Average consumer participation in all specialty food and beverage
categories remained flat in 2022 at 38 percent. When broken out,
beverage categories saw as much as a 4 percent jump over 2020.
The top 10 categories were purchased on average by 45 percent
of SFCs. While this is down slightly from 47 percent last year, it is a
7 percent increase over the pandemic-caused surge buying of 2020,
indicating the overall strength of the market.
Today's Specialty Food Consumers:
They
What
Buy
Who
Baby Boomers: Ice cream and frozen desserts; Cheese and plant-based cheese
Gen-Xs: Chocolate; Milk and plant-based milk; Pasta and pasta sauce; Co‰ee and hot cocoa
Gen-Zs: Water and sparkling water; Milk and plant-based milk
Millennials: Water and sparkling water; Milk and plant-based milk
Millennials
values
product itself
are the most likely
generation to say
a company's
matter just as much as the
Buying Each
Top 10 Specialty Food Category
Share of Consumers
50%
60%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
2019 2020 2022 2021
Milk &
plant-based
milk
Salty snacks
(eg., chips,
pretzels)
Water &
sparkling
water
Chocolate Ice cream
& frozen
desserts
Juice (fruit
and/or
vegetable)
Cheese &
plant-based
cheese
Soda &
carbonated
beverages
Co‰ee &
hot cocoa
Meat,
poultry &
seafood
(raw)
Source: SFA
Avg.
32%
47%
28%
32%
38%
28%
34%
33%
33%
24%
33%
41%
42%
40%
45%
49%
39%
45%
35%
42%
36%
41%
46%
49%
50%
52%
48%
42%
46%
42%
45%
45%
47%
51%
49%
47%
46%
46%
46%
44%
43%
43%
42%
45%
Buys Most of the Top 10 Categories?
CHO
32 SPECIALTY FOOD SPECIALTYFOOD.COM
