Alternative flour is trend to keep watching

By Dave Miller, SSGA Specialty Grains Consultant

The global pandemic has thrown many product categories into upheaval. And for as many that have suffered mightily, there are just as many that have experienced a surge in business as consumers shift the patterns that traditionally guide their life. Baking is one such category.

While consumers love baked goods, the trend for baking at home, particularly from scratch, has declined steadily for years, driven both by increasingly busy lifestyles as well as convenience baking products such as refrigerated doughs. But as shelves were stripped by panic buying and consumers found themselves at home more, scratch baking has seen a resurgence.

That spike appears to be a big reason why specialty flours are reaching more consumers than ever before.

“All-purpose flour was out of stock at a lot of retailers, and so what happened was folks that have never even heard of nut flours started buying our product because there was no more all-purpose flour on the shelves,” JC Taylor III, director of marketing and innovation for Nature’s Eats told the website Food Dive in an article about the boost in alternative flours. “So they’d buy our product, they’d use it and they found out that they loved it. So we’ve gotten this huge influx of new consumers using our product.”

The big question for SSGA members is will the trend continue post-pandemic. Many experts seem to think trends will be “sticky.” According to April 2020 research from Bernstein, 59% of consumers said they’re baking more from scratch than before the pandemic. Further, 44% say they’re eating more healthy now and they expect that trend to continue vs. only 6% who say they’re eating more healthy now but expect to revert to old habits.

While consumer trends take a long time to shift, the length and foundation of the current changes may likely have a long-term impact that is either permanent or very slow to return to pre-pandemic levels, making the alternative flours category an attractive business opportunity.