January/February 2021 - 7

LOOKING AHEAD
" Healthful and ease were the two biggest factors
during the final months of 2020. "
- JONNA PARKER, PRINCIPAL OF IRI'S FRESH CENTER OF EXCELLENCE
department standbys, such as potatoes,
bananas and berries, but also the shelfstable
and frozen categories, which
were up double-digit percentages in
sales most of 2020.
" Even pre-pandemic, frozen produce
was up double-digit percentages, and
that's only increased since, " said
Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak, CEO and
president, The Produce for Better Health
Foundation, during a Potato Expo session
in early January. She noted that the
Mediterranean diet, a supposed hearthealthy
regiment that calls for seven
to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables
per day, is gaining in popularity. " The
situation has never aligned better to
stress fruits and vegetables as the most
important diet decision you can make. "
Jonna Parker, Principal of IRI's Fresh
Center of Excellence, said consumers
who suddenly had kids at home instead
of at school wanted to do right by their
families by eating healthy, but also
wanted to do right by their sanity by
eating easy-to-prepare food.
" Healthful and ease were the two
biggest factors during the final months
of 2020, " Parker said during Potato
Expo. " Those really won out during
the pandemic. "
What sort of trends will we see
for food consumption in 2021? Food
producers are in the situation of having
not only to think about what people
will want to eat, but where and how
they'll get their food.
Now that COVID vaccines are
being distributed, we can expect to
see a slow foodservice reopening
during 2021, with a stress on " slow. "
" Food producers should look at the
five final months of 2020 to predict
what the first of half of 2021 will be
like, " Parker said.
" A lot of people are still a little
skittish about eating at restaurants right
now, " said Jack Li of Datassential, a
food and beverage data firm, of elevated
COVID numbers during late fall and
early winter. " But if 2021 is anything
like 2020, we should see that recede (as
weather warms and vaccines become
more widely available). "
Trending produce items
Produce-based snacks. Snacking
in place of meals is a rising trend
among young consumers with their
always-on-the-go lifestyles. Keeping
in line with a focus on healthier
diets, produce-based snack food is
a growing category, including fruit
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January/February 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January/February 2021
