Technomic Reports-Desserts Are on the Rise

Many people these days are quick to talk about their obsession with kale, quinoa, and zoodles. What many seem to fail to mention is their love for desserts. All those beautiful cakes, cookies and pastries. While they may not be talking about these scrumptious treats, they are definitely succumbing to them, as consumption of desserts seem to be quickly rising.

Technomic, a company known as “the food industry research specialist” recently released their 2017 Dessert Consumer Trend Report*. Their report, based on a survey of 1,500 consumers in the United States, showed that people are changing the way that they look at and think about desserts. More and more people are planning events and occasions around desserts and people who are between the age of 18-34 are more likely to go to a specific place to eat a meal because they are intrigued by what the restaurant has to offer for dessert.

Techmonic also observed that 32% of consumers eat dessert after a meal at least twice a week. 46% of consumers dessert occasions are planned, not just an impulse as well as 48% of consumers say they are willing to pay more for desserts which are made from scratch.

Many of the people who are consuming desserts on a more regular basis seem to be eating it during a variety of hours, with many of them using desserts in place of their usual mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack. 78% of these people are also saying they tend to gravitate towards desserts as a reward for something that they’ve done well, 60% saying that they will get a dessert because they are feeling happy. Many also are more likely to order a dessert if there is someone there to share with or if there is a mini size available to them.

Kelly Weikel, the director of consumer insights at Technomic, reported to Brian Amick of BakeMag.com “Portable desserts like milkshakes, smoothies, and fruit are increasingly popular for anytime occasions like snacking and replacing meals” Darren Tristano, the executive president of Technomic informed Bruce Horovitz of USA Today, “Consumers aren’t holding off on dessert until after dinner, they’re reaching for easily accessible, hand-held, and portable treats at just about any time of day.”

Desserts come in many forms in 2017. With all the different flavors that many sweet treats offer and the rise of everything being “mini” and “portable” people are getting their dessert on. People are grabbing up desserts just as fast, if not faster, than they are grabbing up their kale, banana, spinach smoothies. Dessert consumption is on the rise, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be scaling back any time soon. 

* Statistics from The Technomic Consumer Report received from previously written articles, as the report is only available to view once purchased. Quotes previously given to other authors.