Food & Flavour Trend Outlook
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- Created: Tuesday, 11 February 2020 08:30
What is driving the food and beverage industry in 2020?
Based on the constant evolution of the consumers’ aspirations for health & well-being, authentic and clean label products, the industry is facing a changing demand for new product developments, reformulations and market strategies.
In 2020 and the decade to come, ingredients, such as flavours need to focus on functionality AND taste attributes to serve the evolving needs of today’s consumers. Building a bridge between delivering an authentic taste experience and helping to maintain the sensory characteristics of consumer products is key. By that means, flavours need to provide natural taste solutions for sugar reduction, masking off-notes, salt reduction and many more. Thus, creating further opportunities for the future of food. At the same time, sustainability and transparency are major attributes that need to be obtained across the whole supply chain.
Functional taste solutions lead the way
A growing number of consumers is seeking for more healthy food: less sugar or salt, added or alternative proteins as well as superfoods with high nutritional content are major drivers for purchasing decisions. At the same time, consumers are demanding tasty high quality food and seasonal or adventurous variations.
With respect to the vast growing market dynamic for alternative proteins on a global scale, not only meat alternatives will see a respective growth, but also dairy-free white products. Future opportunities will therefore be generated by innovations within the plant-based area. Supported by these market dynamics, the category of sports nutrition will further move into mainstream, opening opportunities for “wellness drinks” and further hybrid categories that address a far larger consumer group.
Thus, maintaining appealing taste characteristics is key for developing successful market products. Authentic taste profiles, such as roasted meat and other culinary profiles or creamy, milky and fresh characteristics need to be obtained. Covering or masking off-notes of various protein types equally play a major role for developing indulgent products. With sugar reduction evolving further and being evident in many product categories at the same time, the need for functional taste solutions will increase substantially over the next 5 years.
Learn more about Bell`s functional taste solutions for sugar reduction:
Botanical extracts and organic flavours are taking center stage
Botanical extracts can be found in a growing number of product launches across all major segments, but will most significantly further influence product developments within the non-alcoholic beverage category. Products such as near water, flavoured water or infused water are focusing on consumer groups shifting from drinks with a high sugar content to more natural and less sweet options by using a range of botanicals within their formulations. Hence, opportunities can be found in herbal varieties that comprise a more bitter taste or combinations with mint, tea leaves, mild spices or floral notes.
Changing EU-regulations effective for organic-certified products from January 1st, 2021 will also lead to an increasing focus on reformulation within a variety of food and beverage products. In order to keep the organic certification within end products, they are only allowed to contain organic-conform or organic-certified natural source flavourings (95:5) and/or organic-conform or organic-certified extracts.
At the same time, using organic-suitable or certified flavours and extracts will play a major role in new developments within categories such as non-alcoholic beverages, dairy products or bakery & snacks, addressing consumers' desire for transparency and simplicity of ingredients and the increased focus on naturalness.
Let us help you in finding solutions for the new EU-organic regulations:
Hemp is here to stay
Especially younger consumer groups are looking for experimental, yet indulging products, with certain trends or megatrends shaping the industry and setting foundations for new and sophisticated market launches.
The current growth of hemp-based product developments across all product segments within the global F&B industry and the buzz around CBD is likely to fuel product innovations in 2020 and the years to come. Hemp is going mainstream – according to market data, the global hemp-based food market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 24% in the coming years.
The recent popularity of hemp can be mainly attributed to consumers' growing interest in following plant-based and free-from diets. Together with the consumers' aspirations for hemp as a superfood, its characteristic herbal and floral notes are also creating high interest and lend a signature taste profile to a variety of applications such as non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages, baked goods and confectionery products and even sauces, condiments and marinades. The use of hemp extracts further underlines the better-for-you and at the same time premium appeal and creates depictional advantages. Both hemp flavours and extracts will therefore be seen in an increasing variety of product launches within the upcoming period.
Discover Bell´s range of natural hemp flavours and extracts, delivering authentic taste experiences for new and invigorating product creations:
Consumers are willing to pay more for “better-for-you” products that are characterised by high quality natural ingredients and sustainable production – indicating that consumers are increasingly seeking quality over quantity. The continuing growth in premium beers and natural-appealing beer mixers evidences the move towards a thoughtful consumption and a stronger focus on premiumisation.
Reflecting today‘s consumer expectations for authenticity and naturalness, Bell has designed a range of strong and intense beef flavours, that are truly inspired by the unique cooking techniques of beef and its versatile, aromatic taste components. Our Research & Development team has evaluated the taste characteristics defining those distinct beef notes and created key flavour profiles for adding a depth of taste to various savoury applications and for replicating signature taste characteristics by delivering nuances such as roasted, fatty or braised beef. All flavours have been created for increasing the overall taste by delivering various nuances of beef and can further be used to amplify already existing beefy and meaty notes.
Our high-impact beef profiles deliver full and unique meat characteristics, improved taste and a rounded mouthfeel for a broad range of applications, such as soups and broth, sauces, processed meat products, ready meals and foodservice products. The halal-conform range is in-line with consumer needs and expectations for transparency, as it allows for clean labelling due to a “natural flavouring” declaration. Furthermore, the products are designed to fulfil high-quality industry standards and deliver reliable taste properties without the use of added MSG or ribotides.
