What you need to know
While the soup category is facing challenges due to the decline of RTS (ready to serve) wet and condensed soup, areas of opportunity exist. Sales of broth are up due to a cooking culture, and refrigerated soups are performing well in the market due to positive consumer sentiment surrounding the category. There is an opportunity for soups made with organic, nutritious ingredients as the nature of health changes and packaging innovations may help boost soup sales.
Definition
For the purposes of this Report, Mintel has used the following definitions for soup:
RTS wet soup - canned or refrigerated soup that does not require additional ingredients, eg water or milk
Condensed wet soup - soup that can be used as-is in recipes or needs to have water or milk added to use as traditional soup
Dry soup mixes - dehydrated and requiring the addition of water to cook; most of these require simmering, although some are instant and need only be stirred. Includes bouillon and ramen noodle soup mixes
RTS broth - thin soup of concentrated meat, fish, or vegetable stock
Refrigerated fresh soup - soup that must be refrigerated to maintain freshness and heated to serve
Frozen soup - soup that requires thawing and heating from its frozen state
