NPD Finds Cooking Without Cookware is Becoming the American Way.

Business Editors

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 2003

The new kitchen of the 21st century is chock full of kitchen shears, pre-made hamburger patties and refrigerated cookie dough- things to make the daily grind in the kitchen easier and more convenient.

In the newly released NPD Kitchen Audit, a snapshot of what's inside America's kitchens, NPD finds over the last decade people have fewer traditional appliances and cookware and more ready-to-use items, like marinades and mixes.

Kitchen shears, for example, were found in 66 percent of American kitchens in 2002, up from 49 percent ten years ago, while carrot peelers have slipped from 87 percent to 84 percent. NPD is seeing subtle, but sustained shifts in how people cook at home. "The scissors are to open all the frozen or ready-made packages and why peel carrots when you can buy them cleaned and peeled?" said Harry Balzer, vice president of The NPD Group, Inc.

Percentage of Kitchen Items in America's Homes
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What's Hot
2002
                            1993        What's Not     1993     2002
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Kitchen Shears          49        66    Rolling Pin     85       79
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Plastic Freezer Bags    18        20    Biscuit Cutter  40       34
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Paper Plates            82        86    Meat Mallet     56       49
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Sandwich Bags           72        77    Gelatin Molds   48       38
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Refrig. Cookie Dough     5        23    Garlic          49       32
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Hamburger Patties       31        37    Whole Fryer
                                         Chicken        27       23
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Source: The NPD Group/ NPD Foodworld (R)/Kitchen Audit

Freezers Are Bursting At The Seams

When people DO cook, (and they still do, NPD finds 72 percent of dinners are prepared at home) they love cutting corners.

Thirty percent of in-home dinners now include something frozen, up from 25 percent in 1985. NPD finds America's freezers stuffed compared to 10 years ago, stocked full of convenient foods and popular TV dinners. Sixty-eight percent of households have freezers that are three-quarters full or more, up from 63 percent in 1996. And Americans now need another appliance to hold all that convenient food. Sixty-three percent of households have an additional freezer or freezer/refrigerator combo; this is up from 58 percent in 1996.

Cooking Without Cookware

NPD, the only market research firm that tracks how Americans eat, is finding the traditional kitchen looks different than it did 10 years ago. People do not use double boilers, casserole dishes or even frying pans as often as they used to. Indoor or tabletop grills, which require little cleanup, have grown from being in 11 percent of households in 1993 to 27 percent in 2002. Frying pans, on the other hand, have gone from being in 99 percent of households in 1993 to 92 percent in 2002. That trend can be seen in a variety of cookware and bakeware...broiler pans were in 49 percent of households in 1993 and only 39 percent in 2002 and dutch ovens were in 61 percent of households in 1993 and only 51 percent in 2002.