COVID-19 Impact on Snacksin Food and Beverage Industry
The pandemic have impacted the food and beverages industry by up surging in their consumption globally. Whereas, due to the extended lockdown, food service sector have been drastically impacted in Europe, Americas and all over world. The lockdown have been creating opportunities for the processed snacks and beverages sector due to their demand because of taste, high storage shelf life and attractive availability of waste products.
Before the pandemic, snacking has been considered as a comfort food by the consumers regardless to their health benefits. However, the pandemic have changed the preference of snacks with the consciousness of functional ingredients in their diet and are shifting towards healthy snacking. The healthy snacking concept has been evolved due to the elimination of the contents such as sugar and carbohydrates with functional ingredients.
For instance,
• According to the International Food Information Council’s (IFIC) 2020 Food and Health Survey, 85% of Americans made changes in the food they eat or how they prepare food because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Due to the extended lockdown, consumers become more dependent on the processed food including different types of snacks such as potato chips, dips, tortillas and others. Consumers preferably turns to snacks for their comfort, before COVID-19 have fueled number of food and service sectors. According to a survey conducted, Mondelez have stated that 71% of adults prefer snacking time to connect with themselves and 53% of have responded that snacks for them is more than a meal.
Due to the current scenario, consumers are looking for function snacks products with perspective of immunity booster with mental benefits and relaxation. Creating a new twist to old favorite snacks could be a good option for snacks manufacturers. The snacks industry have shown a significant growth in purchasing in the month of March as consumers stocked up their food supplies to be prepared to stay at home as per the government orders. The potential increase in purchasing of the snacks due to the pandemic may have more lasting impact in fiscal year 2020.
For instance, in the United States it has been observed the tremendous growth of the snacking in the lockdown duration.
According to the SNAC International (SNAC), the total sale of snacks in America have been raised to directly 10% from previous year 2019 which have contributed approximately USD 404.00 million in 2020. Read more...