Do You Know Several Global Trends Driving Ingredient Innovation

Changing consumer preferences are driving significant changes in ingredient innovation in the food and beverage industry.

The range of uncertainties arising from the pandemic and the global situation has further emphasized the importance of preventive healthcare and tackling climate change issues, thereby prompting the diversification of ingredients. In response, the food and beverage industry is also exploring new technologies that could revolutionize production. Here, we take a closer look at the ingredients that will meet consumer demand and reveal some of the ingredient trends shaping the future of the food and beverage industry.

Preventive health care influences food and beverage composition trends

Globally, there is an undeniable shift towards preventive approaches to health care. The pandemic has had a profound impact on consumer perceptions and will continue to influence our behaviour, highlighting the importance of health. This, combined with an increasingly aging population, has prompted many people to take proactive steps to protect their physical and mental health. More consumers are seeking health and wellness ingredients in food and beverages, which is driving ingredient innovation and competition among manufacturers and brands. People see food and drink as a long-term investment in their quality of life.

In Southeast Asia, there is a resurgence of trends in traditional food ingredients, including a renewed exploration of "medicine-food homology". This concept, rooted in traditional Chinese medicine, is gaining traction among modern consumers, and our research shows that prioritizing a healthy diet to boost the immune system is a significant trend in Thailand: three out of five Thai consumers actively consume immune-boosting foods such as fresh fruits and zn-rich foods in their diet; This focus on immune health has also been echoed in the Philippines, where over 80 per cent of consumers over the age of 45 are seeking food products that boost immunity.

Research in the Mintek report, Thailand Herbal Ingredients Market Study 2023, shows that natural organic ingredients, especially those such as ginger, turmeric, and ginseng, are particularly valued for their purity, health, and safety properties. HOTTA Cool, an ready-to-drink ginger herbal drink fortified with vitamins C, E and A, is one of the brands that has seized on the trend. HOTTA Cool is positioning itself as a health-conscious choice, emphasizing the immune-boosting and digestion-boosting properties of its core ingredient, ginger.

Source: HOTTA Cool

The same source of medicine and food goes global

The concept of "the same medicine and food" is also popular in Western markets today. There is an increasing intersection of diet and healthcare, with diet being used to actively manage health issues related to age and lifestyle.

Seven in 10 millennials in the UK would worry about their health declining with age; In Germany, 60% of people are worried that their health will deteriorate in the next five years.

This concern is exacerbated by the rise in diet-related health problems such as type 2 diabetes and obesity. Poor metabolic health is often associated with weight gain and increases the risk of various chronic diseases. To that end, brands are offering "sugar-free" options and are increasingly aligning with popular diets like the ketogenic diet to help consumers take control of their metabolic health.

Also, products that feature ingredients such as green banana powder, cellulose, and chromium to promote healthy blood sugar control are popping up. One of the brands pushing hard in this innovative food ingredients space is Superguts in the US, whose probiotic bars formulated with a resistant starch mixture containing green bananas are a model for how food ingredients can help solve metabolic health problems. Superguts positions itself as a diet and lifestyle solution for consumers who want to improve their metabolic health.

The Power of Labels

Ingredients for healthier nutrition will continue to flourish, driven by support from governments across the world. Many countries are implementing stricter policies that require the food and beverage industry to shoulder some of the responsibility for promoting consumer health. Reducing sugar, salt, saturated fat and calories remain key areas of focus. This is reflected in initiatives such as sugar taxes, restrictions on products high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) and pre-pack labelling systems, such as Nutri-score in Europe and traffic light labelling in the UK. Mintel data show that more than 30% of French, German, Polish and Spanish consumers believe that nutritional rating systems are the best way to decide how healthy a product is. This transparency enables consumers to make more informed choices about the nutritional content and quality of products. The demand for nutritively healthier products will encourage further food and beverage ingredient innovation to support product production.

Ingredient diversity contributes to the health of people and the planet

Our global food system has come a long way, but at what cost? Over the past century, industrialized food production has made food production cheap and able to meet the needs of a growing population. But there's a flip side: the environmental impact. Resource-intensive farming practices are harming the planet, and our over-reliance on animal products or only a few crops, such as rice, wheat and maize, leaves our food supply and production vulnerable to climate change.

Sustainability is a top concern for many consumers across the globe. Mintel's research found that four in 10 Canadian consumers and more than a third in the U.S. believe businesses have the most responsibility for improving sustainability. The growing need for a sustainable future is driving the food and beverage industry to diversify its ingredients and adopt sustainable sourcing practices to ensure the long-term viability of the industry and minimize its environmental impact.

This creates an urgent need for ingredient innovation to move away from resource-intensive animal-based foods towards more sustainable options. According to Mintal's Global New Product Database (GNPD), more than 3% of new food products worldwide claim to contain plant-derived proteins.

In addition to plant-based proteins, consumers across the globe are also willing to experiment with other ingredients to help develop more sustainable eating habits. Brands are responding to consumer preferences and starting to diversify into climate-resilient crops. Singapore's WhatIF Foods and its products are an example, making noodles with Bambara peanuts as an ingredient, pursing to be a regenerative crop that can restore soil health, tolerate drought and be ready to tackle climate change.

Source: WhatIF Foods

Delicious and sustainable ingredients

The plant-based food industry, which has attracted much attention due to its appeal from both sustainability and health perspectives, experienced a meteoric period in 2018. While the industry is still growing (albeit slowly), its heat is gradually cooling off, especially as many products fail to meet consumer expectations in terms of attributes such as taste, price and naturalness.

Sustainability is a key factor, but it may not be sufficient on its own to influence consumer eating habits and must also be combined with taste. A third of German consumers and a quarter of French consumers both agree that having the same taste and texture of a product as a meat product would induce them to buy one meat substitute over another. Austrian brand Revo is a company that uses technology and ingredients to provide the desired taste for protein substitutes. They announced the use of 3D printing technology to produce vegan salmon, which provides the same thin slices and succulent fibre as conventional salmon.

Helping consumers prioritize sustainable ingredients during periods of inflation

Despite increased awareness about sustainable living, inflation remains an obstacle. Inflation has left consumers in both the West and the East deterred from sustainable products or unable to spend more. As inflation continues and more consumers strive to put sustainability first when buying food, brands can strengthen their environmental credentials. By incorporating value into sustainable choices, products are more accessible and attractive, thus allowing consumers to make environmentally friendly decisions without compromising their financial commitment.

How is technology revolutionizing innovative food and beverage ingredients

Mintel expects new technologies to play an important role in sustainable ingredient innovation. Artificial intelligence (AI) is already being used to discover new ingredients-bioactive ingredients company Brightseed uses AI to accelerate the discovery of valuable health ingredients.

Biofortification technologies will also drive innovation in ingredients. Through precision breeding and enhanced crop fertilizers, the technology can provide additional nutrients to crops. This coincides with the growing consumer interest in functional foods, especially as part of the "healthy aging trend". Nearly four in five consumers in the UK believe that getting all the vitamins and minerals they need is essential for healthy ageing. In addition, with the growing popularity of plant-based diets, there is growing concern about vitamin B12 deficiency, which is mainly found in animal products. To this end, a team of researchers from the John Innes Centre, LettUs Grow and the Quadram Institute in the UK have developed a solution using biofortification technology. They have produced pea sprouts fortified with vitamin B12, which contains the recommended daily intake of B12 per serving, equivalent to two servings of beef. This illustrates how technology holds the potential for innovative food ingredients that are nutrient-rich.