Higher food and fuel costs and other economic pressures are having a critical impact on how consumers shop, cook and dine, according to the Food Marketing Institute, which represents US supermarket systems.

Due to economic factors, Americans are cooking at home more often and eating at restaurants less often, by 71pc to 29pc, and families are eating a main meal at restaurants only 1.2 times weekly, down from 1.3 times last year, FMI said in its newly released "US Grocery Shopper Trends 2008" report.

Furthermore, consumers buying food for meals at home are buying fewer "luxury foods" and more private, store-brand items and are eating leftovers more than they used to, the shopper survey found.

In deciding where to buy food for meals at home, the report noted that 37pc of consumers say they are frequenting stores with low prices this year, up from 31pc last year and well ahead of the second-most cited factor: convenient location (13pc).