By: Rick Stein, Vice President, Fresh, Industry Relations, FMI

More households today are buying valued-added fresh foods. According to Power of Produce 2020, 94% of U.S. households have bought at least some value-added produce, meaning produce that is cut, halved or pre-washed. Value-added produce represents 23.1% of total produce sales when including value-added lettuce. But produce isn’t the only fresh category seeing an increase in value-added sales. The Power of Meat 2020 finds 23% of households frequently purchase value-added meat, meaning pre-marinated, cut or seasoned. This portion has more than doubled since 2016.  

Value-Added Shopper Demographics

For both meat and produce, value-added shoppers tend to be younger, live in urban areas and have a higher number of weekly trips and spend on groceries. Produce value-added shoppers also tend to purchase organic produce. Interestingly, shoppers who frequently prepare plant-based meat alternatives also frequently purchase value-added meat.

The Value of Value-Added

Particularly for value-added produce, we find the presence of children in the household to be key to entering into frequent value-added purchases. This makes sense since new families are often more health conscience and time strapped. Proving to be a value-add for these young families can be a big win for food retailers and suppliers and help build long-term loyalty and brand familiarity. Think of it this way, if you can help a family get a fresh dinner on the table tonight, they’ll rely on you for future meals.

Possibilities for Value-Added Fresh

When I think of the marketing and merchandising opportunities for value-added fresh and the potential the research shows for growing the produce and meat categories, I get excited. We know shoppers still want to come to the grocery store and when they do, they want an experience. I’ve seen innovative ways of turning value-added fresh offerings into in-store theater with professional produce butchers, in-store seasoning demos and recipe deep dives. Shopper’s lives aren’t getting any less busy, so value-added fresh categories have a great potential to not only increase category sales, but also add to in-store delights for shoppers.

Download Power of Produce 2020

Download Power of Meat 2020