For many, the pandemic was a crash course in flexibility, especially on a short timeframe. Both bakers and QSR operators were forced to experiment with new packaging formats, find substitute ingredients for reformulations and more. This was made even more difficult by the pressure to meet growing consumer trends such as vegan, keto and organic products, but QSR operators are keeping their eyes on simplicity.

“The R&D landscape we had pre-pandemic was a lot more diverse, but once everything shut down, we had to hit the ground running,” Tsocanos said. “A lot of major players are testing keto options and plant-based proteins. Right now, we’ve just been focusing on our core menu items. If you can win in the core, you can get people experiment on the menu.”

Subway was already moving toward changes to its menu before the pandemic hit. They had noted the growing demands for delivery and carryout and pivoted toward a more robust formulation for its breads. They relied on their partners at Aspire to get the job done.

“As you think about a bread moving from point A to point B, the length of time between the actual baking of bread in-store to when someone eats it two or three hours later, the bread needs to hold up much better than it did before,” Morales said. “We’d been working in that direction for a long time, and we realized it was the right direction when the pandemic hit. That goal fit perfectly into the environment we were faced with.”