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Functionality for holistic wellness Functional multitasking products are trending. From nutrition bars and gummies to yogurts and drinks, brands are launching personalised nutrition products that adapt to consumers’ on-the-go lifestyles. Gone are the days of quick snack breaks with no purpose, people are being proactive about their health by fuelling their bodies with multitasking foods and beverages that deliver multipurpose benefits to areas that need extra nutrition. Whether mood-enhancing, sleep-promoting, protein-packed, focus-forward, probiotic-filled or energy-boosting, consumers want their pre-packaged products to elevate overall mental wellbeing and make them feel happier and more content, according to FMCG Gurus' 'Top 10 Trends for 2024'. What’s trending in functional beverages While many benefits in foods and drinks can speak to consumers with unique needs, ‘energy’ as an added benefit in beverages is a trend that is showing no sign of decline. It can be inferred that people of all demographics are feeling tired collectively. Energy drink purchases exceed other ‘sports and functional drinks’ and ‘meal replacement drinks’ globally. “Energy drinks launches proliferated from 2018-2022, growing at a five-year CAGR of +17%, while sports and fitness/protein drinks have remained flat or declined in innovation,” according to Innova Market Insights' 'Beverage Category Report 2023'. Wondering what region leads energy drink innovation? The Middle East and North Africa had the most energy drink new product launches in recent years. What ingredient is fuelling energy innovation? “Caffeine occurs in 85% of global energy drinks. Use of bulk and non-nutritive sweeteners grew +13% points in energy drinks from 2018-2019 to 2022-2023 YTD, occurring in 58% of launches in the latter period,” according to Innova Market Insights. And consumers are looking for cleaner energy sources, whether from natural caffeine, green coffee, matcha and more. Healthier innovations that don't compromise on taste Beyond energy, other key trends to look out for in the personalised nutrition space include the expansion of the use of functional ingredients, for example, focusing on delivering supplementary hydration with new hero ingredients and experimenting with different sweeteners to meet ‘no sugar’ and ‘low sugar’ consumer demands without compromising on taste. Globally, ‘reduced sugar’ claims are growing across categories, whether they contain added benefits or not, proving consumers want more better-for-you options. Sweegen’s product development team of Taste Blazers knows there is more to better-for-you innovation than simply replacing sweetness or covering up functional ingredients with unwholesome ingredients like sugar or artificial sweeteners. Delicious tastes have ample dimensions beyond sweetness, and all dimensions must be addressed with specialised tools when creating reduced-sugar foods and beverages consumers love. For example, when creating a reduced-sugar energy drink with natural caffeine and botanicals, Sweegen’s taste optimisation tools and product development expertise help brands create multitasking products with delicious taste by merging clean, nature-based sweetness with high-quality natural taste modulators to mitigate off notes from functional ingredients. Expanding your toolkit with Sweegen’s taste technologies means you can innovate and renovate better-for-you products that deliver the clean functionality consumers need for their proactively healthy lifestyles, plus the dynamic deliciousness they desire. Learn how you can boost deliciousness with Sweegen’s taste optimisation technologies here.