July 15, 2024 – Ingredients taking the spotlight is trend #1 in the Innova Market Insights Top 10 Trends 2024. Globally, consumers are seeking high-quality and innovative ingredients to enhance their food and beverage choices and culinary experiences. Innova’s 360 research on consumer trends and launches in the food and beverage industry explores this trend.
Megatrends Influencing Natural Ingredient Trends
Food and beverage trends are driven by significant global forces. These megatrends include political, economic, sociological, environmental, and technological factors driving change worldwide. Examples of megatrend drivers are the cost-of-living crisis, technological transformation, health of the planet, and population.
Due to the pandemic, consumers prioritize their health and wellbeing and are becoming more health conscious. Natural ingredient trends display that globally, 43% of consumers in the past year have engaged most in a healthy, nutritious diet to live more healthily. This is followed by watching weight, physical exercise, and looking after mental health. Consumers see fresh, natural ingredients high in nutritional value as the key to a balanced and healthy diet.
What is Natural Ingredient Trend?
Natural ingredient trends research displays that consumers are seeking value from ingredients. Globally, 1 in 3 consumers always look at ingredients of interest on the product packaging. This trend underscores companies’ efforts to cultivate positive consumer attitudes by promoting their product’s star ingredients. Most of the top ingredients of interest are health focused and span a wide range of descriptions. Some are popular or trending ingredients.
Among all ingredients, 42% of consumers globally consider protein to be the most important. There has been a significant rise in food and beverage product launches with claims of containing high source of protein over the past five years. Protein claims extend beyond core sports nutrition applications and are taking the spotlight across many food categories.
Vitamins, protein, fiber, omega-3, and minerals are the top 5 ingredients important to consumers of all generations. This growing awareness of healthy ingredient consumption highlights a consumer interest in making more informed and health-conscious purchasing decisions.
Ingredient Developments Enhancing Natural Elements
62% of consumers globally consider choosing natural foods the best way to ensure a healthy diet over the past year. They are increasingly seeking ingredients from nature to enhance their nutritional value, as naturalness has a positively healthy image.
Staples with a positive image are now using additional natural ingredients to boost their nutritional profiles. For example, mushrooms are gaining attention for their nutritional value. Several brands have recently launched products featuring several types of mushrooms, such as Laird Superfood’s adaptogenic coffee, Lucid’s functional mushroom cookie dough, and Alkmy’s sparkling tea highlighting chaga mushroom.
Natural ingredient trends also display nutritional star ingredients from the sea, interconnected with Innova’s 2024 trend, ‘Oceans of Possibilities.’ This trend highlights the potential of developing marine farms as sources of new, environmentally positive ingredients. Over the past five years, there has been an 18% and 16% rise in product launches containing ingredients containing seaweed and kelp and kelp extract ingredients. Seaweed, algae, and kelp ingredients are becoming more prominently featured in food products.
Clean Labels in Natural Ingredient Trends
Globally, 60% of consumers say clean labels significantly influence their buying decisions. Claims such as no additives or preservatives, only natural ingredients, and without artificial ingredients define clean labels for consumers. They are highly conscious of reducing the use of artificial ingredients.
Nearly half of consumers have preferred eating at home in the past 12 months, highlighting a shift towards at-home experiences for social occasions and gatherings. This trend leads to increased home cooking using fresh ingredients. To cater to this demand, brands are launching various cooking kits and convenient formats containing fresh ingredients, strongly emphasizing the nutritional value of these ingredients.
What’s Next in Global Natural Ingredient Trends?
Honesty and transparency is the top value for consumers in their diets. Brands can capitalize on this by including clean labels and highlighting sourcing transparency in their products. Ingredients can tap into the evolving idea of a clean label to include sustainability.
Globally, 64% of consumers say they try to reduce their consumption of processed foods because they are less healthy. This provides a potential opportunity for brands to launch less processed formats. They can also redesign their product packaging to emphasize its closeness to nature, attracting a wide range of health-conscious consumers.
Brands that focus on clear, transparent communication and sustainable practices are likely to drive innovation in the evolving food and beverage industry.
This article is based on our report, “Natural Ingredients in the Spotlight
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