A Fresh Take on (Shelf) Life

Originally printed in the December 2020 issue of Produce Business.

By Rick Stein, Vice President of Fresh Foods, FMI—The Food Industry Association

Read Jim Prevor’s Commentary below

At the end of a year with unexpected turns of all kinds, consumers’ consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables is much different than it was before the global pandemic. Put simply, people want to get more out of what they have, something that extends to the actual product, usage and value.

Where does that leave perishables? Not in a bad place, actually. Growers, packers and food retailers can turn changing consumer demands into opportunities that can benefit them even if the global situation shifts again in 2021.

For example, those in the produce and retail industries can promote vegetables with a longer shelf life and educate consumers on how — and how long — they can use and eat them. As consumers are shopping less frequently and buying more products when they do visit the store or order online, they can stock up on certain varieties of vegetables and fruits that will last days or even weeks in their respective storage areas.

We know that people are already thinking of what kinds of produce they want to buy. According to FMI’s Power of Produce 2020 report, 79% of shoppers plan out and list produce purchases pre-trip. To reach these planners (and those who don’t plan, too) food retailers can serve as an important source of information to help customers pick produce that will last longer, through efforts ranging from point-of-sale signage to helpful produce department employees. The Power of Produce report confirms that 54% of Millennials and 55% of Baby Boomers look for in-store promotional signage.

In addition to providing suggestions for keeping fresh produce with a longer life in home refrigerators and countertops, the produce and retail industries have an opportunity to help consumers understand the cold chain.

In addition to providing suggestions for keeping fresh produce with a longer life in home refrigerators and countertops, the produce and retail industries have an opportunity to help consumers understand the cold chain. This doesn’t have to be technical or get into granular details of shipping and storage, but outreach efforts via social media, personal customer interactions and other communications channels can provide insights on the different requirements of fruits and vegetables to optimize the life of those items. Where should I store potatoes? Do I have to chill berries? Should I keep my vegetables in plastic in the crisper drawer? Why do I need to keep avocados away from bananas?

Another way to help consumers extend their use of vegetables — and buy more of such items when they are shopping in-store or online — is to offer convenience-oriented products. Consumers find these items appealing: research from the Power of Produce shows that value-added vegetables are a $11.2 billion market and value-added fruits are a $2.9 billion market. Keeping a container of pre-cut melon or a sealed bag of salad on hand helps consumers as they look for easy meal solutions, especially as they are eating at home more often and are suffering a bit of cooking and meal prep fatigue during the nearly year-long pandemic.

Of course, there is a balance between value and convenience. Here, too, it doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive, as consumers can discover ways to get the most out of their fresh vegetables for better value. They may not be going out to shop as often, but they can keep fruits and vegetables they are buying in a state that can be kept longer. For instance, if they are buying a large container of greens, they can use any extra greens to juice a beverage and then freeze the juice for later. The same is true for a large value-priced box of citrus fruits that can have multiple uses in refrigerated and frozen form. Give them ideas, and shoppers will run with them.

If nothing else, 2020 has taught everyone — consumers and those in the food and retail industries — that creativity and an ability to adapt is key to moving forward.

On behalf of everyone at FMI, I wish you a healthy, safe holiday season and extend our gratitude to those who work to make the U.S. food supply a source of sustenance and pride.

Rick Stein is vice president, fresh foods, for the Food Marketing Institute (FMI). Follow him @Ricks_FreshFood. Visit www. FMI.org/FreshFoods, www.FMI.org/Store.

Will Retail Retain The Rewards Of Higher Sales?

By Jim Prevor

In the frantic days of March 2020, when supermarkets were overwhelmed by fearful and sometimes hysterical customers, produces sales went up — how could they not when restaurants were closing down and people were afraid that supermarkets would also close? Still, produce sales never jumped the way, say, canned soup did — how could fresh sales jump when consumers weren’t sure when they would be able to shop again? They needed non-perishables, not things that would be rotten in a week or two.

Other changes revealed themselves with time. With consumers home, either because they were working remotely or had lost their job, they often had more time available. As a result of this, they were willing to devote more time to cooking. Indeed fresh-cut sales suffered as many home-bound consumers figured they would save money by cutting up their own produce.

Some consumers used their quarantine days productively. Even if they had lost their jobs, they exercised, engaged with family and cooked healthy and delicious meals. Others, well… it is easy to understand people falling into depression in times like these. Indeed, one of the failures of our public policy over the pandemic has been a failure to assess how policies such as quarantining can cause negative health outcomes such as depression and suicide.

Still, perhaps the single biggest food-related question out of the pandemic is whether, and to what degree, consumers will have come to enjoy cooking and eating meals at home and so, to what degree can we expect food purchases at supermarkets and via delivery services to remain elevated?

Obviously, if the economy is bad, falling into a deep recession or depression — we would see more at-home eating, and this could sustain high supermarket sales. If, however, the economy rebounds quickly as the vaccines proliferate, we don’t know how eating patterns will change. Chatting with Lisa Cork of Fresh Produce Branding Ltd., in New Zealand — where, internally, the virus has been virtually wiped out — she reports that though everyone is free to go anywhere, meetings that last year would have been visits to a physical office, perhaps with lunch before or after, now are often still being done on Zoom.

To what degree can we expect food purchases at supermarkets and via delivery services to remain elevated?

Perhaps this represents the kind of change that will have an enormous impact on the food industry. But, perhaps not. Lisa and this author have been “road warriors” for decades. But our “vehicle” has been more likely to be a 747 than a car. Even if we assume that some travel will be eliminated because of Zoom and similar services — and that all of us will buy more things online — the question still remains: How we will use the time and money saved?

It is true that technology reverberates. So the invention of streaming services — such as Disney+, Netflix and HBO Max — may lead to people prioritizing large screen TVs and in-home theatre rooms, and this in turn may lead to people spending more time at home and thus eating more at home. This might well mean more home cooking, but it could also mean more take-out and delivery by restaurants.

In chatting with key retailers, most are optimistic that their companies will retain a big portion of the added sales brought on by the pandemic. These are smart people, with access to the best research. Yet, this author has his doubts.

Foodservice has been rising as a share of money spent on food for 100 years. Despite the blip this year due to the pandemic, the drivers of this trend remain and, indeed, may become stronger as a result of the pandemic. In the short term, the realities of life have driven the trend to foodservice. If your children have sports teams they are still playing on, it is a lot easier to zip into a drive-thru than to cook a whole meal to be ready at an often difficult-to-predict time. When Great Grandma lives much longer, and she lives in a special retirement home, often someone else has to serve up her meals.

Of course, there may be countervailing trends. Will more college students stay home because of Zoom classes? Perhaps.

But the more time and money people have available, the more likely they are to want to travel. The more hours they are at home for work or school, the more likely they are going to want to get out of the house and enjoy restaurants with friends and family.

New technologies are also likely to emerge. The Virgin Group and Japan Airlines have, collectively, ordered $6 billion of new airlines from Boom Supersonic. JAL also invested $10 billion. How will we use this technology? Maybe business people will zip back from Europe to catch dinner with their families on a one-day trip. Or maybe, with less need to go to the office, we will travel more across the globe, eat more outside the home, and the pandemic will fade, a memory of a sad time and a moment not missed by anyone.