21 Mar 2016 --- The US food industry is predicted to grow at a rate of 2.9 percent a year through 2022, powered by strong growth in meat products and snack foods, according to new figure from the PMMI (The Association for Packing and Processing Technologies).

The forecast, based on compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is based on interviews from 70 professionals across the food processing and packaging industry both in the US and overseas.

It found that meat products and snacks food will outperform the overall market boasting three percent growth, which can be attributed to heightened demand for convenience options from consumers.

The report found:
The U.S. food industry trails the global market and, while North America is the largest global market across all food segments, the overall growth of the food industry, which includes food packaging, is being driven by emerging markets like Argentina, Brazil, China and India.

Global growth rates for most segments are double U.S. growth rates, except for meat and related products (8.5 percent), and candy and confections (8 percent), which have higher rates of global growth compared to those of the United States.

U.S. food packaging innovations are often concepts that are already in use in other segments and innovations from other countries are beginning to enter the U.S. food packaging market. One trend that meat manufacturers find exciting is a product with a film that opens during cooking which allows the meat to brown after a pre-determined period of time.

The report found the most innovative food segments to be
1) Snack Foods
2) Meat and related products
3) Fruit and vegetables
4) Pet Foods