The landscape of the frozen food industry changes fast, and it’s not going to slow down any time soon. Market changes, supply chain issues, and labor shortages keep the industry unpredictable. These factors have also required companies to adapt and change their production strategies. Yet, there’s another aspect of the frozen food industry that keeps companies on their toes – consumer food trends.
Customer is king, and that’s why popular trends can help make, or break, the success of food manufacturers. Participating in a trend and creating a product that’s in high demand can give brands a financial edge. But how can companies do so successfully?
In this guide, we’ll walk you through how brands can meet demand while maintaining high quality and consistency. Beforehand, we’ll explore how these trends become so viral and how they impact production strategies. The future of the frozen food industry is here, and frozen food companies need to adapt.
The Frozen Food Industry Future
Consumer food trends will likely play a large role in the frozen food industry future. As soon as a product or food item goes viral, its demand increases, allowing its manufacturer to realize significant value. The relevance of social media and food trends cannot be understated, so let’s look at how it can be used as a tool and how it will change the way food manufacturers approach R&D.
Food Trends and Social Media Visibility
Social media is arguably the most powerful tool for your frozen meal brand, and it’s critical for the frozen food industry’s future for two key reasons. First, consumer food trends can go viral almost instantly, skyrocketing in popularity because people want to participate in the trend. This means that your brand can have access to this free market research. Your brand can observe which recipes are becoming popular and strategize how your team can implement them in your product line.
The second reason why social media is part of the frozen food industry future is because it’s a low-cost way to market your products. Your brand can showcase your products on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok through short videos. While your company can pay for ad space on these platforms, your company can consistently post content for free to gain online visibility. If your brand is able to take part in food trends and post your trendy products, imagine the traction your brand can get.
Expect High Turnover
Even though social media-driven consumer food trends are here to stay, the trends themselves may not be. TikTok trends last around 90 days – that’s only three months to capitalize on the popularity of viral trends. The frozen food industry future will bring trends that come and go with high turnover, so your brand must be able to keep up with ever-changing demand.
Social media and high turnover will affect how frozen meal brands design their production strategies. An important part of these plans is the automated food equipment that brands rely on. Without durable and adaptable technology, brands might not be able to keep up with demand. Next, we’ll explore how new frozen foods require new production strategies because of the increased pace in the industry.
New Frozen Foods and New Production Strategies
The short lifespans of popular recipes require companies to reevaluate their production strategies. Frozen meal brands may need to optimize operations with the new tools available in order to create new frozen foods inspired by consumer food trends. Fully automating operations and employing adaptable and versatile equipment can allow brands to develop new frozen foods and participate in trends.
Full-Scale Automation
Fully automating your frozen meal production line saves labels time, money, and effort. This of course helps streamline operations to handle the increase in volume and R&D necessary to create new frozen foods. With automation, your brand can create hundreds of new products per minute with Quantum equipment. Automation minimizes overhead costs like labor, ingredient waste, and energy and it increases productivity. Quantum automation can help your brand quickly develop new products in order for your team to participate in marketable social media food trends.
Adaptability and Versatility
Not only is production speed important for meeting demand, but food equipment must be adaptable as well. Adaptability and versatility grant brands the ability to switch out ingredients without needing to invest in additional equipment. Adaptable and versatile equipment allows food manufacturers the creative liberty to make new frozen foods with low risk and greater ease.
Brands may already incorporate automation and adaptable and versatile features throughout their production line. However, the increase in demand and time constraints may require them to reassess their operations to see where they can improve. Fully optimizing automation and implementing equipment that can scale up with demand is key to successfully meeting trends. Now, let’s take a look at how frozen food labels can create new frozen meals quickly while maintaining consistent quality.
Creating New Frozen Meals Following Trends
Acting quickly on trends is important to gain the most visibility. However, this is only possible when brands employ scalable and adaptable equipment to create new frozen meals. With such a short lifespan, consumer food trends are fleeting, which is why food manufacturers need to employ equipment that can keep up while providing returns.
Quantum: Equipment That Can Keep Up
As soon as a new food trend goes viral, consumers everywhere want to know where they can get the popular item. Minimizing the time between the start of the trend and production time is important to realize as much value as possible from the trend. At Quantum, we build reliable equipment that promises both high production rates and quality. With Quantum equipment, your brand can quickly create new frozen meals without sacrificing consistency or precision. From our sauce and cheese/topping applicators to our dry/granular ingredient applicators, your brand has the choice of ingredient application to meet trends and diversify your product line. At Quantum, we believe in simplifying R&D while optimizing strategy.
Meet Demands with Quantum
Our team at Quantum understands the impact of consumer food trends on meal production strategy. We also recognize how crucial it is to have equipment that can adapt to quick changes in workflows. Quantum Technical Services is the industry leader in automated food equipment because we create reliable equipment that can evolve as fast as consumer food trends do. Your brand can solidify its place in the frozen food industry future with our tools because of their flexibility. Contact us at Quantum today to learn which equipment can transform and future-proof your meal production strategies.