Supermarkets have an unbelievable opportunity to build on the semi-homemade category, says guru

The growing semi-homemade category offers an ‘unbelievable opportunity’ for retailers, as Millennials want to feel like they’re making dishes themselves.

“Supermarket Guru” Phil Lempert calls the semi-homemade category, “one of the most interesting trends we’re seeing in supermarkets today.

“It is being driven by the Millennials,” he said. “When it comes to recipes, they don’t want step-by-step directions, what they want is a picture they can make themselves.

“Supermarkets have an unbelievable opportunity to build on this semi-homemade category. What if the prepared foods case, what if half of this case was semi-homemade; what if you took a product – the hard parts of cooking the product – already prepared, bring it home, heat it up and add your finishing touches,” said Lempert.

At the recent IFT Annual Meeting and Expo, FoodNavigator-USA caught up with Charles Barber, technical manager at BASF, to check out the company’s semi-homemade ice-cream concept.

“Did you know that the average consumer consumes about 20 lbs of ice cream annually?” he asked. “And they trend towards premium brands.

“We’re excited to be talking about consumer trends. It’s those trends and our understanding of what consumers are looking for, that we partner with our customers to help formulate and develop new products to help them serve their market,” he said.