According to findings by Rabobank, outlined in its Jan. 2015 report “The Popcorn Blockbuster,” popcorn is experiencing a renaissance. Once considered an unhealthy movie-time junk food, popcorn is now considered among consumers—especially choosy millennials—to be an appealing, healthy snack.
Bold and ethnic flavors and breakfast products breathe new life to frozen snacks and appetizers, while slight better-for-you tweaks seek to attract attention.
The frozen snacks and appetizers category is seeing growth as consumers ask for—and brands attempt to deliver—bold, international flavors to complement traditional, tried-and-true favorites. As always, millennial consumers remain vital to the success of this segment of frozen foods.
The cracker market, like many other snack segments, is in an evolutionary state. If you ask Craig Lieberman, president and founder of Denver-based 34 Degrees, changes in the category span “from the types and styles of crackers to the location and placement of crackers in the store.”
The chips segment has grown quite lively over the past year, with new product areas emerging and others, like apple chips, seeing considerable growth and maturation. Snack producers are also starting to grow beyond potatoes, offering sweet potato, beet and parsnip chips.
On Dec. 19, 2014, in a backyard flock of mixed poultry in southern Oregon, a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5 outbreak was recorded. A crushing 180 days later, on June 17, 2015—the date of the last recorded detection—more than 48 million birds were dead as a result of the outbreak.
Ingredient and equipment manufacturers offer a variety of products to help tortilla manufacturers improve their products, production efficiency and bottom line.
As most of you know, the tortilla industry has become the fastest-growing sector of the baking business, with more than $11 billion in sales last year.
Puffed and extruded snacks are shedding their junk-food image with more nutritious ingredients and no-fry processing, plus on-trend flavors, textures and shapes to add more fun.