Today’s consumers are looking to fill their grocery carts with food made from clean, natural ingredients. As a result, big brands are modifying their products in hopes of winning over health-conscious consumers, and the baking aisle is no exception.
“A trend that has really burst out in the last year is what I’ve been calling the ‘better baking trend,’” explains Kara Nielsen, a food trendologist and professionally trained baker. “This makes a ton of sense, when you consider a lot of the baking mixes, jarred frosting, and other items in the baking aisle are very family centered. Kids are the main consumer in many cases.”
Nielsen describes this new trend in the Natural and Organic Food Trends webinar, recently hosted by Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com. “Not only do we have a surge in natural and organic products that offer alternatives, but we also see conventional companies stepping up and removing a lot of these artificial flavors and preservatives out of some of these lines,” she notes.
In her presentation, Nielson highlights three specific brands to watch.
ColorKitchen, a small business in Bend, Oregon, produces a line of all-natural, plant-based, non-GMO food colors so children and families can enjoy desserts without experiencing the harmful health effects of artificial food coloring.
Miss Jones Baking Co., a San Francisco-based start-up, offers organic cake & brownie mixes and jars of frosting. With Pinterest-worthy recipes that appeal to millennials, Miss Jones Baking Co. has garnered press coverage from The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Vogue, Food & Wine, and USA Today, among others. You can find the company's products in Safeway, Wegmans, and Whole Foods.
Pillsbury Purely Simple is a line of cake, cookie, brownie, and frosting mixes with no colors, preservatives, or artificial flavors. As consumers seek more natural, clean options, other major food companies may begin overhauling their baking mixes as well. Artificial ingredients have already been removed from several Betty Crocker cookie mixes, for example.
Interested to learn more?
Better baking is just one item covered in the Natural and Organic Food Trends webinar. Packed with new data and insights, this informative presentation describes five major trends:
- Going clean
- Grass-fed protein
- Beverage benefits
- New super foods
- Plant-based growth
Watch the webinar, or download the presentation to find out more.
In addition, be sure to check out the new report Natural and Organic Foods and Beverages in the U.S., Fifth Edition by Packaged Facts. This report includes data and analysis from a proprietary Packaged Facts National Consumer Survey that examines consumer attitudes and behaviors as well as retail shopping patterns.
About the Author: Sarah Schmidt is a Managing Editor at MarketResearch.com, a leading provider of global market intelligence products and services.
