DENVER — Despite an increase in consumption, many consumers lack knowledge about the whole grains food group. This presents an opportunity for the food and CPG industries to explore benefits beyond the general wellness that is already known.
Ardent Mills, a milling and ingredient supplier, plays a unique role in the food landscape as it looks to nourishing the future through food. Consumer behavior is one factor Ardent Mills uses to track what is driving food choices in society daily.
“What we’ve seen in the last six months is a big shift that is mainly environmentally driven, most likely due to higher price, but it fits perfectly with whole grains,” said Matt Schueller, director of marketing insights and analytics for Ardent Mills. “The two areas we’ve seen that consumers are prioritizing as their food choices is that the product must taste great and the second one is that consumers are seeking foods and ingredients that they believe are good for them and bring something good to the equation.”
Whole grains fall in line with what consumers are prioritizing. While it’s not a new ingredient, Ardent Mills believes that with consumers putting a higher focus on their food choices, the market is in the right place.
Ninety-eight percent of US consumers indicate they are aware of whole grains, according to Ardent Mills data, though only 29% stated they know specifics about whole grains and are familiar with them.
The miller sees an opportunity as an industry to educate consumers on whole grains and make products made with whole grains more easily accessible to consumers when they shop for groceries.
“Forty percent of consumers told us that they would be more likely to buy whole grain foods if there was a specific call out on the package that said, ‘This contains whole grains’” Schueller said. “There’s a real opportunity to make sure that the consumers understand that this is the type of food with an ingredient that they are looking for.”
One strategy Schueller emphasized for promoting whole grains was the idea of nourishing. The concept is that consumers are looking for something with great taste and some benefit that comes with consuming alternative grain products such as quina, millet, spelt and more. Another way to reach consumers is by going beyond why whole grains are healthy and digging into the history of whole grains.
“That’s what consumers are looking for,” Schueller added. “For the industry at large to be able to start to fill that gap I think probably heightens the opportunity for whole grains.”
