The Editor Presents: Sensational Snacking
05 Sep 2024 | The World of Food Ingredients
Join The World of Food Ingredients’ editor, Missy Green, in a 15-minute roundup of highlights from the snacking edition. Global flavors from hyper-specific regions give snackers a window into life inside rural Japan. We also examine snack trends, such as those among different generations. Survey data reveals an uptick in indulgence for younger consumers.
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Welcome to the World of Food Ingredients September edition of The Editor Presents.
I'm your editor, Missy Green, and today I'll be sharing the top highlights from the snacking edition.
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And remember to submit any questions that might pop up as we go through the edition.
So that we can discuss them at the end of the session.
So let's get right to it.
In the food business news, we highlighted tajin flavored craft popcorn.
Tajin is a chili lime seasoning from Mexico that has infiltrated the US and become part of the local culture in a lot of areas, especially with, you know, high level of Mexican influence.
This launch encapsulates so many trends all in one.
So, first of all, co-branding has, been growing rapidly.
Secondly, popcorn is now the fastest growing subcategory, beating out finger foods for the first time in many years.
So, next, we have a breakdown of snacking stats from our knowledge partner Enova Market Insights.
We see that Asia is leading with a 41% share of new snack launches.
We also have Enova's top five trends for snacking with snacking on the go in position number one.
In the flavor realm, world flavors are inspiring a lot of limited edition launches.
So a great way to explore, try something new.
Snacks are also one of those like low barrier to entry categories where you can try new flavors.
So, one example is Lay's came out with a global flavors lineup, and the flavors are tatziki, masala, and honey, honey butter flavored chips, and the honey butter comes from, it's Korean inspired.
And consumers can also get authentic world flavors.
Without leaving their home at all, and that is through snack subscription boxes.
One of these boxes is called Sakoroko, which curates snacks with precision, and they highlight traditions and flavors from Japan, but it goes as specific as the prefectures.
Next, we look at some of the key factors that are driving snack developments based on product launch data and consumer surveys by Enova Market Insights.
So, for example, snacking at home is still the place where consumers enjoy snacks the most, and this has been reinforced because of working from home culture.
And also holding more celebrations at home while financial pressures continue.
So that's, that's translating into these like larger snack packs.
There's also some generational differences with Gen Z reaching regularly for indulgent snacks, whereas older generations see snacking as maybe something that's maybe maybe it's something they want to avoid in order to be more healthy.
That seems to be changing with the younger generation.
In color development, legislation is pushing for more natural colors in the US market where synthetic dyes have been a mainstay, and we also heard color trends from key suppliers like Gibidon that highlighted a sensory renaissance trend.
And the way this translates is into unexpected or dissonant flavor and color combinations and also the use of bold blue, black and purple shades.
And Douler also confirmed that blue and purple shades are on trend, especially those that go through like the spectrum of blue and purple from the same source, like black carrot.
And in the latest launches, we chose a selection demonstrating some of the key trends.
Protein puff protein puffs were our highlight as snacks are sort of edging into that meal replacement category.
Another is laidback snacks, showing how snacks can be linked to relaxation and associated with improving mood.
And there are many more examples here, showing limited edition launches like this Hello Kitty Goldfish, combo that they did, ethical snacking where buying a snack then contributes to, you know, helping.
Communities, and then number 3 was an interesting one, Lay's grapefruit flavored potato snacks, an unexpected citrusy combination.
But it's also the snack packaging itself is becoming more innovative, and this is happening with easy to separate packages that make it easy to tear plastic away from paper, and that increases the recyclability significantly.
And in another innovation, Tetrapack is using sugar cane-based caps for on the go beverages, which is definitely an important category.
Next, we heard from vanilla expert Daphna Hapkin Frinkel, who discusses the current state of vanilla, tracing back to peak prices a few years ago, and the situation where formulators are, you know, they're seeing the lower prices, but they're not replacing vanilla with other natural flavors, vanilla warmth with natural vanilla.
So, what will it take to drive the demand for natural vanilla?
I have to read the article to find out.
And she goes through the history also in Madagascar before the free market was introduced into vanilla.
So it's a great , holistic peace.
In our newsmakers feature, a bill was introduced to the US Congress this summer to prohibit octopus farming and the import of octopus meat nationwide.
So, animal rights groups say there's no real ethical way or sustainably to farm, no sustainable or ethical way to farm octopuses.
They require a huge amount of fish and crustaceans to survive as carnivorous animals.
And also, octopuses currently don't have any rights protection as other sorts of industrial farmed animals do.
So, it's sort of a controversial.
Law and also brings into question.
Now, should we revisit animal rights and other categories?
This article was truly one of my favorites, this edition.
Hydrocoloid expert Nisha Zalesni discusses how E numbers, you know, when they were invented, they were meant to unify all these different languages, but now brands are seeing that consumers perceive them negatively, and so they're going back and they're putting the common names in different languages across Europe.
And it's causing a little bit of confusion because the names among languages can vary a lot and even within the same language, they can have multiple names like gum Acacia, Acacia gum, or gum Arabic, which can cause some confusion.
And she also has some really interesting historical anecdotes related to how hydrocoloids got some of these names.
This article tested different ingredients in plant-based sausages, both binders and the types of proteins to see what would recreate the best eating experience.
And the researchers say here, there's not a lot of research about plant-based meat, so, they wanted to help contribute to like the large knowledge base for food technologists to pull from.
They also examined food safety to see what was the biggest threat in terms of pathogens and and plant-based meats, and they found it to be Listeria.
You see this chart here.
And then compare it to the next one.
That one is the one to look out for.
In the opinion edge we heard from suppliers on what they see in snack trends this year, functional snacks with added vitamins, minerals, and biotic ingredients are on trend, but almost ironically, so are clean label natural ingredients.
One of the trends that stood out to me was a flavor trend with tangy twist flavor being, Yeah, the flavor of interest, which includes sour, zesty, and tart flavors.
Precision fermentation is ready to go.
Protein from precision fermentation, that is, of course, precision fermentation has already been happening for a long time to produce insulin and B vitamins, but, creating real protein is now on the market in the US and more players are coming to the market all the time.
I spoke with Vivici, a Dutch company that was debuting their beta-lactoglobulin whey protein at IFT and It was really impressive to see how, you know, there's a lot of benefits to using just a single way protein.
One of the benefits was making protein waters, so they're able to create a more neutral pH, whereas using like a more standard whey protein that has all those different variations in it requires a more acidic environment to keep the protein stable.
And I also saw that just today, 21st Bio confirmed self grass status in the US for their beta-lactoglobulin.
So, more companies are entering.
Vivici also said, you know, there's really no issue with capacity.
Every people are willing to work with anybody who wants to come and bring their finished idea to the US market.
So very exciting to see where it's gonna go.
Vivici is really positioned itself for premium sports nutrition.
All right, next, preservation ingredients.
This article is all about flavor actives.
So, it's active ingredients that impart a flavor and they also help preserve food.
So, rosemary is probably one of the most -known ones out there.
In fact, we have some yogurt here because there was one study showing how rosemary essential oils in really small quantities can help make that yogurt last longer and without any sort of effect to the taste.
But it's also an advantage, can be an advantage to have that taste, and that's also true with cinnamon.
Eucalyptus is another one, a very distinctive taste.
So, certain applications.
It's a highly technical article and it takes a look at several food preservation studies and shares the results.
OK, so, the keto diet has been a significant trend in the industry for a couple of years now.
Like a lot of products have started coming out with, you know, keto claims, but it turns out that the keto diet dates back as far back to the early 1900s, and this was a way to help control epilepsy before epilepsy medication was invented around the 1940s.
So this article takes a look at some of the perhaps lesser talked about effects.
We speak to some experts who say it could even be dangerous to, you know, remove all carbohydrates from your diet because humans are built to consume carbohydrates for energy.
And there was also some studies showing a decrease in diversity in the gut microbiome on the keto diet.
I think it's also important to consider, and this is also what some other experts in the piece mentioned is that we should think about the quality of bread that we're eating and not just throw out bread entirely because, you know, some bread is better than others and bread also has a lot of nutritional benefits to offer.
So, Latin American regulatory expert Eugenia Muuelo discusses how various countries in Latin America are approaching the very tricky subject of defining plant-based foods.
Argentina recently made a step in prohibiting the word milk when it comes to milk alternatives, and they've come up with their own definition for, you know, vegetable beverages.
And in a similar move, Chile has banned meaty sounding words like hamburger and sausage on plant-based products.
She also mentions how, you know, meat is culturally very important to Latin America.
So it's an interesting region to follow.
In health and wellness, a new beverage has been shown to rapidly reduce alcohol content from blood using just vitamins, minerals, and botanical ingredients.
It's called safety shots.
And women's health.
That has been definitely a growing topic over the last few years.
I feel like every booth at Vita Foods had some form of women's health and menopause was also one of the ones that was highlighted because there's just so many angles, there's so many symptoms, but here we focus on ingredients that can help support the mood, focus, and sleep for women who are making that transition.
And a lot of them are inspired by botanical ingredients and the tradition of Ayurveda.
So, at a recent trade show in Shanghai, I caught up with Louis Marie Martin, who is the COO of the omega 3 company Polaris, and he shared some really exciting news about the omega 3 space, namely that microalgae is now unlocking all kinds of possibilities because the technology is there to produce EPA, which means that it can now mimic the composition of fish oil.
And that really opens it up to Every application.
Today is the first day of the AI Asia trade show taking place in Bangkok, Thailand, and ahead of the event, we spoke to Felicia Cristiani, who is a consumer success manager of APEC and Enova about different trends in Asia.
So, she pointed out that some countries are really starting to enforce now front of pack nutrition labeling on products, and that is showing a definitive nudge towards consumers to have healthier options and it's also in food service.
So, they can see, you know, how much sugars in bubble tea and are there any healthier options available.
We also covered clean label coding systems.
And in our view from the top, we spoke with Sean Molloy, who is Tirlan's brand new CEO about how he plans to take the dairy cooperative to the next level.
He anticipates that dairy supply will not grow much, especially with, you know, environmental regulation coming in, but The demand will continue and there's a real need to add as much value as possible to each liter of milk that's produced.
He sees a bright future for plant-based dairy alternatives, also hybrids and products made with precision fermentation.
And lastly, we have an exciting milestone on the horizon.
So stay tuned for our next edition coming out this October, November.
That's it for the month of September, and I'll now open the floor to any questions.
Let me see if there's any questions.
All right, let's see.
From Brett Anderson.
Hello, Missy.
Hello, Brett.
Could you tell us about one of the historical hydrocolorid anecdotes that Nisha shares in her article?
Yeah, so, One of the interesting ones I found was.
So locust bean gum.
Why locust, locust bean gum.
And in Dutch, interestingly, of course, we're in the Netherlands here at CNS Media.
In Dutch on the package you see Johannes Broot peel mit peel, right?
Johannes Broot pit meal, which is essentially John's bread flour.
Right?
And it goes back to the story in the Bible of John the Baptist, who's surviving in the wilderness on, honey and locusts.
And in the Dutch translation, you can see that locusts might have meant car carro plants, right?
And maybe that's why.
We have this word locust in Carib.
It's because of this translation from the Bible that some historians say they meant the insect and some people say it meant carab.
Also, one more, carob beans were used as a measure of weight.
So they're all about the same size, which are about 200 mg.
So, 21 carats, that actually came from 21 carob seeds.
So, so many great stories, Anisha's article.
All right.
Next question from Bailey Manley.
Why aren't brands switching back to natural vanilla if prices are lower now?
OK, so, super relevant question because I think Anyone would think if brands switched when the prices were high, why don't they switch back when the prices are low?
Everybody loves natural vanilla.
It's so delicious.
But ultimately, what, you know, Daphna argues in her article is that It's so difficult in terms of price volatility.
So there's still uncertainty, you know, and because Madagascar virtually has this monopoly of vanilla.
It's a risk.
It's a risk for companies who want to put that in their portfolio and then in their formulation and then suddenly the price is fluctuating wildly.
So she proposes that governments make investments in the geographies that vanilla can grow and that countries really stick to it, you know, because it's easy for companies to say, oh, the prices are high, I'm going to jump into the industry, and then as soon as they're low, they, they back out.
So it requires sort of like a long term view.
Right, and then we heard from August Dong.
What are the benefits of replacing fish oil from omega threes?
With microalgae.
Also a good question, I guess, because.
It was, you know, Louis Marie Martin was so excited about this possibility, and there were some definite reasons why.
So, one is the possible contamination, right?
He said that Consumers tend to be worried about heavy metals and fish oil, but actually that's super easy to remove through the processing that they go through, you know, you have to go through a lot of processing to actually get fish oil out of fish, but what's difficult to remove are microplastics, and they've been seen over time that there's more and more microplastics in the ocean and It's becoming becoming an issue that's difficult to deal with.
The other thing is that Last year, the the fish oil prices increased by like 200%, 200-300%.
And that was because of warming waters, and the fish population was much smaller, so the yield is much lower as it drove the prices up.
So having that, you know, relying on climate to be stable is tricky because climate's changing.
And if you use a closed system where you're just basically fermenting microalgae, you have a lot more stability, predictability, and consistent quality product.
All right, so I see one more comment from Charlie Bags, having just a nice comment.
Thank you so much, Charlie.
I don't see any more questions.
So, thank you so much for your time.
This is Missy Green signing off.
Editor
Missy Green
Editor
