Tate & Lyle PLC, a leading global provider of food and beverage solutions and ingredients, is pleased to unveil six key trends that are shaping consumer product innovation in the food and beverage market both today and tomorrow.

Consumers today expect more from their favourite brands, not only offering them products that are healthier and tastier, but which have been produced in a responsible and sustainable way.

Beth Nieman Hacker, Market Research Director at Tate & Lyle, said: “By understanding how values, behaviours and appetites are changing, and the drivers behind these shifts, food and beverage brands can launch products that meet the needs of consumers today and better anticipate how these will evolve.”

Tate & Lyle’s global market research team has conducted its own proprietary consumer research, studied hundreds of research papers and data points and, together with Tate & Lyle’s commercial teams worldwide, has identified the following key trends driving consumer purchases:

• Transparency: increasing numbers of consumers are seeking healthy food and beverage products they can trust and want to know the source of the ingredients in those products. The clean label movement continues to evolve, moving from all-natural claims to communicating how products are made¹.
• Plant-Based: consumers are focused on health and sustainability, opting for products that are better for them and better for the planet. They are drawn to products that are plant-based because positive health outcomes and environmental impacts are associated with plant-based eating².
• Sugar reduction: consumers are looking for ways to get healthy and stay healthy. One recommendation to achieve better health is to reduce the amount of sugar in their diet. However, consumers are torn between reducing sugar and maintaining a great taste experience³.
• Gut Health: globally, consumers are not getting enough fibre daily. Fibre helps support gut health and consumers are interested in getting more of it in their diet. As awareness of gut health and the benefits a healthy gut can provide continues to grow, more consumers will look for products with gut health benefits⁴.
• Convenience: consumers are digitally connected and time poor, seeking ease, efficiency, and instant gratification from the products they buy, including food and beverages. Whilst convenient products meet the needs of global consumers amidst their busier, more stressful lives, this presents formulation challenges for manufacturers⁵.
• Better-for-you snacking: snacking is an important meal occasion; however, consumers are prioritising their health. “Better-for-you” snacking products are an obvious choice to meet consumers’ health needs⁶.

Natalya Bright, Market Research Manager, at Tate and Lyle, said: “These global trends play to Tate & Lyle’s strengths as an ingredient provider, with our wide range of responsibly-sourced, almost exclusively plant-based solutions that are label-friendly and support healthy living.

“Since millions of people across the world consume products containing our ingredients every day, the heart of our business is about Improving Lives for Generations, and we’re proud to partner with our customers to do just that while helping them to succeed in the marketplace.”

¹84 % read ingredient labels, globally. Tate & Lyle Proprietary Research, 2020, 14 countries, percentages are “always” or “sometimes”
²48 % of consumers say that they have changed their diets in the last two years in order to lead a more sustainable lifestyle. GlobalData 2020 Market Pulse Survey, Asia Pacific and Latin American, September 2020
³58 % of consumers say healthfulness has an impact on buying food and beverages. International Food Information Council Foundation, 2021 Food & Health Survey, April 2020
⁴53 % of global consumers plan to eat or drink more fibre. T&L Global Consumer Ingredient Perception Research, 14 countries, 2020
⁵91 % of global consumers are interested in products that save them time and effort. GlobalData Trend Sights 2020
⁶55 % of global consumers say that they expect snacks to offer a nutritional boost. FMCG Gurus, January 2021, Global

As might be expected, there are high levels of concern among Asian consumers about the impact COVID-19 is having, both directly on their own lives and also on a global scale. According to Innova’s COVID-19 Consumer Survey (conducted in March 2020), in China, India and Indonesia, personal concerns center on health, personal income and the availability of healthcare and products to buy.

Personal health, and the health of family and friends, tops the list of concerns across all three countries, with impact on personal income/finances ranked as second. Indian consumers were the most concerned. 73 % of Indian consumers say that they were very concerned about their own and that of their family’s/friends’ health. This is compared with 58 % in China and 52 % in Indonesia.

Concerns over more global issues are led by healthcare and financial/economic uncertainty. Healthcare ranks the highest in India, with 79 % of respondents very concerned. Financial/economic uncertainty came out first in China and Indonesia, with 55 % and 68 % of respondents, respectively, saying that they were very concerned. Consumers in all three countries were also concerned about the impact on food and job security.

Changes in behavior driven by the pandemic include more working from home, more social media and online entertainment and even exercising inside the home, with lower levels of leaving the house, visiting cafes/bars and restaurants, travelling for business and pleasure and using public transportation.

Health considerations have become more influential on purchasing decisions, with consumers trying to eat more healthily and consuming products in a bid to boost immunity. These include ingredients such as turmeric in India, chrysanthemum and cordyceps flower in China and royal jelly, ginger and mint in Indonesia. Familiarity, comfort and improving mood are also seen as increasingly important factors for food and beverage choices during the crisis. Health, shelf-life and cost are taking on a greater significance with regard to purchasing decisions, while factors such as flavor and indulgence appear to be declining in importance. Innova Market Insight’s research indicated that the main changes in attitude/behavior in India and China included more cooking/preparing of homemade food, more healthy eating and more eating/drinking products to boost immune health.

Fresh fruit and vegetables and juices and nectars are some of the top categories benefiting from this trend, as consumers look to them as a means of boosting health. At the same time, consumers claimed to be purchasing lower levels of less healthy, indulgent and highly processed options, such as ice cream, pizza and cakes and pastries.

There has also been an acceleration in the growth of online grocery shopping as movements are restricted and physical stores cannot easily be accessed. The rise in grocery apps in China, for example, encompasses developments in supermarkets, dedicated grocery apps and food delivery platforms. Restaurants have been quick to offer home delivery, but many consumers are also willing to order online and go out and pick up takeout. In China, 37 % of consumers claimed to be ordering more restaurant/café food online, while 34 % were picking up takeout food and meals more often.