The Food Scout

The grocery freezer case, once a modern-age marvel of food preservation, has become a dinosaur to a growing number of consumers, it seems. According to a 2007 Mintel report, frozen meal sales have declined by 11 percent since 2002, and will continue to decline if the category doesn’t see new innovations. But don’t put the freezer case on the extinct list yet. Just because the consumer isn’t buying as much from the freezer section doesn’t mean they won’t. They just need a reason to!

Laurie Demeritt of The Hartman Group, recently featured research in The Morning Cup that showed consumers were “moving away from highly processed, packaged food” that had a “seemingly infinite shelf life.” This rings true with the kinds of comments I hear in research, and from family and friends, who tend to blend the concepts of “healthy” with “less processed.” They also tend to assume that anything that doesn’t have to be refrigerated, or doesn’t spoil quickly (like produce), must have lots of “bad” preservatives in it, which is why much of the center of the grocery store is suffering even more than the freezer case.

But consumers have learned that fresh and “unprocessed” can come at a price. Produce from a local farmer’s market can spoil more quickly than trucked in fruits and veggies, because it may not have been waxed or washed. Bagged salads can harbor harmful bacteria. Refrigerated meats could be spoiled even if they’re still red (via carbon monoxide flushing), and have to be frozen within a couple days of purchase. Consumers even eat McDonald’s Apple Dippers tentatively, wondering exactly why it is that these peeled apple slices don’t turn brown for days. Comments on many blogs assume they are “dumped in preservatives,” when in fact it is only calcium ascorbate (a blend of calcium and vitamin C) that is responsible.

Re-enter the freezer case. Yes, consumers may buy most of their meat in the refrigerated case, but a 2006 FMI study of the meat department shows that 51 percent of consumers buy fresh meats in bulk and then freeze them for use over time. So consumers are not afraid of freezers or frozen food; they just don’t trust what’s being sold in the freezer cases. Whereas further processed products USED to be considered convenient, now consumers are suspicious of foods that look far removed from nature and have long ingredient lists.

That’s why the Mintel study offers a laundry list of strategies for drawing consumers back to the freezer case with more than just an expanded variety of ice cream flavors and microwaveable meals. Strategies covered in the report include a call for more choices in areas like all-natural, “less processed,” diet-focused, restaurant quality, complete meals, snack meals, kid-focused, and Hispanic-targeted foods.

Unfortunately, the freezer case often has to resort to value-pricing strategies to attract people. But there’s no reason it can’t be a repository of premium, preservative-free choices with a long panty life. Just take a walk through Target’s freezer cases and check out its Archer Farms private label brands. I thought I had died and gone to Sainsbury’s or Marks & Spencer last time I shopped there: The choices were premium, appealing, and downright fun to buy and eat. My wife was shocked at the gourmet meal I constructed this past weekend from our freezer using only Archer Farms products.

It’s time to transform the freezer case from a cemetery into an amusement park again.