CHICAGO
,
May 11, 2022
(press release)
–
With 86% of meals sourced from home, food inflation at a 40-year high, the average U.S. household wasting $1,866 of food each year*, U.S. consumers are storing food and leftovers to stretch their food dollars and meals while reducing food waste. The return to worksites and schools and more extracurricular and outside activities has increased the need to pack food for away-from-home meals and snacks. These needs drive the demand for food storage products, reports The NPD Group. Consumers spent $2.1B on food preservation and storage products in the 12 months ending February 2022, up 36% versus two years ago, according to NPD’s continual tracking of home industry retail sales. Consumers make roughly 500B meal decisions annually, and, as of February 2022, 86% of these meals were sourced from home. Additionally, restaurant prices due to food inflation and rising operational costs rose faster than grocery prices, making it advantageous to prepare meals at home. More meals to decide on and prepare, concerns about wasting food, and stretching food dollars are why consumers use more leftovers. NPD’s National Eating Trends® reports that in the year ending February 2022, U.S. consumers ate leftovers about 110 times per person per year, the equivalent to 32B annual eatings of leftovers for the population, up approximately 6% from 2020. Employees are returning to worksites, students to schools and extracurricular programs, and consumers are resuming the outside activities they put on hold during the pandemic. With more leaving home for work, school, and activities, food carried from home is rebounding from the pandemic. Breakfast and lunch are the meals or snacks most likely sourced from home and packed to-go. Meals and snacks consumed away from home represented 19% of all meals and snacks, whether prepared at home or ordered from foodservice, in the year ending February 2022, up 5% from February 2021. Preserving and storing food and leftovers and carrying food from home helped drive the growth of food preservation and storage product sales. Dollar sales of food preservation products, including canners, canning jars, and accessories, have grown by 39% over the past two years. The food storage category, which includes glass, metal, and plastic storing bowls, canisters, and jars, grew sales by over 36% in 12 months ending February 2022 compared to two years ago. Food vacuum sealers, a popular food storage appliance, realized sales growth of 68% over the last two years. In the 12 months ending February 2022, 49% of the U.S. population purchased food preservation and storage products, and the spend per purchase was $11.66, reports NPD’s Checkout Omnichannel Tracking. Brick-and-mortar retail stores, particularly mass merchants, represented the largest dollar share of these purchases, while online purchases represented 33%. Housewares, in general, skew towards online purchases. The immediate need for food preservation and storage products, the ability to see the items in person, and buying on impulse are the likely reasons food storage buyers prefer brick-and-mortar stores to e-commerce channels. “In so many ways, preserving and storing food, the need to stretch food dollars, reduce food waste, and pack meals and snacks to-go, food storage has become increasingly important to consumers,” says Joe Derochowski, NPD home industry advisor. “By understanding demand drivers, food preservation and storage manufacturers can effectively market their products, produce products that meet consumer needs, and better merchandise them.” *Estimating Food Waste as Household Production Inefficiency, Yang Yu and Edward C. Jaenicke, Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2020, More Meals at Home and Higher Food Costs Equals More Leftovers
Return to Work, School, and Outside Activities Increases Need for Carry-from-Home Food
Preserving, Storing, and Packing Food To-Go
Food Storage Buyer Behavior
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