Canned food: Are we at peak pantry?

When the going gets tough, the people get canned food. When the going gets tough, the people get canned food. The proof is in earnings statements from Campbell Soup Company posted during the pandemic. After years of lukewarm sales for canned foods (including soups, stocks, sauces, baby food, and V8 vegetable juice), grocery shopping for the apocalypse brought them to a boil, with sales in the fourth quarter of 2020 up 34% over the same period in 2019. Invented for Napoleon’s navy, in the past two centuries canned foods have proven to be the most important culinary innovation since sliced bread (which canning actually predates). It has fueled long sea journeys, westward pioneer sojourns, cattle drives, Arctic expeditions, every conflict since the US Civil War, the Great Depression, natural disasters, and every other crisis of modern life, including, you know, what to make for dinner on a Tuesday night. But what happens when the crisis is over? Campbell’s hot streak is already cooling down, and freshness-oriented grocery trends suggest a challenging market ahead for canned pantry staples. Let’s peel back the lid and see what’s inside. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Weekly Obsession] Canned food November 03, 2021 Soup sliding away --------------------------------------------------------------- When the going gets tough, the people get canned food. The proof is in earnings statements from Campbell Soup Company posted during the pandemic. After years of lukewarm sales for canned foods (including soups, stocks, sauces, baby food, and V8 vegetable juice), grocery shopping for the apocalypse brought them to a boil, with sales in the fourth quarter of 2020 up 34% over the same period in 2019. Invented for Napoleon’s navy, in the past two centuries canned foods have proven to be the most important culinary innovation since sliced bread (which canning actually predates). It has fueled long sea journeys, westward pioneer sojourns, cattle drives, Arctic expeditions, every conflict since the US Civil War, the Great Depression, natural disasters, and every other crisis of modern life, including, you know, what to make for dinner on a Tuesday night. But what happens when the crisis is over? Campbell’s hot streak is already cooling down, and freshness-oriented grocery trends suggest a challenging market ahead for canned pantry staples. Let’s peel back the lid and see what’s inside. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( By the digits [22.7%:]( Share of US vegetable consumption in 2018 that came from cans, down from a peak of 31.7% in 1971 [4 billion:]( Home canning jars processed in the US in 1943, the peak of home canning [213%:]( Year-over-year increase in the price of steel—the primary metal used for food cans—from Sept. 2020 to Sept. 2021, largely because of production cuts in China [127 billion:]( Metal cans manufactured in the US in 2019, up 1.5% from the previous year. 76% were for beverages, and the rest for food [59:]( People who contracted botulism from home-canned jalapeños in 1977, the largest outbreak in US history [12,000 francs:]( Prize the Society for the Development of National Industry in France offered in 1810 to encourage a breakthrough in food preservation Reuters/Eloisa Lopez Explain it like I’m 5! The great grocery store migration --------------------------------------------------------------- Canned food sales were helped during the pandemic by the overall run on grocery stores, which as an industry [saw 12% growth in the US in 2020](, compared to 1-2% in most years. Even as restaurants reopen, grocery market analysts expect home cooking to remain popular. But for a company like Campbell, the question is this: In which part of the grocery store are customers spending the most time and money? A great migration is underway inside grocery stores, said Rifle Hughes, a marketing strategist with JPG Resources, a Michigan-based food consulting firm. Seeking both fresh raw ingredients and semi-prepared hot foods (i.e., rotisserie chicken), shoppers are moving away from the “center store”—domain of canned foods, pasta, cereal, and the like—toward the vegetables and deli items that typically ring the store’s perimeter. That’s because “people want foods that are healthy, vibrant, and a form of exploration,” Hughes said, “That’s not going to come from a can.” Point being, canned food companies need to freshen it up. They could tap into the foodie scene on social media and offer more high-end canned products (we see you, San Marzano tomatoes), or emphasize the hours of time canned beans can save. “I haven’t seen anyone from center-store align well with those activities yet,” Hughes said. But because taking freshness out of the equation allows canning companies to maximize supply chain efficiency, “if they can unlock that demand they’re well-positioned to be highly profitable items.” Charted[Annual sales of meals and beverages by Campbell Soup Company, in billions, showing growth from 4.2 to 4.6 billion between 2018 and 2020. After 2020 it begins to decrease.] Quotable “I used to drink it. I used to have the same lunch every day, for 20 years, I guess, the same thing over and over again.” —[Andy Warhol](, on the inspiration for his iconic 1962 Campbell’s soup can pop art prints. Giphy Pop quiz Which canned food was used in acts of vandalism in the UK this year? PeasTomatoesBaked beansChicken noodle soup Correct. “The victims are understandably distressed by this unacceptable behaviour. Please, stop bullying the neighbors with your baked beans!” read a Facebook post from the police department in Wonersh, England. Incorrect. Try again, luv. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Giphy The way we🥫 now The great canned versus fresh debate --------------------------------------------------------------- There’s a perception that canned food is less nutritious than fresh, especially when it comes to fruits and vegetables. Like so many things, it’s complicated. Produce starts to degrade as soon as it is harvested, but which nutrients and how quickly they decline depend on the item and how it’s stored. [Vitamin C breaks down]( particularly quickly, while vitamins A and E have more staying power. If you’re planning on cooking your spinach or carrots, or making marmalade out of your citrus, the vitamin C is going to be reduced quite a bit by the heating process no matter what. Canned foods do tend to have [more sodium and sugar]( than their fresh or frozen counterparts, but producers have started offering low sodium versions of everything from chickpeas to creamed corn, and lower-sugar canned fruit. The short answer? Canned beans, fruits, vegetables, and fish often make it more affordable and more convenient to eat nutritious, minimally processed foods, so they’re a win. Brief history [1810:]( French chef Nicolas Appert publishes The Art of Preserving, for Several Years, all Animal and Vegetable Substances, the first guide to preserving food in glass jars. Appert had tinkered with his method—which started, in the most French way possible, with using cheese to seal foods inside champagne bottles—for years in response to a call from Napoleon for new ways to preserve food for the navy. [1810:]( That same year, British inventor Peter Durand patents a preservation method using tin-coated iron cans instead of glass. [1812:]( The first canning factory in the US opens in New York City; three years later canned foods travel with British colonial explorers to Australia. [1840s](: Canned food fuels a long-haul Arctic exploration. [1862:]( French chemist Louis Pasteur explains the science behind canning—heat kills bacteria that cause food to spoil. [1895:]( Scientists at MIT develop a method for high-temperature canning that improves food safety by killing microbes. It’s still in use today. [1897:]( John Dorrance, a chemist and nephew of the general manager of the Campbell Preserve Company, invents condensed tomato soup, soon to become the company’s signature product. [1910s:]( Canned foods help World War I soldiers survive the trenches. [1930s:]( During the Great Depression, canned foods became a staple in many American households. [1940s:]( Home canning declines in popularity as refrigerators become more common. [1964:]( Pull-tab cans are invented a few years after recyclable aluminum becomes the metal of choice for can makers. [2013:]( Ball canning jars celebrate their 100th anniversary with a special blue glass edition, just as hipster pickling and jam-making, not to mention [Mason jar madness](, hits its peak. [2020:]( Mason jars and their lids are in short supply as canning becomes a pandemic pastime. Listen to this! 🎧 The Quartz Obsession podcast is always fresh --------------------------------------------------------------- No matter how much information we manage to cram into an Obsession email, there’s always a great story, fact, or history we didn’t have enough room to include. That’s where the the Quartz Obsession podcast comes in. [Click here to listen]( to episodes on CAPTCHA, Afrobeats, business class, and more, or subscribe on [Spotify](, [Apple](, [Google](, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sponsored by American Express [Listen now]( Fun fact! In 1856, the cargo steamboat Arabia sunk on the Missouri River in Kansas. When it was excavated, in 1987, [researchers found hundreds]( of sealed bottles of fruit and pickles that were still edible. Youtube Watch this! How does canning actually work? --------------------------------------------------------------- When done properly, canning, whether at home or on an industrial scale, uses heat to destroy microorganisms and enzymes, remove oxygen, and create a vacuum seal leaving the food inside the can, or jar, in a state of suspended animation that won’t change until the can is opened. Follow the BBC into a canning factory to see how the process works to keep food edible for years. The United States Department of Agriculture [Complete Guide to Home Canning]( (pdf) is a good place to start if you have empty jars calling out to be filled. Giphy Poll What’s your favorite canned pantry staple? [Click here to vote]( Sweetened condensed milkThose fancy San Marzano tomatoesTunaGreen beans 💬let's talk! 🤔 [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20canned%20food&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) 🎲 [Show me a random Obsession]( Today’s email was written by [Tim McDonnell](, edited by [Annaliese Griffin](, and produced by [Jordan Weinstock](. [facebook]([twitter]([external-link]( The correct answer to the quiz is Baked beans. Enjoying the Quartz Weekly Obsession? [Send this link]( to a friend! Want to advertise in the Quartz Weekly Obsession? Send us an email at ads@qz.com. Not enjoying it? No worries. [Click here]( to unsubscribe. Quartz | 675 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10011 | United States