The low-cost dry pasta, as well as its long shelf life, makes it a storecupboard staple. This is highlighted by Mintel in the finding that dry pasta is commonly associated with being good value for money and convenient. Volume sales of dry pasta slipped by 5% year on year in 2014, accompanied by an annual decline of 4% in value sales. This suggests that while dry pasta thrived during the recession and its aftermath thanks to it being both cheap and filling, it may be losing out as consumers start to adopt less frugal mindsets. While volume sales of chilled pasta slipped marginally in 2014, they have increased by 7% since 2012. This suggests that the price differential between that and dry pasta is becoming less of a barrier for usage of chilled pasta. Average prices of chilled pasta also increased notably in 2014, seeing value sales grow by 4% year on year, and its share of spend edge up by 2 percentage points. Boding well for the growth in fresh pasta as consumers start to become less cost-conscious in their grocery shopping habits, a third of users note that fresh pasta tastes better than dry pasta when cooked. That volume sales of pasta struggled in 2014 may also reflect the clement weather, with the year confirmed as the warmest on record for the Uk. Highlighting that weather has an influence over pasta usage, over a quarter (27%) of users note that pasta is more appealing to them in winter than summer.
