For nearly half a century, the venerable Hot Pocket has been synonymous with the metallic crisping sleeve used to heat the cheese, meat and vegetable-filled turnover in a microwave. But the rapid growth in popularity of the air fryer has changed how many consumers warm the popular snack, leading brand owner Nestlé to ditch the sleeve altogether.
“Consumers are telling us, ‘You know, once I cooked the Hot Pocket in the air fryer, I’ll never go back. It’s just so much better and so much crispier,’ ” said Adam Graves, president of Nestlé U.S.’s pizza and snacking division. “The future is all about the air fryer. It’s really just a generational shift that you’re going to see.”
The air fryer has rapidly become a force in the food industry, upending what products consumers buy and how they prepare them.
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Roughly two-thirds of homes today have at least one air fryer, according to data analytics firm Circana, up sharply from 2021. Two years ago, the appliance became the fourth most popular cooking device behind the stove top, microwave and oven. More people have an air fryer today in their kitchen than a coffee maker, Nestlé noted.
The lasting popularity of the device has not gone unnoticed by food manufacturers.
Nestlé, Conagra Brands, Campbell Soup and Perdue Farms are among the companies developing a dizzying array of products made in or for an air fryer. An even larger number of products lining store shelves now contain instructions on preparing them using one. In some packages, microwave or oven instructions have been removed in favor of those for an air fryer.
“The future is all about the air fryer. It’s really just a generational shift that you’re going to see.”
Adam Graves
President, Nestle U.S.’s pizza and snacking division.
Graves said Nestlé first removed the crisping sleeve in 2022 from its larger-sized Hot Pockets after it observed people enjoyed the crispier crust that resulted from an air fryer. It recently removed the sleeve from its Hot Pockets breakfast lineup and is on track to remove it from the rest of the brand by the end of this year.
Other products, such as Stouffer’s Mac & Cheese bites and DiGiorno personal-size pizzas, suggest on the front of the packaging that people prepare the offering in an air fryer.
Households are still using the microwave with greater frequency, but he noted that the highest level of air fryer use is among teens and college kids. Many university students have the device in their dorm rooms instead of a microwave.
Younger consumers are “what’s going to drive the growth of air fryers and our business going forward,” Graves said.
Wait and see attitude
Fred van de Wiel, an inventor in the Netherlands, is credited with starting work on the modern-day air fryer in 2005 when he was looking for a healthier way to prepare a French fry without drying it out.
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The air fryer didn’t take off immediately, with household penetration hovering for years in the single digits. Demand soared during the COVID-19 pandemic as consumers spent more time preparing meals at home.
Mike Kostyo, a vice president at consulting firm Menu Matters, has worked with several food manufacturers on air fryers. He said many businesses were initially hesitant to invest meaningful time and money in developing products for the gadget.
Kostyo noted there was concern that its popularity could plunge as consumers returned to pre-COVID 19 routines where they ate out more frequently, or if broader interest in the device waned as people moved on to the next trendy machine.
The kitchen is littered with devices such as electric pressure cookers and at-home sous vide machines that have had their moment as the next “it” appliance, only to see them eventually get stashed in a drawer or closet.
The early days of the air fryer were riddled with challenges. Food packaging often lacked instructions, leaving consumers to guess how long to prepare their items and at what temperature. This led to overcooked or undercooked items. In addition, many foods were not prepared or packaged in a way conducive to an air fryer.
Shortly before the pandemic, Bob Nolan, senior vice president of demand science at Conagra Brands, recalls a large national retailer carrying both food and appliances telling him that their company sold a lot of air fryers but that consumers were unsure what to do with the device once they brought it home.
The retailer pleaded with the Birds Eye vegetable and Banquet frozen meals manufacturer to develop more products that could be prepared in an air fryer.
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It wasn’t long before the packaged food company had its culinary staff and chefs combing through its portfolio to see which products were most conducive to an air fryer. Once they settled on a few items, the employees set out to establish the optimal cooking times, write instructions and design packaging graphics to inform and alert shoppers.
Since then, Conagra has not only added instructions and graphics to more of its existing offerings, but created products made specifically for the air fryer, such as its Birds Eye Cauliflower Wings, La Choy Orange Chicken and Ultimate Plant-Based Chick’N Filets.
“I don’t think we have to sell people anymore on whether they should use any air fryer. We’re well past those days,” added Nolan, who has two of the devices in his own home. “Now, it’s about how do we make sure the products live up to what they expect from the air fryer.”
Some food manufacturers have admitted they were surprised by the swift pace of growth in air fryers. Nolan confessed that Conagra expected consumer adoption of the appliance “would be a slower migration over time.”
Perdue Farms moved forward in October with the launch of its Air Fryer Ready Crispy Wings, the company’s first chicken wing product designed for use in the kitchen appliance, after noting the “staying power and continued relevancy” the device had even after the pandemic, said Cody Walter, the company’s senior marketing manager.
The chicken processor observed that not only were more consumers owning air fryers, but those who did were using them more frequently.
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Playing catch-up
Once food manufacturers were convinced that air fryers would last, they went about determining how consumers were using the device — for example, how often and for what meals; what types of foods; were they making sides, entrees or both — before developing new products or tailoring existing ones to make them compatible.
While food companies have spent the last few years modifying their portfolios to be more air fryer-friendly, Kostyo said the number of products available in the marketplace still doesn’t match the equipment’s popularity.
“Now, it’s just kind of the shelf catching up to all of that innovation,” Kostyo said. “The tailwinds for air fryers are pretty strong. This is a trend that has legs.”
Air fryers have a lengthy list of favorable attributes that make them more likely to have longevity rather than fade into an afterthought.
The appliance provides a healthier method of preparing food, and it will likely continue to benefit from the growing desire by people to monitor what they eat. The device’s popularity among younger consumers also should provide a tailwind to the air fryer as the demographic commands an ever-larger portion of food spending dollars.
And finally, the food void that once existed with air fryer-compatible products is rapidly filling up, with shoppers now having an ever-growing range of choices — from chicken nuggets and cauliflower bites to fish fillets and tofu — that they can prepare in the appliance. Nolan with Conagra said the CPG giant is even exploring deserts for the air fryer as it grows its Dolly brand, named after the famous country singer, that launched in January.
“Its place in our diets is probably here to stay,” said Joe Derochowski, vice president and home industry advisor with Circana. “To skyrocket that much in six and nine years is pretty impressive. It’s actually a very good idea for food manufacturers to be marketing towards it.”
Air-fried offerings have proven adept at bringing consumers into some categories. This has given packaged food companies another incentive to keep innovating and tapping into segments beyond French fries and chicken nuggets that haven’t fully embraced the contraption.
“There’s still plenty more consumers that have air fryers and are using them than there are products dedicated to them. Now, it’s just kind of the shelf catching up to all of that innovation.”
Mike Kostyo
Vice president, Menu Matters
Walter with Perdue Farms said half of the consumers who purchase its Air Fryer Ready Crispy Wings are new shoppers to the frozen fully cooked chicken category or the Perdue brand. So far, the offering is selling more than 30% faster than other frozen fully cooked bone-in-wing offerings at traditional grocery retailers.
Early wing sales are “super strong,” Walter said, with the launch more than doubling the Maryland chicken company’s initial projections.
“It appears early on that we hit the nail on the head,” he added. The air fryer “has done a lot of exciting things for both the grocery outlets and the consumers who have interest in this product. Whether it’s our category or other food categories we’ve seen, obviously, this has become a huge trend.”
