Tired Cooks, Unskilled Cooks, & Kids Boosting Sales of Processed & Convenience Foods

Recently, the New Yorker published an article talking about how even the most enthusiastic cooks are finding meal preparation becoming a joyless pursuit these days. Cooking has become less something they choose to do and more something they have to do…Three. Times. Per. Day.

Meanwhile, leading meat processor Tyson’s CEO Dean Banks noted that retail demand for its prepared items surged during its most recent quarter and said, “Consumers are really getting tired of cooking at home.”

However, processed and prepared foods are up not just because people are tired of cooking, although many are. Additionally:

• More people who would have otherwise have grabbed drive through or eaten out are now cooking and eating at home, where they are looking for similarly convenient options.
• People who do not consider themselves useful cooks and do not want to become cooks are still being forced to eat largely at home by circumstances of work (at home or out of work) or by lack of availability of restaurants.
• Parents are looking for easy things that older children who are doing remote learning can cook so they can help themselves to a easy meal or snack.  

There are opportunities in addressing these customers as well as joyless chefs. Most consumers are looking for easy, quick, comforting, healthy meal and snack options, whether as a regular thing or just to take the pressure off on days they just don’t feel like cooking anymore.

For more information and discussion of opportunities, see The Freedonia Group’s extensive collection of off-the-shelf research, including Global Food Processing Machinery; Global Packaging Machinery; and Meat, Poultry & Seafood Packaging; Pouches; Molded Pulp Packaging; and Frozen Food Packaging (coming soon). Related food industry research from our sister publisher Packaged Facts includes Global Meat & Poultry Trends;  Meat, Poultry, & Seafood Alternatives: Plant-Based & Cultured Cell-Based Types; US Food Market Outlook 2020: Home Cooking, Grocery Shopping, & Food Trends in the Age of Coronavirus; and US Beverage Market Outlook 2020: Grocery Shopping & Personal Consumption in the Coronavirus Era. Freedonia Custom Research is also available for questions requiring tailored market intelligence.