Supermarket Perimeter - February 2021 - 16

Bakery

mini-sized
The many reasons why small is good
BY JENNIFER BARNETT FOX

In the $46 billion bakery category, snacking continues to gain
momentum. With snacking on the rise among all consumers and nearly
60% of Gen Z and Millennials professing the inability to get through the
day without a snack, mini sizes are ﬁnding favor before, during and after
meals, as well as for dessert.
Cargill's Baked-in Opportunities Insights Report, a study on
American's snacking behavior, discovered four key snacking motivators:
To satisfy a craving (77%), To give oneself a treat (71%), To satisfy
hunger (70%), and To reward myself (55%). Treats that offer elements
of consistency and comfort are pushing to the forefront with minisized bakery products gaining popularity during the morning daypart,
according to Eric Richard, industry relations coordinator, IDDBA,
Madison, Wis.
Pre-pandemic, smaller snack sizes were beneﬁcial around lunchtime
when working adults would run into grocery stores for a quick, lastminute snack on a lunch break, shared Sarah Hickey, senior director
of insights and market research, Dawn Foods, Jackson, Mich. These
smaller-sized options now play a role in helping consumers break
up the day at home with a sweet treat for themselves or another
family member.
Bulk versions of multi-packaged mini portions are also popular
with parents who are purchasing larger packages of baked goods at
warehouse retail stores. Multipacks offer access to a wider variety of
items than when purchasing a larger quantity of a single item, said
Kathy Sargent, director of global market strategy, Corbion, Lenexa, Kan.
For easy snacking convenience, Dawn Foods recommended bakeries
use resealable pouches with tear-strip openings for mini bakery items

DOLL AR SALES
Mini Doughnuts
$7,249,701

Mini Muffins
$109,761,741

Perimeter Individual/
Snack Pies
$82.323,449

Tarts
$50,001,317

Formulation
Before taking already-popular products and making them smaller, it's
important to understand which ﬂavors and textures work best before
trying to crack their proﬁtability formula, cautioned Sarah Hickey of
Dawn Foods.
" Cakes and other popular celebratory baked goods are ﬁnding great
success in miniature versions, " she said. " We've seen 19% growth in cake
bites and 25% in cake slices over the last year. " (Nielsen Total Store View,
xAOC, 4 Weeks Ending 11/28/2020)
But simply smaller isn't the only consideration. It's also important
to formulate for the moisture content of smaller items, according to
Roger Daniels, vice president of research, development, innovation and
quality for Stratas Foods, Memphis, Tenn. Incorporating shortening and/
or margarine into a dough where it can interact with the ﬂour and egg
proteins to control strong protein-to-protein bonding is necessary to
create the desired structure and eating properties in a ﬁnished product.
" The size of the bakery item when one considers the amount of
surface area versus the volume in that moisture migration, either
through evaporation or movement from the center to the surface,
will negatively impact the product with either a change in texture or
premature staling, " he continued.
Daniels recommended using an emulsiﬁed shortening in a liquid
form, like Stratas' Nutex, or a traditional plastic shortening form such
as the company's Sweetex. The emulsiﬁcation bridges the fat-loving
ingredients with the water-loving ingredients to effectively hold water
where it needs to be to achieve the desired ﬁnal product. Formulated
with these considerations in mind, consumers have fresh options with
a longer shelf life, a quality that could help the instore bakery compete
with center-aisle products.

Audience

Integrated Fresh reports, powered in partnership with
IDDBA, for the latest 52 weeks ending 11-29-20

16 - FEBRUARY 2021

such as brownie bites, mini donuts and mini muffins. By using the
zipper or press-to-close feature, customers can return to the item with
the same amount of freshness.

There are two obvious demographics that appreciate mini desserts:
smaller households of empty nesters and other age groups and
younger single person households, according to Mark Boyer, president
of Tippin's Gourmet Pies, Kansas City, Kan. A Pew Research Center
Social and Demographic trends report showed small family sizes are on
the rise with 26% of children younger than age 18 living with a single
parent. As smaller family units become the norm, this offers perimeter

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