Home Baking: Back and Here to Stay
The cloistered lifestyle that most Americans were forced to adopt during the Covid-19 shutdown has ended. But many of the Covid lifestyle adjustments made over the last year will stick—and leading the list is home baking. Both product purchase and online search data, reflect a huge increase in home baking and its staying power. These trends will have a big impact on retail sales and assortments in both real and virtual baking aisles, particularly for popular and healthy inclusions such as American Black Walnuts. Banana bread, which calls for nuts in most recipes, is one of the most searched for recipes on the web, according to multiple sources tracking Google searches.
“During the peak of the pandemic, baking increased significantly. People who had typically eaten at restaurants started depending on home cooked meals more often. Also, baking became a trending hobby to do during the pandemic. We saw a lot of social media posts of people buying our flour and then posting what they made online,” said Chad Davis of Nuts.com.
A comprehensive grocery sales report from IRI released last year showed that home baking categories ascended to dominate seven of the top 15 top growth categories. Baking Mixes led overall grocery sales growth early in the pandemic, more than doubling. Baking Needs, which aggregates all inclusions and ingredients, and Refrigerated Dough, were close behind. Google searches for “bread, cake, and regular flour” shot up three-fold.
"Sales are expected to continue rising in 2021 as consumers continue to work from home or spend more leisure time at home. Comfort and wellness trends that have a positive effect on baking activity are also expected to continue in 2021," says Jennifer Mapes-Christ, food and beverage publisher for Packaged Facts.
The continued strength of home baking, however is really a return to something foundational to human existence. Modern times have made it easy to simply buy bakery foods at the store. Stay at home orders have awakened something primal and pleasing. Covid has only accelerated a trend that already was ascending.
For most of the last decade, in fact, home baking has been trending up. “Between 2011 and 2019, some weekly bakers became daily bakers, and some non-bakers moved up to 2-6 times per year bakers,” according to a 2019 Mintel report.
And it stresses that the trend was fueled by consumers who want to take control of creating the food they eat: “A close look at regular bakers shows that they care about every nutritional aspect.”
Consumer research is ongoing as the nation emerges from restrictions and ponders whether the summer will bring on a second wave of Covid-19. Data affirms that consumers have developed long-term habits around home baking, motivated by recreational pleasure, stress relief, family togetherness and overall well-being. Instagram reflects this with larges numbers of posts to #stressbaking and #quarantinebaking.
Among the popular baking inclusions are tree nuts, which add flavor, texture, and nutrition to banana bread, muffins, scones, cakes, specialty breads, cookies, brownies, and many other popular home baked foods.
For stay at home individuals and families, experimenting with new flavors and inclusions is an important part of the home baking trend. Many have discovered that American Black Walnuts offer a robust, new flavor experience. These uncultivated, wild grown native American tree nuts have a strong nutritional profile and have been popular for generations of bakers in Central and Southern states.
Black Walnuts are a rich source of phytosterols, especially beta-sitosterol, which have been shown to help prevent obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease while promoting lower cholesterol, lower inflammation and anticancer activity, according to a 2019 report published in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis.
Today, Black Walnuts are receiving attention for their superfood status and sustainability, and key role in providing essential nutrients in support of optimal health through diet. Black Walnut pieces, oil, and a new high protein flour are in the vanguard of new product development. They are poised to become even more important in support of the “new normal.”
This report may be reprinted or quoted with attribution.
Learn more at:
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American Black Walnut Marketing Board | (417) 276-5181