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Insights from some of the world’s largest food and nutrition research providers* has been analysed by NZMP, picking its top five trends for food and beverage manufacturers worldwide. NZMP, the global ingredients brand of Fonterra, hopes the information will help its customers worldwide with their product development and positioning.

Alex Turnbull, NZMP Marketing Director, says the trends are helping to shape the global FMCG marketplace, with NZMP at the forefront of delivering to the trends in all of its markets.

“At a macro level, these trends are driven by a changing global demographic, rapid urbanisation and rising wealth. NZMP helps our customers meet their consumers’ changing needs by being relevant and insightful, at scale. With a wide-reaching dairy-based ingredient range and a wealth of global dairy expertise that leads the world, NZMP plays an active role in driving these trends forward,” says Alex.

Digestive wellness

New Nutrition Business and Mintel report that people’s increasing awareness of microbiome science, and how it can affect overall health and wellbeing, is changing the way consumers think about food. As a result, there is increasing mainstream demand for products that focus on digestive wellness.

James Dekker, NZMP Programme Manager, Nutrition and Health, says a diet that aids gut health may have a number of benefits. “Years of research have been conducted on probiotics and their role in sustaining good gut bacteria. In the past, the effect of probiotics on the gut microbiome has been all about digestive comfort and wellness. Indeed, dairy probiotics are sought after and are well known for supporting immunity. More recently, we have started to see evidence that probiotics may play other beneficial roles in areas such as cognition, anti-inflammation, and metabolic health. They are now moving more mainstream as part of sports and active lifestyle products for adults,” says James.

According to New Nutrition Business, yoghurt stands out to consumers as one of the top three ‘good foods’ for digestive health, along with fruit and vegetables.

Snacking as an occasion in its own right

NZMP research[1] shows snacking has a share of 40% of food and beverage consumption in diverse markets and is becoming an established meal occasion in its own right. As snacking solutions become more accessible and common, demand for the quality of food and beverages in snacking also evolves.

According to Roshena De Leon, NZMP Global Insights Manager, “The snackification trend is evolving and there are no limits to new product development. Innova reports that healthy snacking options have shown the fastest growth in new product development in the last 5 years, and consumers expect to pay a premium for healthy/functional snacks,” says Roshena.

Ethics goes 360

Consumer interest in ethical sourcing and sustainability continues, now evolving to extend throughout the whole supply chain.

According to Globaldata, 41% of consumers look for ethical or sustainable logos when shopping, 38% are willing to pay a premium for sustainable materials and 30% are willing to pay for social responsibility claims such as ‘pasture-raised’ and ‘humane’.

Lara Phillips, Manager, Sustainable Value says consumer concern about sustainability will see them look for products that are both “healthy for the world” and “healthy for me”.

“New Zealand farmers lead the world in many aspects of sustainable dairying, with high productivity, year-round pasture grazing and low use of supplementary feeds.  As a result, our dairy has amongst the world’s lowest carbon footprint, and amongst the highest rates of grass-feeding.

“A number of NZMP customers are leveraging the NZMP New Zealand grass-fed icon worldwide, which gives consumers confidence in the supply chain and the origins of their product.  We look forward to working with more customers to help bring their sustainability story to life,” says Lara.

Total wellbeing

Consumers are increasingly mindful of their overall health, evolving from just physical to total body, mind and emotional wellbeing.  As a result, positioning products on demographics such as age and gender alone will become less relevant with lifestyle-based positioning taking its place.

“In line with this trend, we expect to see more collaboration opportunities between seemingly disconnected or independent categories, for example, foods and gadgets, apparel and beverages, food keepers and formula.  There will also be more opportunities to cross sell and cross promote linked by a common goal to help consumers achieve total wellness,” says Roshena De Leon.

Adventurous consumption

Launches tracked by Mintel show an increase of 39% in food and beverage launches with “discovery” a key message appearing on pack in 2017 and 2018.  Innova notes that, ‘arousing consumer curiosity by including an element of surprise’ is a way to activate this trend.

According to Roshena: “New experiences as part of food and beverage consumption remain important. Consumers will place value on the authenticity of these experiences in place of generic products and will pay more attention to higher quality, unique and differentiated offerings.   On top of this, the glocalisation of food that started years ago will be given a boost and we will see more ethnic foods being introduced, including ethnic dairy options.”

Get in touch with NZMP in your region here.

*Sources:

Globaldata Sustainability & Ethics, 2018

Globaldata, Consumer Survey Q3, 2018

Nielsen, The Power of Snacking, 2018

Mintel Global New Products Database

Innova, Trends 2019

New Nutrition Business, 10 Key Trends in food, nutrition and health, 2018/2019

Mintel, Total Wellbeing, 2018

Fonterra Sustainability Report, 2018