Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing retail trends series, “Eat More Plants.”
As high food prices spur consumers to cook more at home, shoppers are increasingly building their weekly grocery lists around “ingredient overlap” while favoring versatile, low-shrink staples that can stretch across multiple meals versus single-use items.
According to a nationwide survey of 2,000 U.S. adults conducted by Talker Research on behalf of the Idaho Potato Commission, nearly a third of Americans (31%) report cooking at home far more than they did a year ago. That behavioral shift has fundamentally changed how shoppers evaluate items in the produce aisle. Minimizing food waste ranked as the top purchase consideration for 73% of respondents, closely followed by shelf life (72%) and nutritional value per dollar (71%).
Thirty-three percent of respondents said they’ve actively reconsidered a food they previously avoided. Red meat (32%), white rice (31%), potatoes (30%) and eggs (29%) top the list of foods Americans have welcomed back into their rotation.
Among those who have changed their tune on a food previously avoided, 38% said it was driven by needing affordable options once they started cooking more at home, and 33% said they simply realized the ingredient was much more versatile than they’d given it credit for.
Eight in 10 who buy potatoes rate them as good or excellent for versatility across meal types (82%), being helpful to feed a household on a budget (82%) and for nutritional value (75%).
For retail produce buyers and category managers, these shifting priorities highlight a clear opportunity for produce categories that offer cross-daypart utility. Nearly two-thirds of shoppers (63%) say an ingredient’s ability to work across breakfast, lunch and dinner is a primary factor in whether it earns a permanent spot in their cart, with 60% explicitly planning weekly meals around shared ingredients.
“There’s a shift in how Americans grocery shop. People are not only trying to spend less, they are also trying to cook smarter,” says Jamey Higham, president and CEO of the Idaho Potato Commission. “Shoppers are looking for ingredients that can do more with less.”
Potatoes emerged as the top versatile staple in the survey, cited by 40% of respondents ahead of pantry standards like eggs, rice and pasta. Furthermore, 48% of shoppers reported viewing potatoes more positively than they did a year ago — driven equally by budget fit and cross-meal adaptability — while 67% of regular potato buyers described the commodity as underappreciated.
“Idaho potatoes have always delivered on versatility and nutrition, and it’s encouraging to see consumers rediscovering the value potatoes have brought to the table for generations,” Higham says. “Sometimes the foods we come back to are the ones we’ve trusted all along.”
To capitalize on this consumer mindset, produce departments can drive volume by aligning merchandising strategies with the multi-meal trend. Cross-merchandising produce workhorses with complementary categories, utilizing point-of-sale recipe callouts that showcase cross-daypart flexibility and highlighting cost-per-serving value can help retailers meet shoppers right at the intersection of tight budgets and smart cooking.
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