Ed Griffiths

Record-breaking temperatures this summer saw value and volume sales rocket across the fresh produce sector.

Wholehead salads had a particularly fine few months, with value sales growing by ten per cent and volume by seven per cent in the 24 weeks from May to 7 October 2018.

The typical shopper bought salad almost once a week – enough to push the number of consumption occasions per household up from 21 to 22 over the summer as people sought out light and refreshing meals and snacks.

This was good news for several fresh produce categories that fall under the salad umbrella. Radishes, which have been a revelation in recent months as the centre of the latest Instagram trend, experienced growth of 40 per cent over the summer, and spring onions, peppers, lettuce and cucumbers all found themselves in double-digit growth too.

This is part of a larger pattern: the salad market now accounts for almost 400 million more meals than it did five years ago.

It might be a truism to say that two-thirds of salads are eaten for health reasons, and the market hardly needs to do much to position itself as good for the waistline. What’s more notable is that a full one-third of salads aren’t eaten for this reason.

This means there’s a sizeable market for retailers to tap into with salads that are less healthy or include more premium accompaniments: recipes like a more indulgent chicken Caesar or a salmon niçoise, for example.

There is also a growing appetite for salads as a fast, convenient option. Some 54 million salad meals were identified by shoppers as being for a ‘quick bite’ and it is twice as likely to feature in lunchboxes than it did five years ago.

Retailers and manufacturers need to embrace this using creative ideas like pre-packaged salad meal deals, single-serving pack sizes and ready-to-eat cooked accompaniments.

A versatile and convenient food, salads are popular with all demographics and are increasingly being eaten at new times and occasions, such as with TV dinners. The industry should continue to pitch them at moments that go beyond traditional mealtimes to ensure the sector stays fresh even now that summer is behind us.

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