Food Focus: July Trends

An Opportunity for the Underdogs: Vegan and Vegetarian Meat Alternatives, Vegetables during Grilling Season and Beverages that Accompany Mixed Beverages

Summer will be well underway in July with outdoor entertaining, holiday gatherings and frequent grilling parties. Chicory’s network of 5.4+ million recipes indicates that consumers turn to classic meats like pork and beef, but also want lighter fare in grilled vegetables to offset indulgent mains. Similarly, vegan and vegetarian meat alternatives are beginning to see an increase in engagement, and challenger brands need to ensure that they’re reaching the right consumers now more than ever.

The return to normalcy and what consumers expect to be a regular summer mark the return of store-bought treats and sweets over the international and homemade goods that trended last July.

Finally, the beverages that accompany mixed alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are seeing a rise, indicating a prime opportunity to get in shoppers’ carts by aligning with summer occasions, entertaining and everyday meals.

Gearing Up for Grilling Season

While some may think that classic red meats are the star of the show during grilling season, our recipe network indicates that consumers pay equal attention to the healthy veggies that they can throw on the barbecue for a simple side.

Out of the top 20 grill recipes in our network from June to July 2020, 35% were vegetables, 25% were red meats, 20% were chicken and 15% were seafood. This demonstrates that there’s a valuable opportunity for produce trade organizations, commodity boards and individual brands to reach consumers through the recipes that they browse during this popular season for vegetables.

Meats and Meat Alternatives Take Center Stage

The height of grilling season in July means that consumers are going all out with classic meats for the barbecue but also with vegan and vegetarian alternatives to meat.

Meats like beef, chicken and pork will always be weekly winners in the shopping cart, no matter the occasion or season. The scale for consumption of beef, chicken and pork greatly exceeded scale for vegan and vegetarian alternatives to meat during the June/July 2020 timeframe.

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However, because beef, pork and chicken are weekly winners in the shopping cart and Americans already incorporate them in most of their meals, category growth is challenging. On the other hand, meat alternatives, an entirely new and emerging protein category, have lots of room for growth. Consider the consumption of beef, chicken and pork from January to February 2021, where recipe views are, again, consistent with no noticeable growth. On the other hand, consumption of meat alternatives showed an increase at the end of February 2021, indicating that there is room in consumers’ shopping carts to add more vegan and vegetarian meats.

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A Return to Store-Bought Snacks

Data from July 2020 showed that consumers turned to homemade treats that they typically would have purchased in a supermarket or at outdoor activities, such as ice cream and funnel cake. We predict that this year, consumers will turn back to the store-bought versions of their favorite summer treats as more activities open up and the nation returns to a state of semi-normalcy.

In fact, we’re already seeing this trend emerge. Consumers are mainly focused on the classic treats that are typically made at home like gooey chocolate chip cookies, easy-to-make dump cakes and simple how-to recipes that demonstrate how to make part of a full treat, like frosting or pie crust. Compare this to July 2020, when treats like pandesal, a Filipino bread roll and French crepes were trending. As a result, we may see a large shift during these coming summer months to classic treats that are typically purchased at the supermarket.

Hot Weather Hydration

With summer entertaining and scorching heat comes prime season for alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

Among all alcoholic beverages, wine was the most popular , while vodka held the top spot for hard liquor. However, while wine had consistently high views, vodka and alcoholic beer showed spikes during the week of July 4th, indicating that consumers amp up their consumption of these beverages during holiday celebrations.

Non-alcoholic beverages like non-alcoholic beer, fruit juice and diet beverages also showed the same pattern of spikes in consumption during July 4th. Accompaniments to alcoholic beverages and non-alcoholic mixed drinks will boom this summer, and brands need to make sure that they’re placing their products in the right context for consumers. Consider a recipe-based campaign with food influencers or advertising products within relevant recipes.