Basic breads
Lean doughs (flour, water, yeast, salt) like baguettes, sourdough, and whole-wheat loaves.
Specialty/Rich breads
Doughs enriched with fats, eggs, or sugar, such as brioche, milk bread, and challah.
Flatbreads
Tortillas, pita, and naan.
Laminated pastries
Layers of dough and fat, such as croissants, Danish pastries, and puff pastry.
Non-laminated pastries
Shortcrust (pies, tarts), choux (éclairs, cream puffs), and filo.
Cakes and cupcakes
Categorized into butter/oil cakes (pound cake) and foam cakes (sponge, chiffon).
Cookies and biscuits
Small, sweet baked treats including drop cookies, rolled cookies, and bar cookies (like brownies).
Hard and soft candies
Boiled sugar sweets like lollipops, candy caramels, drops, caramels, toffees, jellies and gums.
Chocolates
Bite-sized treats, chocolate bars, and truffles. These are sometimes treated as a distinct third category.
Primary grains processing
Involves cleaning, grading, hulling, milling and grading products like wheat, corn, rye, white/brown rice, malted barley and malt extracts.
Secondary grain processing
Transformation into specialized ingredients like starch, maltodextrin, glucose and gluten.
Bean processing
Drying and splitting of legumes such as chickpeas, lentils, navy, black and pinto beans.
Cereal processing
Includes traditional flakes, puffed grains, granola, breakfast bars, granola bars, rice cereal bars and ground corn products used for side dishes or further cooking.
Pasta production
Includes from dried pasta which is the most common shelf-stable variety, typically made from durum wheat semolina. Egg pasta, fresh and dry noodles enriched with egg. Other types of pasta: gluten-free, organic and whole-grain.
Frozen ready meals
The largest market segment in 2025 (accounting for over 42–53% of the global share). These include frozen dinners, snacks, breakfast items, and "steam-fresh" vegetables or pastas
Fresh ready meals
Products stored at refrigerated temperatures (~4°C). This includes chilled pasta dishes, rice meals, fresh salads, sandwiches, and wraps.
Shelf-stable meals
Products that do not require refrigeration, such as canned soups, stews, and vacuum-sealed "pouch" meals.
Instant meals
Dehydrated options like cup noodles, instant ramen, and dried soup mixes.
Fresh products
Includes whole fruits like apples, bananas, oranges, melons, berries, peaches, plums and whole vegetables like carrots, potatoes, yams, onions, garlic, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers.
Processed products
Involves cleaning, slicing, cooking, canning or freezing to extend shelf life, drying or dehydrating, enhance safety or offer convenience.
Juices
Includes different flavours of juice, purees and concetrates.
Dairy products
Includes whole milk, reduced-fat milk (2%), low-fat milk (1%), non-fat milk (skim), lactose-free milk, yoghurt, sour cream, cottage cheese, heavy cream, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, non-fat dry milk powder, butter, butter oil, ghee and dairy fat spreads.
Cheese categories
Includes Ricotta, Mascarpone, Paneer, Queso Fresco, Brie, Camembert, Havarti, Monterey Jack, Muenster, Cheddar, Swiss (Emmental), Gouda, Provolone, Parmesan (Parmigiano-Reggiano), Romano, Asiago, Gorgonzola, Roquefort, Stilton and processed cheese like slices, spreads and American-style "singles".
Ice-cream and frozen desserts
Includes standard and premium ice-cream categorized by air content (overrun) and butterfat. "Super Premium" varieties have higher fat and lower air. Frozen custard is distinguished by a higher egg yolk content for a denser texture. Soft serve with lower fat content thatn hard-scoop ice-cream, served at warmer temperature. Non-dairy includes frozen yoghurt, sherbet and sorbet. Plant-based alternatives which use bases like oat, almond, coconut and cashew.
Raw meat
Includes whole carcasses, primals, subprimals, cuts like steaks or whole birds, products that are ground, comminuted or mechanically tenderized like ground beef, hamburger patties and fresh sausages.
Canned meat
Includes corned beef, canned ham, soups, pepperoni, dry salami, certain hams, hot dogs, deli meats, nuggets and pre-cooked patties.
Meat derivatives
Includes NRTE products like bacon. smoked parts or par-fried breaded items.