Nestle, Tyson, food giants bet on air fryers

Kettle Foods, known for its kettle-cooked potato chips, recently unveiled what it called “the future of the potato chip category”: air-fried chips.

The Campbell Soup brand’s snack launch, made with patent-pending technology, is the latest example of Big Food betting on consumers’ love of all things cooked in air fryers.

In 2022, U.S. consumers spent nearly $1 billion buying air fryers, up 51% from 2019, according to market research firm The NPD Group. Sales of the cooking appliance have been soaring since 2017, and they received an extra boost during the early days of the pandemic as people cooked more at home.

And now with more workers returning to the office and spending less time in the kitchen, consumers are increasingly turning to the portable convection ovens. Joe Derochowski, home industry advisor at the NPD Group, said the main draw is the ease and speed of using the appliance, plus achieving a crispy texture without deep-frying. And food manufacturers want to capitalize on the trend.

“They say necessity is the mother of invention. And in this case, the necessity is to continue to grow the top line,” said Ken Harris, managing partner at Cadent Consulting Group. “The best way to grow the top line is to take behavior that already exists and find a new use for that behavior.”

Big food companies like Kraft Heinz and Nestle saw a surge of sales early in the pandemic. When consumers started eating out at restaurants again and cooking less, food manufacturers’ sales still kept growing thanks to double-digit price hikes. But as shoppers’ grocery bills climbed in 2022, they started buying cheaper options instead, leading to shrinking volume.

As inflation cools and retailers put pressure on suppliers to stop raising prices, food companies have had to look for growth elsewhere.

Adam Graves, president of Nestle U.S.’s pizza and snacking division, said the company is leaning into the air fryer boom through its frozen food brands, specifically to offer customers more value.

“It’s the biggest trend that we’re seeing right now in modern cooking,” said Graves, who owns two air fryers himself.

Last year, Nestle launched pizza bites under its DiGiorno and Stouffer’s brands. Both lines’ packaging tells consumers “Try It in Your Air Fryer.” Other Nestle products, like Hot Pockets, now include air fryer cooking instructions alongside directions for heating up in the microwave and oven.

Tyson Foods jumped on the trend relatively early, launching its air-fried line in 2019. The products, ranging from chicken strips to its newest addition, parmesan-seasoned chicken bites, contain 75% less fat. Colleen Hall, senior marketing director of the Tyson brand, said the line has reached roughly $100 million in annual retail sales.

Tyson is also a third of the way through adding air fryer directions to its packaging for its frozen prepared…