FrieslandCampina Ingredients Food & Beverages has identified three major trends in the global food and beverage market. These trends, as observed from consumer needs and behaviour, are collated in FrieslandCampina Ingredients’ first annual Trend Report. Insights from the trend report not only allow manufacturers to get ahead of the market and competition, but also surprise customers with unique products from tomorrow’s menu, be it in the food service sector or in food and beverages manufacturing.
The report, freely available to anyone in the F&B industry, brings together interesting trends observed in local markets. Potential customers will also find inspiring food and beverages end-product suggestions in the report that could leverage any of the trends. The unique market insights are the accumulation of a big data analysis of consumers’ online behaviour, combined with FrieslandCampina Ingredients’ experts’ market insights and complemented with additional owned and bought market studies.
The Trends
The FrieslandCampina Ingredients 2019-2020 Trend Report shows three major trends in the global food and beverage industry. While its appearances may be subject to regional differences, the report identifies the need for: Experiences engaging all senses, Conscious indulgence, and Personalize it yourself conveniently.
Experiences Engaging All Senses
Experiences engaging all senses is a trend that describes the consumers’ need for moments of indulgence, tingling more than just the taste buds. Today’s and tomorrow’s menus need to not only taste delicious, it also needs to look good, smell good, and even sound good, offering a multi-sensory experience that will be remembered.
Conscious Indulgence
The craving for conscious indulgence trend denotes the rapidly growing number of consumers who are making increasingly conscious choices when it comes to food and beverages. Looking at food and beverage packaging, they search for ingredients that are, for example, more sustainably produced, healthier or offer more variation. Food and beverages still need to be delicious and indulgent in taste but, at the same time, they are appreciated more if the experience comes with additional peace of mind for being a responsible treat.
Personalize it Yourself Conveniently
Finally, people across the world are looking for indulgence with a personal signature, a way to personalize their food or beverage with a delightful trait. ‘Personalize it yourself conveniently’ also comes from the growing number of people who enjoy home style or semi-professional baking, brewing or ‘barista-ing’ and look for easy decoration or taste-tweaking options.
“To leverage one or more of these trends, a close collaboration between manufacturers and their ingredients partners is required. Manufacturers are able to jump quickly on the trends and win in the market when ingredient partners already have appealing trend-based concepts ready as well as the ingredients that perform in these concepts,,” says Anneke van de Geijn, Global Marketing Director at FrieslandCampina Ingredients Food & Beverages. “Brands that are able to work together with the entire supply chain will be the ones that optimally leverage especially the conscious indulgence trend. When addressing the trend of multisensorial experiences, it is important for manufacturers to partner up with an ingredient supplier with strong sensory capabilities. And personalization requires that ingredient manufacturers deliver versatile ingredients that mix & match with a variety of other ingredients.”
Local Differences
With food and beverage brands looking at global markets, understanding local nuances and preferences is also crucial. These nuances may mean the difference between winning the market and just missing the virality tipping point. “Although the trends take place on a global level, there may be local differences in the way these trends take shape. For example, European consumers may be looking for vegan friendly options, whereas consumers in Asia may be looking for authentic dairy products as part of their quest for consciousness,” says Anneke van de Geijn. “These are aspects that we looked into with our own listening programme of FrieslandCampina Ingredients. High-over relevant results are shown in the Trend Report.”
The Data
The trend report is based on FrieslandCampina Ingredients’ intelligence services such as market studies and global research, as well as the input of in-house industry experts and its own research. The focus on the report has been on relevant trends in the coffee, (milk) tea, cakes, bakery and pastry, desserts and ice cream industries, in order to serve FrieslandCampina Ingredients’ clientele in the best way possible. “By launching the first annual trend report, we can support our customers even better. Our insights show the emerging needs among consumers which enables our customers to anticipate what’s to come. This way we can, together with our customers, bring relevant innovation to the consumer and create more moments of feeling good,” says Anneke van de Geijn.
