During the recent and highly successful in-person PACK EXPO, Jorge Izquierdo, vice president of market development for PMMI, passed along some highlights from his 2021 PMMI "State of the Industry" report, including data noting a significant uptick in packaging equipment purchases.
Bread is a universal language. Nearly every culture has historical roots in forming judicious combinations of water and grains, seeds, pulses, starches, and other substrates, often functionally lightened with some sort of leavening, and perhaps a dash of salt for flavor. It’s the quintessential expression of science, art, and sustenance.
Now that more people are working at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, there's ample time for breakfast, and breakfast foods sales are reflecting this trend.
Plant-based products, technology also drivers of consumer trends.
October 13, 2021
In its Top Ten Trends for 2022, Innova Market Insights has identified the demand for trust in a sustainable future as the biggest driver of consumer behavior in the year ahead.
It's a safe bet that nobody in the sweet-goods or pastry sectors, nobody anywhere, for that matter, expected still to be contending with COVID-19 a full year and a half after lockdowns threw the baking industry, and life as we know it, into upheaval.
The latest product handling equipment, cartoners, case erectors and packers, loaders and palletizers, are designed to meet the needs of bakery and snack producers as well as consumers in a fast-changing marketplace. These flexible systems can run a large array of SKUs and they feature quick-change capabilities.
Even though we are now nearing the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers have become comfortable with snacking more at home, including snacking on tortilla chips. This trend will continue through 2021, but consumers are also searching for better-for-you and plant-based tortilla chip options.
Brands in the snack-mix and nut spaces could be forgiven for waxing a little Dickensian as they look back on the year that was. For while the events that characterized 2020, and that persist, to an extent, today, don't quite measure up to "the best of times" or "the worst of times," they do tell something of "A Tale of Two Snacking Scenarios."
Puffed and extruded snacks have been a staple in pantries for many years. Recently, however, manufacturers have been upping their game, using clean-label ingredients and a variety of different flavors to attract new consumers to the category.