Beat the heat this summer with great deals on select Packaged Facts reports, including 5% off Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts in the U.S.: Opportunities in Retail and Foodservice, 8th Edition. Use promo code PF0722IC by October 15. Is there ever a bad time to consume ice cream? While the summer months might offer more ideal occasions to cool off with one’s favorite frozen dessert, the reality is that the majority of Americans eat ice cream year-round without regard to the outside temperatures. P...
July 22, 2015“Clean label” has become a hot topic in the food and beverage industry as consumers begin to look more closely at what goes into their food and beverages. Many consumers are now using the “kitchen test”-“can the ingredients on the label be found in my own kitchen?”-as their rule of thumb to determine whether or not to buy a product. They are scrutinizing ingredients decks on packages for a short list of ingredients with names they can recognize, and avoiding those with unpronounceable, chemical-...
June 12, 2015The frozen pizza industry has a problem on its hands: in the face of health and “real food” trends, frozen pizza may be suffering from a processed food stereotype. The bottom line is that during 2010-2014, the percentage of households eating frozen pizza in the past 30 days has dropped slightly, while the percentage eating 10+ pizzas per month has dropped 15%. The trend is particularly troubling because it involves demographics that have been core users, such as consumers living in households wi...
March 13, 2015That sound you (virtually) heard on January 26, when Pizza Hut debuted its Udi’s-crusted gluten-free pizza to 2,400 locations nationwide, was a collective cheer from the GF blogosphere. “The beautiful partnership of Pizza Hut and Udi’s,” said one blogger, is a celiac’s dream come true. “Excited” was the word du jour. Gluten free-ers are excited that the world’s largest pizza company is catering to their dietary needs. Excited that the move will spur other restaurants into GF action, and excited ...
February 9, 2015The last few years have not been kind to frozen foods. Overall sales have for the most part been flat or shrinking. Any increases have been minimal and short-lived. The recent damage to this once essential grocery segment can largely be traced to a growing consumer taste for fresh, natural, and organic foods. Like most food trends, the strength of this trend may be overstated but it is real and it is growing as can be seen from the double-digit sales increases for organic foods reported by the...
February 2, 2015For more than a decade, the notorious failure of Webvan scared many potential entrants away from the online grocery business. Now, the field is swiftly becoming crowded with trials by competitors and new operating models, with online grocery services apparently poised to take off on a high growth trajectory, according to Online Food Shopping and Grocery Delivery in the U.S.: Future of Food Retailing by Packaged Facts. Meeting at the crossroads of technology and service, online grocery shopping...
November 12, 2014“Free Range,” “Grass Fed,” “All Natural,” “Pasture Raised” - it all sounds so appealing how can any meat eater resist? And, in fact, plenty don’t. From all evidence, the market for beef, pork, lamb, bison, and venison raised in idyllic conditions is growing steadily. The USDA reports that meat (along with fish and poultry) has been the fastest growing component of the overall organic food market over the last decade. In addition, according to research from the USDA’s Economic Research Service (E...
September 11, 2014Our love-hate relationship with sugar and sweeteners is intensifying as concern about added sugars mounts and negative consumer sentiment related to zero calorie sweeteners is slow to wane. Sugar, especially white granulated sugar, is being compared to tobacco and cigarettes in terms of the serious danger it poses to health, even being called toxic by some public health advocates. Sugar is considered a culprit when it comes to obesity, rising rates of diabetes and, more recently, it is implicate...
August 6, 2014An increasing number of U.S. businesses are concerned with managing their ecological footprint, and in recent years this dedication to going green has trickled down to the U.S. coffee market. In particular, to have a competitive foodservice coffee platform, being environmentally and socially responsible is increasingly important, according to Coffee and Ready-to-Drink Coffee in the U.S.: Retail and Foodservice, 8th Edition , a recent report by Packaged Facts. To illustrate this point, consider...
July 16, 2014Our hat is off to coffee innovation, which continues to help a very mature market grow new usage occasions and higher price points. Threading this needle translates to continuing to push the variety envelope while leveraging hot coffee’s dominant position. In the end, it’s largely about raising the price of coffee-or at least getting more money per ounce. Across restaurant menus, flavors that have universal appeal, such as mocha, chocolate, vanilla, and caramel, have the strongest penetration....
May 14, 2014