Cookies are a bakery treat that fit in many places—solo snacking sessions, birthdays, and special occasions, tucked into lunchboxes for school or work consumption, and more. 

This month’s eMagazine explores the field’s current health and future success.

Hungry consumers continue to start their day with flavorful, convenient breakfast goods.

With more consumers attending gatherings, the dessert category is having a renaissance. 

Consumers are choosing frozen over delivery demand quality and variety in their pizzas.

As is the case with many bakery products, better-for-you is a leading subcategory.

Producers face ongoing pressures, but they keep demonstrating their strength.

Snacking is a constant, with BFY and other trends mixing things up.

After offering creative flavors and ingredients, tortilla chip producers are drawing double-digit growth.

Consumers keep eyeballing snacks in the freezer case while keeping an eye on their budgets.

Manufacturers are poised to tackle the various challenges of the chips category.

To overcome industry obstacles and entice consumers, producers are getting creative.

Challenges persist, but producers express optimism about the category’s future.

The pretzel category rose 6.4% in sales over the past year.

Category producers entice consumers with adventurous flavors and BFY benefits.

Snacking is a constant, with BFY and other trends mixing things up.

Consumers crave budget-friendly treats.

The desire for distinctive offerings drives consumer choices in candy and confectionery.

The cracker market, like many other snack segments, is in an evolutionary state. If you ask Craig Lieberman, president and founder of Denver-based 34 Degrees, changes in the category span “from the types and styles of crackers to the location and placement of crackers in the store.”

Extruded snacks are having a bright year, and producers expect the success to continue.

Pizza is essential to a high percentage of Americans, a fact reflected in the over $6 billion annual sales for this market segment in frozen retail pizzas alone. While diversification of crusts and ingredients is attracting health-conscious consumers, there is still demand for high quality, Italian-style premium frozen pizza.

Consumers are still looking for indulgences, despite the fact that many products now have health halos. However, in our current era of “little treat culture,” the bakery snacks category—aka smaller servings of snack cakes and pies—continue to be popular.

Puffed and extruded snacks are shedding their junk-food image with more nutritious ingredients and no-fry processing, plus on-trend flavors, textures and shapes to add more fun.

The puffed and extruded snack segment combines the best elements of tradition and forward-thinking better-for-you innovation.

The bakery snacks category overall experienced an increase in sales in 2021, the possible reason for that being that consumers are now returning to the office and want on-the-go snacks to keep them company at their desks. 

Americans of a certain age likely associate bakery snacks with lunchboxes, unwrapped and enjoyed at school, near the tail end of their midday meal. 

Crackers maintain far-reaching appeal. But while the category benefits from increased consumer interest in snacking, crackers have experienced intensified competition from other foods within salty snacks and beyond.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S., shoppers began to frantically stock up on select food products. Due to its convenience and comfort-food appeal, frozen pizza was a top choice, and retailers soon found themselves with dwindling supplies as American society braced for the worst.

MECATHERM has launched the Authentik Baguette, a solution that allows manufacturers to meet the new expectations of consumers looking for more authentic products, with a product positioned midway between the classic baguette and the artisan-style baguette. 

Boulart deftly balances artisan ideals with state-of-the-art technology to bring better bread to the masses.

Crackers are a product category that has nearly universal appeal. Consumers are snacking more often, especially in light of the recent pandemic, and the expanding variety of crackers on the market today make them a natural fit for nearly any snacking occasion.

The puffed and extruded snacks category has grown-up, and the market is seeing some diverse company.

It's safe to say COVID-19 has made its mark on the food industry. People are cooking more at home than they used to.

Southern Recipe Small Batch is rereleasing its Cranberry Jalapeno and Apple Cinnamon pork rind flavors for the holidays.

The latest 600-gallon ROSS VersaMix Model VM-600 is capable of high speed subsurface powder induction with proprietary ROSS Solids/Liquid Injection Manifold (SLIM). 

INDCO HS-100 and HS-300 series benchtop dispersers can mix up to 5 gallons of materials at a time, making them ideal for a wide range of high shear applications within labs, pilot plants, and small-scale production environments.

INDCO HS-100 and HS-300 series benchtop dispersers can mix up to 5 gallons of materials at a time, making them ideal for a wide range of high shear applications within labs, pilot plants, and small-scale production environments.

Hinds-Bock's new moist streusel target depositor, Model 5A-SD, reduces labor cost and give-away through accurate target scaling of high fat streusel.

Injecting depositors are available for sweet goods such as donuts, muffins, cupcakes and parfait cups.

This specialized line is another custom production line in the Hinds-Bock family of equipment offered to the Baking and Food Processing Industries.

Properly cleaning and sanitizing large stationary systems can often be a challenge. Hinds-Bock has created an easy roll on and off industrial carrier frame that works great for streusel and batter depositors.

The Hinds-Bock 10P-01 high speed mini products depositor provides large production in a small space.

Deposit and spread condiments like ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and sauces as well as sandwich salads like tuna, egg and chicken onto bread, buns, tortillas or dough at a high rate of speed and with a high degree of accuracy with the Hinds-Bock family of USDA approved state of the art Servo Pump Fillers.

Hinds-Bock Griddle Depositors are ideal for pancake and waffle batters. 

The American Society of Baking (ASB) announced the 2025 inductees into the Baking Hall of Fame at its regional meetup held Oct. 24 at the Bundy Baking Museum in Urbana, OH, home to the Baking Hall of Fame.

The respected industry leader served the baking field for more than 45 years, most recently as diversity, equity, and inclusion director with Highland Baking Co.

State of the Industry analysis of the fresh bread category, including sandwich and loaf bread products, bagels, and English muffins.

As recovery from the pandemic continues, U.S. consumers are slowly making their way back to the real world—which includes dining out at restaurants with friends and family and grabbing lunch at fast-food and quick-serve eateries near the office.

State of the Industry analysis of the fresh bread category, including coverage of loaf and sandwich breads, artisan breads, bagels, and English muffins.