Thinking about post-COVID-19 food | The Press

With the pandemic, the world has changed, and so has our relationship with food. The food industry will have to adapt.

This week, Montreal is hosting SIAL^⁠1, the largest food innovation show in North America. For the first time since March 2020, the food sector is coming together to question the trends, tastes and flavors of the future. After more than two years of pandemic, the task promises to be difficult to identify the new expectations of consumers.

At SIAL, Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytical Sciences Laboratory has released new data on the Canadian food market. According to some prognoses, by 2025, the food market in Canada will become more sedentary, more virtual, and largely influenced by a growing curiosity of consumers who are more food literate. Let’s review some facts presented at SIAL.

First, life at home. Without a doubt, this way of life has taken root. A lot of people are spending a lot more time at home. Not only will almost 40% of them work at least one day a week from home by 2025, but the relationship with food has changed forever. By spending more time at home, we cook and learn new recipes. In fact, not only have 34.2% of Canadians learned a new recipe since the start of the pandemic, but 51.8% have also learned several new recipes. Almost 40% of people have learned new skills, such as making bread or pasta at home, and 45.2% have discovered new ingredients that they did not use before the pandemic.

In other words, food literacy in Canada has increased since the start of the pandemic. Consumers know how to make better-informed choices by having more in-depth food knowledge. The industry must cater to an inquisitive public that has an informed opinion on a large number of products.

Then, pets. The number of households owning at least one pet has also jumped. Since the start of the pandemic, 26.1% of Canadian households have adopted a pet for the first time. This represents one in four people and half of these households have chosen a cat or a dog. This statistic is not trivial since research tells us that a pet owner becomes more sensitive to ethical animal treatment. For protein, this is a game changer. In fact, we estimate that 3.2 million Canadians consider themselves flexitarians, approximately 1 million as pescetarians, 913,000 as vegetarians and 560,000 as vegans. In addition to veganism, the rates for meatless diets, or with less meat, continue to climb in the country. Rising prices at the meat counter lately have surely contributed to this distribution. Food innovators need to keep an eye on this data.

The phenomenon of urban sprawl. With the numerous moves of families to the suburbs and the countryside as well as the accumulation of outbreaks in certain businesses, many individuals are shopping elsewhere. In fact, 26.1% of Canadians visit retailers they did not visit before the pandemic. The portrait of the restoration suffered the same effects. The legacy of the pandemic is to have caused many consumers to reconsider where they shop and buy their food on a regular basis. There are great opportunities for the industry.

The virtual market is exploding. Almost 40% of Canadians order food, either at retail or in food service, at least once every two weeks. And the folks at SIAL have been told that by 2025, 30.1% of Canadians will continue to buy food online on a regular basis. We also anticipate that 10% of food sales in Canada by 2025 will be made online. Before the pandemic, estimates hovered around 1.7%. What change !

And finally, to learn about food trends, Canadians consult social networks. Apart from the family, YouTube, TikTok and Facebook are the most used communication vehicles and they greatly influence the diet of citizens. The industry needs to increase its presence on these platforms if it wants to influence trends, especially after a pandemic has forced everyone to use online information more. The way of doing business with consumers has changed a lot.

1. SIAL, the largest food innovation trade show in North America, is being held at the Palais des Congrès in Montreal until April 22.