Frozen food market: what's on trend?

According to the Frozen Food Market - Forecast (2020 - 2025) from ResearchAndMarkets.com, the global frozen food market size was worth around US$228 billion (approx. AU$162 billion) in 2018 and is estimated to grow steadily with a normal CAGR of 3.5–5% through to 2025. The ready meals segment of the frozen food market is expected to grow at a standard CAGR of 2.5–4%.

Some of the key trends and drivers for growth of the frozen food market identified in the report include:

Increasing demand for preservative-free food

There is a growing trend of consumers cooking fresh meals at home, which are free from any preservatives. High-quality frozen foods from extensive categories of dairy-free, vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, low fat, etc, are in demand.

Recent trends in technology have introduced cryogenic freezing, which prevents the addition of any artificial preservatives while maintaining negligible growth of microorganisms at the same time.

Appetite of millennials

Convenient and ready-to-use frozen food is on trend for millennials. This generation is ready to experiment and invest in novel things, but they want products that preserve their time and are easy to handle while meeting their nutritional needs.

Cold chain demands

One of the basic challenges faced by the frozen food market is the fear of cold chain system failures. Since frozen foods require a set optimum temperature around -18°C, even the slightest failure in a cold chain system can result in wastage. A thoroughly functioning power backup and consistent vigilance are required for assuring negligible frozen food loss.

In order to make sure that the frozen food market continues to grow, there is a trend towards employing better supply chain management systems. Refrigerator (reefer) trucks are being used to consistently maintain an optimum environment for frozen foods to stay fresh. These trucks are now being fitted with third-party GPS technologies for timely deliveries.

Freezing techniques

The report also notes a rising trend in the use of the IQF technique. IQF stands for ‘individually quick frozen’, which implies that all the items in a frozen food packet are frozen individually and not as a block. The method involves passing every individual piece of food through a blast chiller on a conveyor belt to assure freshness in the food items, even after thawing. The report notes, for example, that peas frozen using IQF technique and packed in a carton, lidded tray or crystalline PET tray will sell faster than ones using an ordinary refrigerant technique.