Industry weighs in on Innova Market Insights’ Top Trends for 2020

20 Jan 2020 --- Having released its Top Ten Trends for 2020, Innova Market Insights strongly underscores the importance of consumer engagement through storytelling, the diversification of plant-based offerings and eco-efficient manufacturing as integral factors of product success. FoodIngredientsFirst speaks to key players to examine how the market researcher’s forecasted trends are shaping the way products are formulated, manufactured and marketed this year.

Innova Market Insights crowned “Storytelling: Winning with Words” as its top trend for the year, driven by the increased interest in consumers discovering the origin stories behind their food. “Storytelling is going to be absolutely crucial to success in the market going forward. This has a really big impact. If you are not telling stories, you will have to start telling stories because consumers are definitely interested,” notes Lu Ann Williams, Co-Founder and Director of Innovation at Innova Market Insights.

Catherine Bayard, Global Product Manager Natural Preservatives at Naturex, part of flavor house Givaudan, agrees with this sentiment. 

“When it comes to natural ingredients, brand storytelling is an important part of our offer as consumers are not only looking for greater transparency, they are seeking a product experience in which storytelling has a major role. An iconic example of this is Naturex’s rosemary extracts, which weave a story that takes consumers to the Moroccan Atlas mountains, where Naturex has been sustainably and responsibly sourcing rosemary for over 25 years through strong partnerships with local harvesters,” Bayard, tells FoodIngredientsFirst. 

“The rosemary grows wild and is harvested by hand according to traditional methods that have been validated together with agronomic experts from Naturex. This allows the rosemary to fully regenerate without any chemical inputs. Dried in the sun, the process produces some of the world’s highest quality rosemary,” she continues.

Extracts produced from this raw material are used by Naturex to create ingredients for natural preservation in a wide variety of applications, including meat, beverages, soups and sauces. Extending product shelf life using natural preservatives such as rosemary extract are noted to help reduce food waste and lower carbon footprints for consumer products. Meanwhile, part of the profits from the company’s rosemary production are also used to fund local social and environmental projects where the rosemary is harvested, such as renovating school facilities. Naturex’s byproducts are also recycled for use as bricks in regional construction projects, for example.

The diversification of plant-based offerings remains a prominent theme this year.Tasty plant-based potential
Pegged by Innova Market Research as the second most significant trend expected to influence NPD this year is the “The Plant-Based Revolution.” Within the vegan meat space, the market researcher’s 2018 consumer survey showed that one in five US consumers “have eaten less meat across the past year.” Meat substitutes accounted for 14 percent of global meat launches in the first nine months of 2018, up from 6 percent in 2013.

Making a meat alternative product that exceeds consumer demands means understanding taste, texture, moisture, mouthfeel, color, aroma and other product attributes, has long been a challenge for plant-based formulators. In this space, Givaudan specializes in high moisture extrusion of texturized vegetable protein (TVP), while aiming to deliver ample flavor and texture at an affordable cost.

“We have worked extensively to understand how to make high moisture TVP and how to flavor it without negatively affecting the texture of the product or the performance of the flavor. We are now able to achieve a long-lasting, delicious flavored product that maintains its meaty texture and mouthfeel. Our pilot plant in the Netherlands mimics industrial production so our customers can test their base, and we can collaboratively develop flavoring solutions,” says Flavio Garofalo, Global Category Director Savoury Flavour & Natural Ingredients at Givaudan.

Getting the right color can also be a challenge with meat alternatives. Naturex recently launched a vegetable-based natural red color that can be used to create a meaty red color in raw TVP patties that then turns brown when cooked. Using a coloring foodstuff in these types of products gives consumers the visual cues they expect while maintaining a clean label, notes Garofalo.

“We recently launched a patent-pending flavor delivery system based on fat that can provide a 75 percent reduction in fat and over a 30 percent reduction in calories, when compared to typical market products. This innovation gives a product, such as a plant-based burger, the fattiness and juiciness of a real meat burger but in a much healthier way. When combined with our other tools that help with flavor, taste, color and performance, the result is incredible. In addition to fat and calories, we are also able to reduce sodium levels in many products,” explains Garofalo.

Moving forward with its new sources of fortification from Naturex, Givaudan is currently developing ways to include iron to plant-based products that can be integrated in its flavor solutions. “Adding a scientifically-studied, fermented plant-based mineral can enhance the nutritional profile of the product,” he says.

Eco-efficiency corners the marketConsumers continue to align their purchasing decisions with eco-conscious food and beverage brands.
Coming in as the third top trend for 2020 is “The Sustain Domain.” Innova Market Insights research indicated that an average of 85 percent of US and UK consumers expected companies to invest in sustainability in 2019, up from 64 percent in 2018. In the area of food waste, upcycling is the new recycling, as companies strive to follow a zero-waste approach by creating value from by-products. Meanwhile, in packaging, the focus is on using less of it, as well as developing sustainable alternatives.

“Consumers often look for products that reflect their personal values and ideals. Our mint business is a great example of this. ADM accounts for up to 20 percent of the US peppermint market, so reducing our environmental footprint in this area goes a long way. We achieved this by establishing a robust plant science program, which resulted in a hardy, disease-resistant mint variety that is non-GMO, and requires significantly less water and fertilizer compared to other mint varieties,” says Sam Minardi, VP of Marketing, Nutrition at ADM.

Because farmers use fewer resources to grow and harvest ADM’s mint plants, Minardi outlines that they can effectively reduce their environmental footprint, saving approximately 600,000 gallons of fuel, 6.7 billion gallons of water and 1,200 metric tons of carbon dioxide over the course of five years.

In the “Sustain Domain”, companies this year are placing a higher emphasis on the use of organic produce. “A large number of consumers will make this switch to plant-based foods because they believe that eating less meat will reduce the negative impact on the environment. What many don’t realize, however, is that ingredients (often pulses) used in conventional mainstream brands are grown with the use of chemical farming inputs that pollute our soil and negatively impact soil quality and biodiversity. The consumption of vegan, non-organic products is therefore not as sustainable as it could be,” explains Gerard Versteegh, President of Dutch organic goods sourcer Tradin Organic.

Williams of Innova Market Insights emphasizes the longevity of trends, explaining, “Our 2020 trends build upon the previous trends. We have a large team of analysts who spend months preparing the trends. We have data to support every single one and we make sure that they really project the trends we see happening and are bound to happen in the next few years.”

“We’re not picking fads, we’re picking things that really have an impact on what is happening in the industry. Things like ‘free-from’ and ‘clean label’ haven’t been mentioned explicitly, but they are still present, woven into the current trends where they have so much more depth,” she concludes.

In addition to the Top Ten Trends identified for 2020, the market researcher notes key themes from previous years, including “Discovery: The Adventurous Consumer,” “Alternatives to All,” and “Snacking: the Definitive Occasion” will also continue to feature strongly this year.

By Benjamin Ferrer