CHICAGO — Breakfast is the only restaurant daypart with sustained visit growth over the last several years and as a result, classic foodservice breakfast fare, like bacon, breakfast sandwiches and pancakes, are also growing, reports The NPD Group, a leading global information company.

Case shipments of bacon, eggs and pancakes from broadline distributors to foodservice outlets have increased as have servings of these foods ordered at restaurants and other foodservice outlets, according to NPD foodservice research.

Breakfast/morning meal visits grew by 5% in the year ending June 2015 over the same period last year when visits grew by 2%, reported NPD’s CREST ongoing foodservice market research.

Quick-service restaurants (QSR) including retail foodservice were responsible for most of the visit gains at breakfast. Lunch was up 1% in the period over a 2% decline the prior year and dinner visits were flat. Breakfast sandwiches and bacon, perennially popular grab-and-go breakfast foods, have been growing but so have other not-so-portable foods, like pancakes.

Case shipments of bacon shipped from broadline foodservice distributors to restaurants and other foodservice outlets increased by 7% in the year ending June 2015 compared to year ago, reported NPD’s SupplyTrack, a monthly service that tracks every product shipped from major broadline distributors to foodservice operators.

Case shipment of eggs, the food item likely to be found in the middle of a breakfast sandwich, increased by 5% in the period, and case shipments of pancakes shipped to foodservice outlets also increased by 5%.

Bacon servings ordered at restaurants and foodservice outlets increased by 2%, which translated to a servings volume of 1.1 billion, in the year ending June 2015 compared to a year ago when servings increased by 6%.

Breakfast sandwich servings increased by 3%, or a total of 3.6 billion servings, over flat growth prior year. Servings of pancakes ordered increased by 7% to 816 million servings in year ending June 2015 over year ago when servings were down by 4%, reported NPD.

“Growth at the breakfast daypart has been good for the industry and also led to an increase in distributor sales within key breakfast operator segments,” said Annie Roberts, vice president of NPD’s SupplyTrack. “As breakfast traffic continues to grow, competition in the breakfast space will require distributors, manufacturers and operators to become innovative in providing quality and value at breakfast.”

The NPD Group provides market information and analytic solutions. Practice areas include apparel, appliances, automotive, beauty, consumer electronics, diamonds, e-commerce, entertainment, fashion accessories, food consumption, foodservice, footwear, home, mobile, office supplies, retail, sports, technology, toys, video games and watches and jewelry.