Articles Tagged with ''consumer trends''

These days, you can have your cake and eat it, too. Today's sweet bakery treats like cakes, pies, cheesecakes, and cookies often combine the best of multiple worlds, bridging apparent gaps between indulgence, better-for-you and specialized dietary choices, clean label, sound functionality, and globally minded sustainability.

The term "sustainability" embodies a number of different meanings. According to the Oxford English dictionary, one definition refers to the "avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance."

Nuts, fruits, and other common inclusions deliver many attributes consumers seek, including elevated taste, texture, and nutrition. In addition, these ingredients address consumer increasing interest in plant-based foods and proteins, and often fit clean-label criteria.

There was a time, not so long ago, when nutritional boundaries were more clear-cut. "Indulgent foods weren't healthy," says Mel Festejo, COO, American Key Food Products, Closter, NJ. "They either had a surfeit of nutrients that triggered health issues, or they contained ingredients whose names raised anxiety."

Snack food and bakery companies in the market for mixers want machines that provide qualities like ease of sanitation, food safety, automation, airtight seals, and consistent operation that guards against product degradation during the mixing cycle.

Salty snacks like chips, popcorn, pretzels, and snack crackers have long been a staple in the home, and have become even more essential now during the coronavirus pandemic.

It's safe to say COVID-19 has made its mark on the food industry. People are cooking more at home than they used to.

The puffed and extruded snacks category has grown-up, and the market is seeing some diverse company.

The pretzel market continues to grow, with core offerings showing strength and strategic formulation twists bringing in some added diversity.