Frozen Food Sales Experience Another Major Surge – What Does This Mean for P&P?
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The frozen food segment saw skyrocketing demand months after the onset of the global Covid-19 pandemic as consumers had reduced access to restaurants during the various stages of lockdowns that began in March 2020. According to IRi, a Chicago-based market research firm, frozen food sales increased by 25.3% in December 2021 compared to sales in December 2019.
However, the frozen food category is experiencing another surge amid increasing inflation – outgrowing the fresh food category by 230% thus far this year. Adnan Durrani, CEO of Saffron Road (a manufacturer of clean-label frozen food products and meals), gives some insight into this trend, explaining that frozen is nature’s pause button, and frozen products preserve that freshness over time and allow for a longer shelf life, especially with organic and locally sourced food items. “The sell-by dates got shortened because of the supply chain. People were also making fewer trips to the store, so items were sitting on the shelf for quite a while,” Durrani said.
Because of its long shelf life, frozen foods are often considered an ESG value. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), up to 40% of all US food goes uneaten, with 87% of food waste coming from fresh vegetables, fruit and bread. Therefore, when consumers are looking at how much they are paying for groceries versus how much they actually consume, frozen food has become the go-to in terms of being a value-based and more sustainable option.
But why is this important to the Pulp & Paper industry?
This trend has created a great opportunity for companies that produce the paperboard used in frozen foods packaging as demand has significantly increased. Solid bleached sulfate (SBS) and coated solid unbleached kraft (SUK), which are both virgin fiber-based grades, are the preferred paperboard grades for frozen food packaging due to their wetting resistance and superior stiffness. However, coated recycled board (CRB) has also been gaining wider acceptance amongst consumers due to the growing preference for recycled-based packaging. Production capacity for SBS, coated SUK and CRB has increased as more consumers continue to purchase frozen meals.
