Who better than Google can study user considerations and intentions? With billions of queries typed into the search bar, the giant of Mountain View can compile top searches, and render a strong representation of the behaviour of United States’ population in relation to their food choices. To compile a list of accurate trends within the food industry, a team of Google experts pulled top volume queries related to the food category and looked at their monthly volume from January 2014 to February 2016. They first removed any seasonal effect, and then measured the year-over-year growth, velocity, and acceleration for each search query. Based on these metrics, they were able to classify the queries into similar trend patterns. That’s it. “The Pasta Comeback” is one of the top 5 food trends of the year. The other 4 are: “Food With a Function”, “Traveling Through Taste”, “Experimenting With Pork” and “Bite-Sized Snacks”.
A GROWING INTEREST DURING WEEKENDS – While growth was slow for interest in pasta from 2011 to 2014, demand picked up again in 2015 and continues to rise through 2016. Consumers are most interested in making pasta dishes at home on the weekends. They’re experimenting with new recipes and sauces that can be prepared at home or picked up at the grocery store. There’s interest in understanding the differences between certain types of pasta and their accompanying sauces. As with pork dishes, consumers are taking familiar dishes and experimenting with new ideas such as rigatoni pie. It’s time for marketers and buyers to refocus their attention on pasta. There’s growing interest for a variety of pasta recipes, and consumers are seeking new ideas for their weekend eating adventures.
WHAT DO PASTA LOVERS WANT? – After four years of slow growth, search interest in rigatoni started to rise again in 2015. Since then, this pasta dish has continued to see sustained growth of +26% year over year from January 2015 to January 2016. Consumers are seeking recipes and ingredients associated with rigatoni for making the dish at home. In fact, Top Associated Keywords are “Baked”, “Pie”, “Casserole”, “Stuffed”, “Spicy”, and also “Bolognese”, “Alla Vodka”, “Carbonara”, “Marinara”, “Amatriciana”, “Primavera”. Rigatoni content on YouTube features top recipes. The No. 1 video was posted more than seven years ago, demonstrating opportunity for new creative content and a fresh spin on the pasta dish.
