Archive for category: Consumer Packaged Goods

Tactile and Multisensory Foods Could Be Top Trend For Brands in 2018

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Tactile and multisensory experiences are all about feeling and hearing the connection. Phil Lempert, The Supermarket Guru, believes we have evolved, and 2018 is a particular year for brands to take advantage of the tactile approach. A multisensory food will appeal to more than consumer’s taste buds. Brands will look to add features and experiences that appeal to the hearing and visual senses.

Tactile Brands Will Be More Memorable

The clean label trend is here to stay, but Phil believes consumers are at peak food information overload. It’s time that foods move to a more intellectual connection with visual and auditory cues. Foods that enable sounds like chopping, stirring, chewing and crunching will give consumers a food euphoria every time.

Brands Already Implementing the Tactile Approach

The crunch of a crisp snack echoes in our brain, and we subconsciously resonate with it in the future. Also, think about the crisp taste of a beer, but enhancing that with virtual reality as Guinness recently did.

Sensory marketing is nothing new, but Phil makes an excellent point that this trend will gain steam after the focus on ingredients, clean labels, and more over the past few years. Sampling is one of the critical ways to implement a multisensory marketing approach at retail and food events. Costco has been using this technique for years to drive sales in specific products and categories.

Tactile and multisensory approaches will be food and beverage brands secret weapon in 2018. Watch and listen for more!

Inspired by www.supermarketguru.com

1/3 of Protein Bars Have as Much Fat as a Krispy Kreme Donut

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Has the New Year, New You health and wellness trend hit you this year? How many protein shakes, protein bars and workouts are you taking in? Well, if you love the taste of your favorite protein bar, you might want to look at the label a little closer. Protectivity, a U.K. based health, sports, and travel specialists revealed in new research that more than 33% of all protein bars have more saturated fat than a Krispy Kreme donut.

How Protectivity Analyzed 56 Protein Bars

Protectivity created a fitness food index to help people look at the protein, carbohydrate, sugar, and fat content to look at a variety of products including protein bards. The index shows that protein bars often contain large amounts of sugar and fat. They found that 10 of the 56 bars analyzed contained more sugar than a Krispy Kreme donut.

Nutritional shakes and bars have been one of the most active markets over the past five years. From 2010 to 2015, the category grew at 10% year over year. In 2016, the market reached over $9 billion in sales around the world. It’s safe to say that these formulas of high fat and sugar content will not last long as protein bars have typically been seen as part of the clean eating trend.

Large CPG Companies Acquiring the Nimbler Bar Brands

It’s evident that the smaller brands are catching the eye of the giant CPG companies. These brands have already created formulas that meet consumer needs with low sugar, low fat, and great taste. Big CPG sees no reason to reinvent the wheel and instead believes the acquisition is the best way to gain market share. Last November, Mars took a minority stake in KIND bar. Kellogg acquired RXBAR to grow its clean label protein bar offerings for over $600 million in 2017. The nutritional bar market is hot, and we expect more acquisitions in this area in 2018.

Consumers Must Recognize Protein Bars as a Meal Replacement, Not a Snack

Brands must educate consumers on protein bars and nutritional products. Many of these products are not formulated to be eaten as a casual snack but as a meal replacement or a post-workout fuel. Brands should be concerned about the high levels of fat and sugar because if consumers don’t see results, they will switch to another favorite food solution. 2018 and 2019 should be the years that these brand focus on adding healthier ingredients and formulating these bars to be more reliable nutritional products for consumers.

Inspired by www.fooddive.com

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Personalized Nutrition Is Trying to Reach The Masses

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Personalized nutrition is one of the newest ideas catching the eyes of consumers and the big food companies. In theory, it seems like the next big thing to overtake the healthy eating marketplace. However, there are a few hurdles that innovators are battling for this concept to reach the mainstream. Consumer knowledge about their personalized nutrition needs, food manufacturing, and distribution are going to need to change to make this a reality.

Habit: The Startup Company Leading Personalized Nutrition

Habit, a San Francisco-based company, is offering personalized nutrition through genetic testing. The big food company, Campbell’s Soup, has been following closely and recently invested in the startup.

Habit is structuring itself as a personalized nutrition meal delivery startup. They take information gathered from an at-home test kit to create specific meals to meet customers’ needs. At the moment, Habit’s business model is a little expensive for the average consumer. It costs $249 to receive the personalized test kit, results, and advice from nutrition coaches. On top of the $249, each meal will cost you $8.99 for breakfast and $13.50 for lunch and dinner meals. Without a significant technological change to food development and distribution, personalized nutrition appears to be a luxury in the short term.

3-D Food Printing Could Be The Solution

As mentioned earlier, consumer knowledge on food development and distribution would need to change in a significant way for personalized nutrition to reach the masses. 3-D food printing could be the groundbreaking technology to make it possible. If 3-D printers could become as regular as microwaves, they could completely change the way consumers prepare food at home.

Big food companies like PepsiCo are already testing 3D printing to create prototypes of different shaped and colored chips. Other firms like Barilla have used 3-D food printing to make pasta that is shaped like a rose. The number of obstacles facing the industry are still there, but the future looks bright for personalized nutrition.

Inspired by www.fooddive.com

Bizarre Food Trends to Watch in 2018

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The food and beverage space has been rapidly changing over the past five years and 2018 looks to be no different. In this post, we will look at some of the Daily Mail’s bizarre food trends to watch in 2018.

Meat Like Veggie Burgers

Veggie burgers have come a long way in the past few years. Anyone with experience eating veggie burgers knows that they have often been dry and bland. Companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have developed juicy veggie burgers that mimic the texture and taste of real meat burgers. Impossible Foods’ burger even bleeds! Watch out for these burgers near all your genuine beef products in 2018.

It’s 2018, and we are Drinking Mushroom Lattes

Mushrooms have been getting a lot of hype in 2017, and that looks to continue in 2018. New mushroom enhanced coffee is focused on giving you the caffeine kick without the jitters. Four Sigmatic is selling arabica coffee blended with fungi including Lion’s Mane and Chaga. Be on the lookout for coffee bars and mushroom lattes next year!

Bizarre Veggie Bread

Companies are looking for ways to make products healthier especially bread manufacturers. Over the past five years, bread manufacturers in the U.K. have seen sales decline by 12%. They have developed a high protein, low carb veggie bread to lure customers back. These loaves of bread are being made out of beetroot, courgette, and red pepper.

Sweet and Sour Super Fruit

Superfoods and more specifically superfruits have been buzzing for years now. Jackfruit is the latest superfood to pick up steam and demand. In 2018, you can eat it raw, so it tastes sweet like a mango or cook it for a sour taste. The jackfruit is full of calcium and iron.

High Protein Ice Cream

Yes, ice cream is trying to be better for you! Brands are hopping on the protein train and packing it into every spoonful. Be on the lookout for new products from Breyers to compete with protein-infused ice cream originator, Enlightened.

Inspired by www.dailymail.co.uk

Nielsen Reports Significant Growth for Healthy Snack Category in 2017

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We have posted on this subject a number of times over the past two years, and yet again more reports are pointing to growth in the healthy snack category. Nielsen released its study of the snacking category in 2017 and found that it has increased to $33 billion in the United States. They also found that annual household spending on snacks increased to $133, which is around a 1.1% increase from 2016.

Analysis: Snack Category from 2013 to 2016

Nielsen also analyzed the individual snacking categories from 2013 to 2016. They found that every individual category saw an increase in sales. Bars (health, meal replacement, performance, weight management, and granola) experienced the largest growth of any snacking category with an increase of $633 million over that time period.  Jerky and cookies/crackers followed in at second and third to round out the top 3 snacking categories. Another interesting stat was dairy accounted for almost a quarter of all snacking dollars with 22% of sales. It’s fascinating to see how the “other” category is experiencing large growth as new innovations peak consumers’ interest.

Healthy Snack Category Leads the Way

Growth is happening in both traditional and healthy snack categories. However, products with specific health claims saw the largest increase in sales. Snacks with non-GMO claims have seen 18.2% growth in dollar sales over the past 5 years. A close second was for products free from artificial colors and flavors at 16.2%. To truly understand this growth, the average snack product has seen only 1.2% increase in sales over the same time period.

 

It’s a no-brainer to start creating healthy snacks that can be distributed across all retail channels. Manufacturers are seeing significant growth in sales that are fueling product breadth expansion and new innovations. Our GrandFusion product line is an easy way to take your snack to the next level. With GrandFusion, you are able to add vitamins and minerals from fruits and vegetables without impacting the flavor or texture of the end product. You are able to make impressive claims around nutritional equivalent servings of fruits and vegetables as well as source claims for the vitamins. Interested in learning more? Visit your respective industry above.

Inspired by www.fooddive.com

Functional Ingredients and Label Claims Continue to Lure Consumers

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According to the latest numbers from Packaged Facts market research, 49% of all U.S. consumers buy nutritional bars, beverages, or both. Food and beverage products using functional ingredients with functions like nutritional support, weight loss, increased energy, and meal replacement were included in their analysis. However, energy drinks, sports drinks, milkshakes, granola bars, and snack bars with no nutritional purpose were excluded from their analysis. The Packaged Facts’ National Online Survey consisted of 2,000 U.S. consumers aged 18 and over.

Convenience is Key to Category Growth

Brands have been positioning their nutritional drinks and bars as convenient, healthy, on-the-go options for the busy American. As a result, sales have skyrocketed over the past five years. The market has hit $8.8 billion in 2016 with an annual growth rate of 9.5% over the past five years. Packaged Facts predicts a bullish future for the two categories with combined sales reaching $13.1 billion by 2021.

Younger generations are key purchasers with highest use rates. Many of the Millennials and Gen-Xers see being busy as a “badge of honor” so these products are essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Packaged Facts found that 57% of all U.S. consumers are drinking nutritional beverages as a meal replacement.

Functional Ingredients: Superfoods and Protein

 

Functional ingredients are booming, and nutritional drinks and bars are using them to enter the market with a unique value proposition. The barriers to entry are low, but gaining significant market share is a different story. High protein content is expected from consumers at this point with 72% saying they look for that feature when purchasing nutritional drinks.

Some nutritional bars and drinks are turning to innovative superfood solutions to increase nutrient support claims. Brands are using products like GrandFusion to enhance their bars and drinks with natural vitamins from up to twelve fruits and vegetables without impacting flavor or texture. Interested in learning more? Click your industry in the navigation and learn more about how GrandFusion could benefit your products.

Inspired by www.nutraingredients-usa.com

Branded Produce Now Represents 38.5% of Total Produce Sales

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Nielsen recently released a report that showcased the growth happening in the produce aisle. According to their report, branded produce dollar share grew by 7.7% between 2012 and 2016. Based on this kind of growth, it should be no surprise that branded produce is ripe for more sales.

Consumers are Choosing Branded Produce Over Their Non-Branded Equivalents

In just the last year, branded produce sales grew by 8% with unbranded equivalents’ sales decreasing by 8.6%. Consumers are not attracted to produce brands like traditional brands instead they emphasize the information that brands share on packaging like organic, non-GMO, vitamins, etc.

The branded produce snacks market has started to take off with items like hummus and carrots, guacamole cups, pre-made salads, etc. The category now represents $1.1 billion in sales with branded options controlling 72% of the market share.

Dole Partners With Disney to Sell to Kids

Everyone wants kids to eat healthier, but it is still the biggest challenge for parents and food manufacturers. Dole partnered with Disney to feature famous characters from Frozen, Star Wars, and more on their point of purchase displays and packaging. This has helped Dole sell healthier snacks to parents because their kids are putting the products in the cart.

Branding the Future of Fruits and Vegetables

Branded fruits and veggies have plenty of room to grow over the next ten years as more people engage in healthier lifestyles. Don’t expect a huge advertising spending spree from these brands, but look out for new packaging, labeling, and social media efforts to resonate with younger millennial shoppers.

Inspired by www.nielsen.com

Food Scientists Say Clean Labels Have Trade-Offs in Food Safety

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To no surprise, two food safety and nutrition professors at Iowa State University believe there are significant trade-offs in cost and food safety for clean labels. The clean label is one of the most significant trends hitting the food and beverage industry. While there is no clear-cut definition, it is understood that clean label products do not contain additives or preservatives and typically have easy to read ingredients.

Why do Clean Labels Present Issues in Food Safety?

The two food scientists believe that not all food additives and preservatives are bad. Many of those hard-to-pronounce names are used to guard against pathogens and spoiling. While market demand is driving food companies to get rid of these additives, the scientists believe there should be a measured consideration for keeping some of these ingredients. The professors mentioned taking nitrates out of Hotdogs and deli meat as an example since their presence can help prevent clostridium botulinum bacteria.

Professors Ruth MacDonald, Ph.D. and Ruth Litchfield, Ph.D. believes that social media can take a lot of the blame for this hysteria around additives and preservatives. They insist consumers not to believe everything they read on social media and to take a deep dive into any research mentioned in posts.

 

How are Clean Labels Costing us More?

Label-readers have become fascinated with the “no high fructose corn syrup”  claim, but they are not looking closely at one is being replaced to sweeten the product. Many times companies are using tapioca syrup which is made from cassava, and typically more expensive. The professors say that the industry is developing all of these “cleaner” syrups like beet syrup, etc. and they are all sugar. They are no better than high-fructose corn syrup.

There seems to be a clear issue with what consumers expect and the reality of ingredients. Consumers want ingredients they understand, they want them cheap, they want them nutritious, they want them safe, and they want them to be beneficial. However, it is almost an impossible feat for food scientists. Consumers are more willing to accept technology in other aspects of their life but have now wholly shifted when it comes to food. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out as consumers become more educated about the science of food.

Inspired by www.fooddive.com