HOME COOKING

RETAIL TRENDS: FOOD STANDARDS SCOTLAND

HOME COOKING GROWTH OFFERS POTENTIAL FOR RETAILERS

A NEW REPORT FROM FOOD STANDARDS SCOTLAND SHOWS HOME COOKING CONTINUES TO GROWDURING LOCKDOWN, OFFERING PROFITABLE OPPORTUNITIES TO RETAILERS CATERING TO THE LEGION OF WOULD-BE GORDON RAMSAYS OUT THERE.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) has published a new report revealing the impact of Covid-19 on food and drink retail purchasing in Scotland between January and July 2020.

The FSS data confirmed that shoppers bought more home cooking and meal ingredients including sweet and savoury cooking ingredients, canned goods, dried pasta, rice and pulses during lockdown. This directly corresponds with results from the recently published FSS Covid-19 tracker which showed that in May, 40% of people reported cooking from scratch more often compared to before lockdown.

Encouragingly, 29% also reported eating healthy meals more often which aligns with the increased amount of vegetables we bought over lockdown.

However, the data showed shoppers also bought more biscuits, confectionery and crisps during this time. This is backed by results from the Covid-19 tracker which showed that in May, 44% of people reported snacking more often than before lockdown.

The results also showed that that shoppers bought 44% more food and drink from shops and supermarkets in the week before the national lockdown in March 2020, compared to March 2019. People in Scotland made fewer trips to stores during lockdown compared to 2019 as they spent more time at home. Overall during lockdown, people in Scotland shopped for food less often and bought more from discounters, smaller retailers and convenience stores than over the same period in 2019.

This strong uptick in retail purchases was sustained throughout lockdown when most restaurants and cafes were closed.

FSS’s Chief Executive, Geoff Ogle, said: “Scotland’s battle with excessive weight and obesity has been brought into sharp focus by the pandemic, as poor diet is a contributory factor to increased risk of poorer health outcomes from Covid-19. This is in addition to the well-established links between poor diet, obesity and coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, stroke and some cancers.

“The increase in vegetable and home cooking ingredients purchased is encouraging, with people reporting that they were cooking more from scratch. We need both government and industry to build on these encouraging findings.”