In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, as restaurants and common foodservice locations – casinos, cruise ships, sporting events, and others – began closing down, seafood took a significant hit to its bottom line.
As families hunkered down at home and bought items at retail in record numbers, the foodservice sector experienced huge drops in sales across all categories. With its heavy reliance on foodservice sales, the seafood industry was especially vulnerable to this rapid shift.
“Looking at data, I’m going to say ... seafood restaurants in those first several months of COVID, definitely April and May, were one of the hardest hit segments out there,” Performance Food Group Vice President of Procurement Mike Seidel told SeafoodSource.
Overall, the category was down roughly 50 percent, with fine-dining style restaurants seeing massive plunges, according to foodservice distribution data.
“I want to say in the 75 percent range,” Seidel said.
That drop, however, is not just a linear loss of business across all types of foodservice, and it was far from permanent. Consumers began to get delivery from their favorite spots shortly after pandemic-related restrictions rose up in full force.
“I think early on, the consumer ran right away to Chinese takeout, ran to pizza. Places you’d historically get takeout,” Seidel said.
This initial draw gradually spread out as consumers began to miss the restaurant-made meals that they could no longer get on-location, spreading the delivery demand out over more categories. That shift in demand presented opportunities to foodservice companies that had some form of takeout offering, which before the pandemic was often an afterthought.
"At the beginning of COVID, I spoke to some national chain restaurants, or folks on their teams, and they admit that they have a program where you could take food to-go, but it was never their focus,” Seidel said.
Taking a typical dine-in item and throwing it into a box isn’t necessarily the best way to get a consumer to eat food at home, Seidel noted. A lot of seafood items, especially popular ones like a traditional fish and chips, don’t hold up well enough for the delivery or takeout environment. A piece of fried fish and some french fries may be delicious and crispy when first put into the box, but give those items 30 minutes in some sort of container and the end result is going to leave a lot to be desired.
“If you put french fries or fish inside a foam package right after it’s out of the fryer, it’s going to get soggy, because the moisture gets trapped in that box,” Seidel said.
As a result, french fries – a perennial favorite of U.S. consumers – have become the fastest movers on the innovation front when it comes to adapting to delivery and takeout environments. Some supply companies have been innovating on both packaging and the product itself.
One example Seidel gave came from Lamb Weston, which created “CrispyCoat” fries that are intended to stay crispy on delivery, coupled with a special to-go box.
“It was engineered for french fries specifically. The special box, and special batters, allow the fry to maintain its crispiness – even in a takeout environment," Seidel said. "I’ve seen, during COVID, especially with the french fry, folks coming out with the delivery fry that now lasts 40 minutes if it stays warm."
Part of that engineering, he said, is an invisible starch coating that helps maintain the all-important crunch.
“If you were to eat them 35 minutes later, you’d hear the crunch,” Seidel said.
That engineering has yet to graduate to other types of fried foods, Seidel said.
“I haven’t really seen that engineering applying toward fish, or even chicken for that matter, per se,” he said.
Getting traditional items to hold up to the delivery and takeout environment is just one way to get customers to bring seafood home. For other species, packaging alone isn’t going to bridge the gap between restaurant quality and takeout reality.
“Fish can be a tough one. You’re talking about maintaining some integrity on a delivery application, it really has to be breaded or battered,” Seidel said.
Lots of popular species, like tuna or mahi, work fine in a restaurant environment thanks to the short time between the item being cooked and served. But once it’s waiting in a package for 30 minutes on delivery, those species won’t always arrive in the best shape.
“Even if you take a mahi right off your grill, it’s not necessarily burning your mouth five minutes later,” Seidel said. “That’s where seafood gets a little tricky.”
One potential solution for restaurants is rethinking the way takeout operates. An item sent for delivery may not necessarily need to be in ready-to-eat condition, as long as that’s understood from the start.
“If you’re not going to change your investment in the packaging that’s offered, because there is packaging that’s designed to hold the heat in, just adapt your menu, use stuff that stays fine steamed,” Seidel said. “I think restaurants need to think around, ‘OK, I’m not necessarily going to make packaged seafood that’s hot 20 minutes later.’”
Pairing seafood with items that microwave well, like rice, potatoes, or vegetables, can be a way to create a menu item that consumers can re-heat quickly and easily at home, without any loss of flavor.
Other market trends have shown that U.S. consumers are more than willing to have fish delivered to their home. Retail seafood sales have been booming, and some home delivery services like Real Good Fish have seen tremendous growth in 2020 – to the point where the company is expanding its service.
Other seafood companies are adding direct-to-consumer sales in order to capitalize on the new market. Companies like Pacific Seafood, Kingfish Zeeland, True World Group, and more have all started using online stores and creative sales methods to appeal to at-home consumers.
While the industry as a whole is still down due to the pandemic, the numbers aren’t as bad as they could have been, Seidel said.
“It’s not as doom and gloom for the foodservice industry as some suggest,” he said.
While some segments, like casual dining seafood, are still down, they didn’t necessarily have great years going into the pandemic. Some segments, like casual dining Mexican, are down only 11 percent, and quick-serve seafood has grown, according to Seidel.
“Quick-serve seafood was growing 15.7 percent going into COVID,” Seidel said. “It’s now growing 12.6 [percent].”
As consumers begin to crave the seafood items they don’t want to attempt at home – sushi is a great example, Seidel said – making those items available could be a way to boost interest.
“Get it packaged up, so somebody can take it home and still cook it to bring it back to life,” Seidel said. “I would challenge restaurant operators today: Seafood is great, seafood can work well for takeout.”
Photo courtesy of Pepgooner/Shutterstock
