While a wide range of ongoing trends are at play within the baking industry today, one in particular is worth highlighting: fresh. While select frozen and shelf-stable bakery products saw gains over the past year, a number of refrigerated brands with particularly strong growth emerged as we reviewed our data from our retail sales partner, IRI, Chicago.
Some of these segment growth leaders also take innovative turns on familiar products, which helps build interest. The Cinnabon Gooey Bites from AdvancePierre Foods bring bite-sized Cinnabon treats to retail, ready to heat and eat. Wewalka Trading Corp. has made strong inroads to several refrigerated dough segments, including refrigerated pizza dough. The company builds a valve into product packaging to automatically vent the carbon dioxide that builds due to use of live baker’s yeast. And the Guerrero refrigerated tortillas from Gruma Corp. are parcooked and ready to finish at home.