6. Convenience

The last decade has seen an amazing rise of convenience foods worldwide. From frozen vegetables it has expanded to ready to cook and/or ready to eat fresh and snack/baby vegetables. From canned fruits it has moved to frozen fruits for smoothies and dried snack fruits. Microwave meals, coffee to go, salads, sandwiches, fajita rolls, doner kebab, pizzas and burgers in every shape and form have become common place.

The younger generations (millenials and GenZ) have busy lifestyles and appreciate fast and casual meal solutions to save time on shopping, meal prep and cleaning after meals. On the other hand do these generation pay more attention to healthier food options and are driving the development of fresh and nutrious, attractive snacks and meals for immediate consumption.

The covid-19 pandemic has accelerated this development with many restaurants switching to out of house sales and delivery services. As a result many new delivery services (many operated by bikes) as well as online food ordering apps have cropped up.

The global convenience food market is growing at a rapid pace, offering more and more options that are both healthy and delicious. This new development of increased demand for convenience foods offers many opportunities as foods/meals can be prepped beforehand (leaner staff needs) and many new types of foods and ingredients can be included in new snack and meal creations.


Image source: https://dpmiindia.com/blog/2018/08/27/convenience-food-not-so-convenient-for-your-health/https://dpmiindia.com/blog/2018/08/27/convenience-food-not-so-convenient-for-your-health/