Earlier this week, I posted refrigerated and frozen food sales numbers from research firm IRI for the week ending April 5, which showed a rise in purchases again after a dip from the early March COVID-19 stockpiling frenzy that sent sales skyrocketing and disrupted the cold food supply chain. The year-over-year (YOY) numbers compared to 2019 continue to be astronomical despite the dip. 

New numbers from NCSolutions for the week ending April 18 support the trend that many cold foods are still selling strong, focusing on frozen food categories in particular. Week-over-week numbers showed a decline in most frozen categories, which NCSolutions attributes to slower Easter weekend shopping when many stores were closed for the holiday. Frozen breaded chicken saw the only gain, at +54% YOY, compared to +41% the previous week. Frozen whipped topping saw the biggest decline at -59% YOY, compared to +88% the previous week. 

While this isn't a comprehensive list of products (no frozen item has seen a bigger gain than cookie dough (+574%) since early March, according to IRI's research) combined with the IRI research, it's a useful snapshot to see which basic frozen products consumers are replenishing after the initial round of panic buying. Given the precipitous drop in frozen whipped topping, households that purchased that item probably have enough for the rest of the year or longer. 

Below is a list of several frozen food categories comparing the most recent YOY sales (4/5 - 4/11) to the YOY sales from 4/12 - 4/18:

CATEGORY - YEAR OVER YEAR                    4/11 SALES        4/18 SALES

Click here for more COVID-19 coverage and how it is affecting the refrigerated and frozen foods industry.