In recent years, there has been a steady decline in home cooking: More than half of all meals are now eaten away from home, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

Consumers don’t have the time to cook, and their skills are the worse for it. Food retailers, as the main suppliers of ingredients for home cooking, have watched their share of consumer spending on meals erode.

But the onset of the COVID-19 virus means cooking from home will have to make a comeback. Work-from-home directives, closed schools, and shuttered restaurants will profoundly reshape food consumption in the short term — and possibly over the longer term, too. Food retailers’ immediate priority is to keep shelves safely stocked, as worried consumers buy more than usual in anticipation of spending a long time at home. But as measures to combat the pandemic continue, grocers will have a unique opportunity to provide solutions that help consumers to cope and reduce their anxiety over putting wholesome meals on the table.

(Source: www.oliverwyman.com)