![]() ![]() In a period of rising prices, frozen may have yet another advantage over fresh. Through the first three-quarters of 2021, the United States experienced inflation in food prices that is expected to continue in the near term. And price may be on consumers’ minds more than normal. ![]() Price is still king-nine in 10 consumers report that price is again the most important purchase driver for fresh. ![]() Frozen food almost universally comes packaged but, based on these results, that doesn’t appear to factor against it much. Keeping the food from going to waste seems more important than waste caused by packaging, a case of perishability trumping sustainability. Why might this be? A similar six in 10 believe fresh food that is in packaging will stay fresh longer than fresh food without packaging. Six in 10 consumers prefer their fresh food to be in packaging even though it is arguably not needed in many cases. The food itself isn’t the only kind of waste tied to perishability. 7 On the whole, consumers are now more invested in frozen. Their capacity to store frozen food grew through the pandemic, with 30% of consumers expanding their freezer capacity. Three in four consumers in our survey said storing frozen food is convenient. In fact, consumers’ ability to stock up on frozen between less frequent shopping trips-without creating spoilage and waste-is a major feature. While it does happen, frozen spoilage doesn’t occupy the consumer’s imagination like fresh’s overripe avocados or funky fish. It appears that new shopping habits are enduring even as consumers feel less stressed about shopping in stores (only 40% indicate shopping is more stressful vs. While it has since made a partial recovery, the frequent fresh shopper group remains significantly smaller than it was before the pandemic (down 8 percentage points from 2019), whereas the group that shops the least frequently went 12 percentage points over 2019. Last year’s future of fresh report showed a 50% drop in the most frequent shopper group from 2019 to 2020. Consumers can’t stock up on fresh food and expect it to be edible weeks later, if that much time is going to pass between shopping trips. And consumers are not as tolerant of perishability now as they were before the pandemic. Perishabilityįresh food, by definition, is perishable. Analysis of data from our 2021 consumer survey reveals the top three reasons why frozen’s star may be rising among consumers: perishability, price, and preference. But the reason why consumer spending is shifting matters in terms of where new opportunities may lie and how food companies should invest. Grocers generate sales no matter how the mix of fresh and frozen shifts and many fresh food suppliers, one way or another, sell their product as part of a frozen offering too. Fresh versus frozen isn’t a true “fixed pie” or win/lose competition. ![]()
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