• Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, April 21, 2009 10:45 AM

Consumer spending on food fell by an inflation-adjusted 3.7% in the last quarter of 2008, forcing food companies to adapt to what they believe will be a lasting shift in eating and shopping habits, Julie Jargon reports.

Kraft has recently launched the iFood Assistant for Apple's iPhone, which allows people to search for recipes and manage their shopping lists. Nestle is pushing its popular Lean Cuisine frozen entrees, offering five for $10 in some stores. And Campbell Soup is creating sophisticated recipes that use its soups and broths as an affordable base for hearty comfort food such as Braised Beef with Shallots.

By early this year, Campbell's research showed that some consumers are doing their grocery shopping only on paydays. They're sticking to shopping lists and avoiding impulse purchases and aren't buying in bulk as they have in the past. Campbell, in fact, ended a 10-cans-for-$10 deal begun in some markets in the fall because shoppers weren't biting.

One last reason to click through to the story: Two recipes with five minutes of prep time that take 20 minutes to cook. Works for Mr. Mom here, but Messrs. Dow and Jones must be rolling over in their gravitas.

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