales and chief customer officer at Frito-Lay North America, told FOX Business. And Del Pozzo says eaters can expect a spicy spread this season with hot and amplified flavors on the rise among Gen Z and millennial eaters.

“It’s the single biggest snacking day of the year." 

- Mike Del Pozzo, Senior VP sales and chief customer officer Frito-Lay North America

Dips

Of course, chips' saucy side, dips, will also be top sellers. Salsa was ranked the No. 1 dip to pair with Super Bowl snacks (16 percent), followed by cheese dips and spreads (13 percent); French onion dip (13 percent); guacamole (12 percent); and Buffalo chicken dip (12 percent), according to the Frito-Lay report.

Avocados From Mexico, a marketing group for the green fruit with a cult-like following, said in 2019 the U.S. imported 2.1 billion pounds of Mexican avocados, and of those, 285 million pounds were imported during the five weeks leading up to Super Bowl Sunday.

Wings

The National Chicken Council estimates Americans will consume 1.4 billion wings over Super Bowl weekend, an increase of 2 percent (21 million wings) from last year. For context, that’s the equivalent of every player in the NFL consuming a whopping 825,000 wings each.

SUPER BOWL FANS TO DEVOUR 1.4B CHICKEN WINGS

And restaurants that specialize in wings are gearing up for one of the busiest days of the year. The chain even promised to dish out free wings if the big game goes into overtime.

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Pizza

Dominos said it received more than 1.4 million orders and sold more than 2 million pizzas on Super Bowl Sunday alone in 2019; that’s about 40 percent more than it usually does on a regular Sunday. Competitor Pizza Hut, meanwhile, says it expects to sell more than 1.5 million pizzas during Super Bowl LIV.

BEST PIZZA IN AMERICA

Plant-based burgers 

West Coast-based burger chain Carl's Jr. aired it's first plant-based meat commercial at the Super Bowl last year, and this year, it's teaming up with Beyond Meat to give eaters a free meatless menu item -- like its plant-based sausage, egg and cheese burrito or a meatless burger -- on Monday, Feb. 3, the day after the big game.

Carl's Jr. and it's sister restaurant Hardee's added the meatless burger to all-day menus in December joining chains like Dunkin, Burger King and KFC, which also offer plant-based menu options.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
BYND	BEYOND MEAT INC.	5.30	+0.03	+0.57%

And with nearly 40 percent of Americans actively trying to eat less red meat and boost their plant-based intake, the meatless patties -- from brands like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, which dominate 24 percent of the market -- will have a presence on game day spreads, according to data from Nielsen. 

The Business of Food explores the rapidly changing $1.5 trillion food industry every Tuesday on FOX Business.