Australian and New Zealand stay at home habits during COVID-19

At the end of 2019 no one forecasted Covid-19 and since then many countries have experienced some form of panic grocery buying and changes in the foodservice channel. As your partner, we tasked ourselves to look at how the market would change in the post panic stage. Would trends be paused, become irrelevant or hastened?

We identified some areas that food manufacturers can tap into for growth. If you are keen to know what solutions Ingredion can offer and how we can help shorten your development time, speak with our team today.

How did Australians and New Zealanders spend their time during Covid-19?

During April 2020, Omnipoll conducted a survey on Australians and how they were spending their time during the period of lockdown. With elevated social distancing measures, the survey found that 86% of Australians were spending more time at home. Apart from watching more TV and movies, cleaning, reading books and time in bed, Australians have been spending more time cooking and preparing meals as well as eating.

As a result of staying at home, many dietary habits have quickly changed, where 45% of Australians say that they have been eating more food and 40% snacking in between meals. Around 35% of Australians have also increased their sweet consumption of biscuits, cakes, pastries, sweets, lollies and chocolates. While food consumption has gone up, only 30% have increased the overall amount of physical activity, whereas 43% have decreased the amount of physical activity.

Many households will be more cautious with their spending habits, with over 45% of Australians affected by covid through having their hours reduced or losing work.[1] Home cooking is likely to continue in households for the short to medium term, and there will be less spending on eating out or entertainment.

When going to the supermarket, shopper behavior has changed to infrequent, highly planned shops with higher spend.[2] Cautious vulnerability is how consumers are thinking at present, with 71% of Australians and 50% of New Zealanders being extremely concerned about COVID-19.[3] Only 44% of Australians feel safe going into a supermarket. Consumers are tending to shop more local with an increase in spending at smaller local supermarkets. Pantry loading is continuing with the lockdown. However, price and value are key purchase influencers in some categories.

With home cooking, Australians have been more adventurous in their cooking, turning to more Asian and Indian ingredients.[4] More time has been spent searching for recipes on line. In both Australia and New Zealand, the love of baking has been reinvigorated and sales increasing of key ingredients. Many out of stocks were experienced in New Zealand of Flour, yeast and baking powder.[5] Many chefs have also turned to social media to share recipes and teach kitchen management skills. Families have shared cooking skills, or upskilled at home including learning from online chefs, blogs and recipes and gained an overall better home knowledge of food.

Zero waste is another movement where consumers are looking for left over recipe ideas and making the most out of every ingredient. Australians are rediscovering what is in their cupboards, turning to batch cooking and freezing or freezing leftovers for later and even learning of surprising ingredients that can be frozen.[6]  Home grown vegetables has taken off with vegetable gardens taking a new place in Australian households.

Health has taken a greater focus with a focus on holistic health for well-being and immunity to make us happier and healthier. Gut health with its association with playing an important part in the immune system, is becoming increasingly important. Fermented foods and foods that are considered good for gut health and immune health will increase as consumers look to eating well. Self-care is another area taking focus with sleep, mental and physical health including online fitness sessions.

With the lockdown, some local restaurants have turned into dark kitchens serving online take away order take away food and there has been delivery services open up with no fees to support restaurants. Uber Eats has seen regional differences as to what Australians have been ordering via Uber Eats. Brisbane locals have chosen butter chicken while Sydneysiders chose Pad Thai and Melbournians have been eating Halal packs along with Gold Coast, Geelong and Canberra.[7]

Many companies have had to reinvent themselves very quickly with new offerings to new markets to stay viable. Wholesalers turned to direct to consumer model (D2C) to offer food deliveries such as Bidfood who usually have business direct to restaurants, cafes, food service and airlines. 7-Eleven Australia launched a delivery service in Melbourne for most suburbs and will roll out to other states in the coming months. The 7-Eleven delivery service includes basic essentials or ready to eat foods that need delivery within a shorter time frame.

What will be the impacts post covid?

The shift to eating at home will continue as financial uncertainty for many households will influence spending choices. Affordability will be a key factor for many consumers when buying food for cooking or ready meals. Affordable treats will remain popular as consumers forego other luxuries. There will be a move to online grocery shopping for many.

Localism is set to continue, and Australian and New Zealand manufacturers could see a boost in spending on locally manufactured food. As consumers seek to protect their health, immune boosting ingredients will see an uptake for preventative health as a post covid trend.

How can food manufacturers benefits from the change in consumer behavior?

With less time spent in supermarkets, brands have less opportunity in store to communicate with consumers, so clear value propositions are required to compete with private label brands in a category.

Manufacturers can benefit from emphasizing features that consumers will look for when shopping in store or online, such as Australian or New Zealand made, affordability, value and health benefits. By manufacturers doing research and finding out how consumers are using their product differently at home, could also lead to new product development opportunities.

The new wave of home cooking will also bring about more story telling of ingredients and sharing of dishes through social media. Brands have an opportunity to capitalize on new channels to directly reach consumers. Social media and online channels can help bypass retailers, in turn creating new pathways to consumers and potentially bring new future opportunities for products.

[1] IRI, Daniel Bone May 8 2020

[2] 28 April, 2020 Shopper Intelligence, Covid-19 weekly pulse, Simon Ford Shopper Intelligence.

[3] Euromonitor, “COVID-19  Effect on Packaged Food, Tom Rees, Industry Manager Food & Nutrition May 2020

[4] Food watching Australia-Asia May 2020 in the news, The Food People May 2020

[5] IRI, Daniel Bone May 8 2020

[6] The Food People Trend Book 2020-21 Update 6 April 2020, The Food People.

[7] The top comfort foods being ordered from Uber Eats, LifestyleNewsUrban Culture, Convenience World Magazine. April 28, 2020