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But a bigger reason for the sector’s decline is a wholesale change in the way people shop, cook and eat that the global food-processing giants are scrambling to address.

About 60 to 65 per cent of the soups produced at Campbell’s Toronto factory are canned, with the remainder in sterile packaged cartons. But the only kind of soup that has had any sales growth over the past five years, according to market research, is the fresh variety, which accounts for a tiny portion of the overall soup market, sold chilled on grocery store cooler shelves.

People are eating less frequently at home than they used to and are choosing more fresh, unprocessed items than they did in the past, regardless of where they eat.

One factor is the consistent decline of the consumption of canned soup — in Canada, it has declined 30 per cent in the last 10 years Ana Dominguez, president of Campbell Canada

Everyone from fast-food giants to grocery stores is trying to cash in on the trend: Starbucks Corp. sells sandwiches and protein-rich salads, and grocer Metro Inc. bought a meal-kit company last year even though it also sells all the discrete items customers need to make their own meals.

Those trends have the 149-year-old Campbell Soup Co. trying to innovate to keep sales from slipping down the drain.

“One factor is the consistent decline of the consumption of canned soup — in Canada, it has declined 30 per cent in the last 10 years,” said Ana Dominguez, president of Campbell Canada.