When it comes to beverage fortification, beverage-makers have embarked on their own quest to provide consumers with functional cognitive performance and energy, and ingredient suppliers are ensuring brand owners have more options that will support these dual benefits.
To aid beverage manufacturers, color suppliers are working to develop stable and vibrant natural color solutions as more consumers seek clean-label beverages.
In Beverage Industry’s New Product Outlook survey published in the January issue, the Top 3 latest trends that respondents listed were natural, healthy and organic, aligning with the clean-label trends permeating the market. However, the No. 4 latest trend was energy boosting, suggesting that a merging of these trends could likely occur.
With the emergence of bottled water as the No. 1 most-consumed beverage and the growth of better-for-you products like cold-pressed juices and ready-to-drink teas, it’s clear that many consumers are becoming more aware of their everyday health. In line with this trend, consumers have become more aware of the importance of supporting their immune systems on a consistent basis as a way to prevent illness before it happens.
With a hand in many of the trends impacting consumer packaged goods, millennials have played a role in the growth of natural, organic and non-GMO products. In conjunction with the demand for better-for-you products, consumers are looking for flavors that are perceived to be healthier.
There’s an idiom that talks about listening to one’s gut as a way to ward off something that doesn’t feel right. After the brain, the gastrointestinal tract, or gut, is the nervous system’s second-biggest network of closely interconnected neurons that greatly impacts overall health and well-being, experts say.