In a recent video released by the food giant, General Mills, the company’s Vice President of Consumer Insights Jeanine Basset shared some insights on how the COVID-19 lockdowns are affecting people’s cooking habits at home.
In the informative 14-minute video interview posted on the General Mills blog, Basset breaks down how people are reacting to the lockdown in the kitchen by assessing it meal by meal.
She also talks about the rising popularity of baking and how it helps bond families and the trend “towards indulgence and comfort foods” as people grow less concerned with weight loss diets.
Breakfast
“We’re seeing strong gains in cereal and toaster strudels, but this is an easy transition for consumers to make as the solutions for home are familiar and they are old friends.”
Lunch
“We’re seeing a run on easy eats like soup, deli meats, and recipes for home-made bread.”
Dinner
“For dinner, at least in this initial phase, we don’t see consumers turning into gourmet chefs… If you didn’t cook before, the best you can do now is heat-and-eat, or do some minor meal assembly, so we’ve seen a 50% increase in categories that we consider convenient meals, everything from frozen pizza, to appetizers – that’s now a meal, soups, wraps, frozen cooked chicken, and pasta.”
“There are a couple of things at work here. First off there is a lot of emotion going on. We see people walking away from their diets and their weight management programs because that’s are so hard, and they can’t think about that right now.”
Baking becoming more popular
Basset noted that while people are not necessarily becoming five-star chefs at home with the extra time they are putting in cooking meals, baking has seen an uptrend, in what Basset described as “having a moment.”
“Through the end of March, we saw items relating to baking solutions double, things like flour and eggs and sugar and frozen and refrigerated dough,” according to Basset.
“There are a couple of things at work here. First off there is a lot of emotion going on. We see people walking away from their diets and their weight management programs because that’s are so hard, and they can’t think about that right now.”
Comfort food and ignoring the diet
Basset also noted that people are less likely to stick to their diet during lockdowns and are increasingly turning to comfort foods.
“They are tipping towards indulgence and comfort foods… Banana bread is having a moment. It is spiking on Google Trends and it’s one of the most searched recipes on our own websites.”
She also said that baking is a great way to bond with family members calling it “an antidote to boredom and a way to engage with your kids.”.
Bassed added: “On our social feeds we’re seeing a lot of pictures of people decorating cookies and that sort of thing… We’re seeing searches for cookies and cupcake [recipes] go off the rails as well.”
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