Lockdown has prompted a surge in interest in home baking

As the COVID-19 virus spread across the world, enforced lockdowns elevated the popularity, and necessity, of home baking. For some, baking was a necessity due to an inability to procure ready-baked staple foods.

As the COVID-19 virus spread across the world, enforced lockdowns elevated the popularity, and necessity, of home baking. For some, baking was a necessity due to an inability to procure ready-baked staple foods. But for many others, baking has become an enjoyable and creative way to spend some time at home. The way in which baking can be an immersive and process-oriented ritual is discussed in Mintel's 2021 Food & Drink Trend, Feed The Mind.

In Europe, younger demographics in particular have most voraciously embraced home baking, although engagement has grown among all age groups. As a result, baking ingredient companies had a wider and more engaged consumer base to target in 2020.