Momentum for refrigerated and fresh foods continue to grow, with categories increasingly appearing in center aisles and appealing to convenience and health minded consumers.

The ready-to-eat market is among the fastest-growing segments in the F&B industry, largely fueled by refrigerated meals and sides, and is expected to climb to $391 billion over the next 10 years, according to Future Market, Inc.

Below is Refrigerated & Frozen Foods’ Top 25 Refrigerated Foods Processors Report, a list of the top five companies in each of the following categories: Meat & Poultry; Dairy; RTE, Sides & Prepared Foods; Dips & Spreads, and Fruits & Vegetables.

Highlights from fiscal 2023 statements include:

• General Mills exceed $20 billion in net sales for the first time in company history.
• In its earnings statement, Nestle said beverages, including Starbucks products and Coffee mate, were among the refrigerated products with year-over-year sales growth.
• Several major food companies, including Kraft Heinz, pointed to the reduction of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”) benefitsas factors in the decline of sales volume.
• Bonduelle North Americas received its B Corp certification, a goal first announced in 2018.
• Tyson Foods sales were down .8% from fiscal ’22. The company said in its earnings announcement that it plans to close six chicken processing facilities in an effort to reduce costs and improve capacity utilization.
• Cargill, ranked No. 1 on Forbes’ most recent list of privately held U.S. companies, reached record companywide sales of $177 billion, a 7% increase over fiscal ’22.

This report represents Refrigerated & Frozen Foods’ best efforts to reflect recent sales data based on annual reports, news releases, and statistics from our sister publications and other business media sources. Because most companies do not separate refrigerated sales from frozen (or even cold foods from shelf-stable) sales figures are all company-wide. If you work for a company on this list and know the approximate sales data of the refrigerated products your business produces, please contact me to update this page.

Notable Stories in Meat & Poultry

• STX Beef Company, LLC (STX) announced the purchase of Missouri Prime Beef Packers.

Notable Stories in Dairy

• Chobani acquired RTD coffee company La Colombe for $900 million.
• Walmart started construction on its second milk processing plant, a $350 million project in Georgia.
• Emmi Roth opened a new corporate HQ and cheese conversation facility in Wisconsin, to meet growing demand.
• Stonyfield Organic announced a $7 million expansion at its New Hampshire facility to double output of its yogurt pouch line.
• Cacique Foods, maker of authentic Mexican-style cheeses, cremas, chorizos and salsas, celebrated its 50^th anniversary with new HQ and processing facilities in Texas.
• BelGioioso announced a $10 million upgrade to its New York plant and brought back the Polly-O Parrot.

Notable Stories in RTE, Sides & Prepared Foods

• FreshRealm expanded its national operational and production footprint to nearly 1 million square feet with three new leading-edge facilities, including the purchase of the operational infrastructure of Blue Apron.
• HomeChef announced plans for a production and distribution facility in Baltimore, its first on the East Coast.
• Tyson Foods began an expansion project at its Illinois prepared foods facility, expecting to create over 400 jobs and adding seven production lines.

Notable Stories in Dips & Spreads

• Devanco Foods, known for its refrigerated hummus line, Zacca, was named the R&FF’s 2023 Refrigerated Foods Processor of the Year.

Notable Stories in Fruits & Vegetables

• Indiana-based produce distributor FreshEdge continued to acquire companies, including Greenberg Fruit Company.
• Mann Packing recently expanded its offering of its commodity vegetables and value-added products to the East Coast with the support of parent company Fresh Del Monte. 
• Little Leaf Farms earned the No. 1 best-selling packaged lettuce in New England, capturing 20% of all packaged lettuce sales in the region, inclusive of field-grown greens.