Winsight Grocery Business: Breakfast Breakthroughs
“Frozen morning meals provide consumers with convenience, comfort and, increasingly, a protein-rich start to the day.”
“…But if breakfast is the most important meal, it’s also the hastiest. Making elaborate, protein-rich breakfasts takes time that many consumers don’t have in the morning. This sets the stage for prepared frozen breakfasts. ‘If I’m in a rush in the morning, I need to get my kids off to school or daycare and off to work, there’s a convenience aspect—yet I can still feel that I’m providing a healthy, good start for my children for the day,’ says Karen Strauss, principal at Cadent Consulting. The current trend toward favoring protein over carbohydrates is nowhere more evident than in breakfast. ‘A lot of what’s driving the growth in the frozen breakfast category are items that offer protein, which is something that consumers are looking to start their day off with,’ Strauss says.”
Home Freezer Advantage
“Healthiness and clean-ingredient labels can give frozen sandwiches an advantage over a main source of competition: quick-service restaurants. The original mass-marketed breakfast sandwich was McDonald’s iconic Egg McMuffin, introduced in 1972. Today, just about every breakfast sandwich in the frozen food case has a counterpart in one or more QSR chains. Suppliers of frozen products believe they have a built-in advantage when it comes to health concerns and transparency, in part because retail products are required to list their ingredients. ‘We believe consumers are very concerned about what they eat and feed their families,’ Williams says. ‘The QSR has not completely caught on to that trend and continues to keep ingredients hidden from consumers. In the retail world we are required to—and proud to—list our ingredients on each and every package.’ Strauss of Cadent agrees: ‘There’s a little bit more control of ingredients, because I can check the ingredient labeling of products I buy in the store and get to a product that’s likely healthier.’ And of course, no matter how close a QSR is, the consumer still has to get there; the kitchen freezer is often more convenient.”
Click here to read the full article in Winsight Grocery Business May 2018