Viral social media food trends cause popular supermarket products to fly off shelves
Updated . First published at
Viral social media trends are emptying supermarket shelves across the nation as retailers struggle to keep up.
Trends like the viral Biscoff cheesecake have turned yoghurt into a vacant spot at supermarkets.
"It's a constant battle for us to keep up with the trends because they're so fast-moving," Coles development chef and ambassador Michael Weldon said.
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Weldon said the viral Japanese cheesecake saw yogurt sales "go through the roof". Nine
Coles development chef and ambassador Michael Weldon. Nine
"The viral Japanese cheesecake has gone a bit crazy.
"We've seen our yogurt sales go through the roof."
Cottage cheese also boomed by 68 per cent in the first half of the financial year.
Some trends are less about flavour and more of a guessing game, such as the viral Clinkers trend that caused shortages of the chocolate.
The trend saw people promising to do something if they were able to correctly guess the colour of the Pascall Clinker they were biting into.
"We saw last September Clinkers went up, they doubled in sales from the year before," Weldon said.
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Purpose-built supermarket test kitchens exist to chase and evolve social trends. Nine
Social media trends are leading to supermarket shelves being emptied. Nine
Supermarkets and brands are looking to capitalise on the popularity of the products.
Purpose-built supermarket test kitchens are chasing and evolving social media trends.
"We have a team here who's concentrating on looking at what the next big thing is," Woolworths head of commercial rewards Jessica Loader said.
"They're working in our innovation kitchens, they're looking at trends in restaurants and around the world."
"Off the back of trends, we'll develop products to match those trends," Weldon said.
"Shaker Salads has just launched a viral trend at the back of that classic cucumber salad in the Big Shaker Tubs."
The big supermarkets are already predicting the next big thing.
"The next big thing: fibre," Loader said.
"Dumpling lasagna, that one has taken off in the last couple of weeks."
"They're calling it 'swavoury': sweet and savoury," Weldon said.
"Who knows that could be the next one."
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