What it is

FMI, the food retailers’ association. The survey method behind the figures has not been reviewed independently.

FMI’s State of Fresh Foods report measures the fresh departments, meat, produce, dairy, deli, bakery and seafood, as a share of grocery sales and as a share of what shoppers buy online. The 2025 edition, summarised on FMI’s blog on 15 August 2025, puts fresh at 42% of total grocery sales in 2024, with meat and produce at 11% each, and finds that 9.3% of fresh sales occurred digitally.

The figures are an industry average rather than any one company’s. The survey method has not been reviewed independently.

What the commerce leader should take from it

  • Fresh is two fifths of the cart and the part the shopper least trusts a stranger to pick. That is why 9.3% online is low against the channel as a whole.
  • Meat and produce together are more than a fifth of grocery sales. A date on the pack, or the lack of one, decides whether that fifth moves online.
  • The study measures shares; it does not say why fresh stays in the store. The link to missing dates and warm deliveries is the report’s argument.

Where to start

Findings 1.2 and 3.4 use it for how much of the cart is fresh and how little of it is bought online. Start with the fifty fresh items that shrink the most: put the date on the page and dedicated cold packaging on the delivery, and watch fresh-item refunds per 1,000 orders.

Keep in mind

An industry average from a survey whose method has not been reviewed independently. It says nothing about why fresh stays in the store.

Where the report uses it