Food and beverage trends can have more plot twists than your favorite mystery movies. While annual trends are forecasted by some of the most incredible food minds and culinary innovators around the globe, they are also heavily impacted by consumers.

Flavour is still the most significant factor in food purchasing among most consumers. Palatability and sensory characteristics can often make or break food formulations and possibly even outweigh any health and wellness benefits they provide. Like great detectives, flavour producers, and food formulators must use their experience, clues, and foresight to investigate flavour trends and consumer demands to crack their biggest formulation mysteries.

We recently spoke to Francois Camelio, technical sales manager, Foodology by Univar Solutions, about the flavour industry news, trends, and insights shaping the current landscape and even offering a glimpse into the upcoming food trends for 2024.

With product development building on the “halo effect” of certain natural ingredients – a perception of functionality in terms of mental or physical health – there are growing interests in functional ingredients and flavours, drawing from fruits, roots, botanicals, and adaptogens. Some examples of popular functional flavours include:

• Ginseng root (immune support/energy boost)
• Ginger (anti-inflammatory/cognitive focus)
• Turmeric (anti-inflammatory/antioxidant)
• Reishi mushrooms (immune system support/stress reduction)

Francois: There’s a definite crossover or overlap of flavours across the soft drink space, the alcoholic beverage space, and the low/no alcohol space. For example, many recent beverage launches of IPAs (both alcoholic and low/no alcohol) are boosted with citrus flavours. Also, the cold brew coffee Guinness is new. Hard teas and hard seltzers are emerging, exploring traditional soft drinks, nostalgic flavours, and botanicals and florals.

We are seeing the rising interest in stevia extracts in beverages, including non-alcoholic versions of popular classic cocktails. Stevia ingredients have traditionally posed taste challenges to formulators. Our supplier partner, PureCircle, has recognised these challenges and has developed a comprehensive stevia portfolio to mitigate these traditional negative attributes. The range includes sweeteners, natural flavour modulators produced using simple extraction, and modern biotechnologies working in synergy to increase inherent flavour intensity.

What are the top trending colours/colour palettes in beverages?

Francois: From my experience – for canned products – I would mention naturally derived colours, which may have stability issues in a clear bottle but are better protected in a can or for a product designed for consumption from the can. Colour palettes for these formats include caramels and botanicals such as butterfly pea flowers, and spices (paprika, turmeric).

Bold and vibrant colours (purple is the current trend) are required for bottled products or for those for which the visual currency of social media platforms is an important marketing strategy. The stability of colour is necessary for this format, which is more difficult to achieve with natural colours.

Francois: Consumers are becoming more aware of the paradox that natural colours and flavours often utilise significantly more crops, land, and resources than nature-identical colours and flavours to produce relatively small quantities of natural extracts, essences, and oils. This proves more costly to the bottom line.

“Natural” is also not always a synonym for “sustainable.” The conversation about the negative impacts of using non-sugar sweeteners is getting louder, adding to consumer demands for natural ingredients. Substantial opportunities exist to shift the palette away from non-sugar sweeteners and more towards natural juices or less sweet or savoury unprocessed flavours.

“Reduce-Reuse-Recycle” continues to gain pace from upcycled ingredients to formats that reduce packaging. The shift from plastic and glass bottles to cans remains, as cans are seen as better for the environment regarding recyclability and transport costs. Reformulating might also be required to suit a new packaging format.

References:

Bangsbo, J., Blackwell, J., Boraxbekk, C.-J., Caserotti, P., Dela, F., Evans, A. B., Jespersen, A. P., Gliemann, L., Kramer, A. F., Lundbye-Jensen, J., Mortensen, E. L., Lassen, A. J., Gow, A. J., Harridge, S. D. R., Hellsten, Y., Kjaer, M., Kujala, U. M., Rhodes, R. E., Pike, E. C. J., … Viña, J. (2019). Copenhagen Consensus statement 2019: Physical activity and ageing. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 53(14), 856–858. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2018-100451

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