Global taste and nutrition company Kerry predicts flavours from heirloom recipes across generation will drive food and beverage innovation in 2023.
In Kerry’s annual Taste and Nutrition Charts, the group profiles upcoming and emerging flavours, ingredients, and nutrition trends as well as top mainstream and key tastes.
“Flavours that are up-and-coming and emerging are underpinned by inspiration from global cuisines and heirloom recipes, while consumers remain motivated by authenticity, comfort, and a desire to meet sustainability and nutrition goals,” Kerry said.
While taste is the obvious top driver when it comes to food and beverages, Kerry found consumers would be motivated by “simplicity, sustainability, and meeting their nutrition goals”.
It also predicts a strong interest in provenance, functional ingredients, and flavours that “tell a story”.
Kerry Global Consumer Research and Insights director, Soumya Nair, said: “Flavours have a powerful way to convey a story – particularly when it comes to consumer trends and preferences.
“This year we will witness the resurgence of time-honoured traditions and heirloom recipes as consumers crave traditional tastes with new and emerging flavours.”
The resurgence in age old cooking practices and heirloom recipes is because consumers were placing more importance on tradition and provenance. Ingredients such as nutmeg, ashwagandha, Indian gooseberry and ancient grains are finding a new home across snack and beverage applications.
“Comfort still reigns supreme – with peppermint, hazelnut, chocolate, cheese, and chilli still dominating tastebuds,” Nair said.
The impact of inflation and higher interest rates will not go unnoticed either, with consumers turning to “permissible indulgence”, seeking simple and comforting flavours like cheddar cheese, caramel, and fudge across nostalgic favourites like biscuits and salty snacks.
Indulgence takes on a new meaning, with younger consumers in particular seeking mashups of familiar food and drinks that they grew up consuming combined with emerging new flavour tonalities. (Editor: We can blame TikTok and other social media channels for this.)
“Whether a nostalgic treat, a comfort dish, or a healthy alternative consumers expect a greater variety of tastes in 2023,” she said.
While there’s a resurgence of the traditional, there is also a hunger for unconventional combinations of traditional ingredients and emerging taste profiles from other regions, such as black sesame crusted meats, sriracha-spiced cocktails, green tahini, saffron and curry aioli, and a thirst for healthier beverages with functional ingredients such as ashwagandha.
Regional Taste expert for Kerry Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Harsch Koshti, said: “More and more consumers are moving towards functionality and simplicity. This includes flavours that convey a halo of health, be it added functional ingredients or flavours that imply improved wellness.
“Health continues to be important, as seen in the rise of healthier snacking options, with less sodium and more protein-based launches. Even the Bakery segment is witnessing offerings with reduced sugar claims across key markets.”
Kerry Taste and Nutrition Charts are categorised by taste, including flavour recommendations across sweet, salty snacks, savoury, hot and dairy based beverages, and cold and water-based beverages categories. And nutrition, showcasing mainstream to emerging nutritional trends and claims.
The charts span four phases of adoption
- Mainstream - top 10 flavours/claims for the last five years;
- Key - next 15 flavours/claims for the last five years;
- Up & Coming - top 20 fastest growing flavours/claims in the last three years; and
- Emerging - top 20 fastest growing flavours/claims within the last year.
This year’s Australia chart for Sweet flavours shows the top 10 Mainstream flavours are exactly that, including strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, and banana. But Up & Coming flavours show a braver palate for lemon myrtle, bubble gum, birthday cake, and cookie dough.
Emerging sweet flavours include liquorice, Stracciatella, ‘smoke’, ‘jelly’, goji berries, and Irish cream.
For salty snacks, our Emerging flavours are on a world tour, with native ingredients like Kakadu plum and wattleseed sharing space with harissa, wasabi, Korean BBQ, habanero, yuzu, and vegan cheese.
In water and cold beverages, Key flavours for the past five years include pineapple, blackcurrant, blood orange, coconut, and bitters. In the Emerging, fastest growing flavours in the last 12 months, Australia tapped in with two types of smoke – applewood and campfire, honey, pomegranate, cinnamon, and black cherry.
On the nutrition front, Emerging themes in Australia include women’s health, anti-inflammatory, FODMAP friendly, detox, calm, sleep, and the blue zone diet.
