Page 22 - FoodFocusThailand No.167 February 2020

SPECIAL FOCUS
SPECIAL FOCUS

A Big Year for Flavor Innovation,

Personalized Nutrition and

A Plant-based Options

Everybody is talking about snacking and the trend will become even more pronounced in the coming year.
International manufacturers now will have the opportunity to enter the grocery retail and food service market
with their innovative snacking products.

Unique Fruit Flavors consumer to experiment in the kitchen with. Some other interesting alternative
Fruity flavors are taking a turn to the exotic. Especially popular in flours going mainstream this year include banana flour, chickpea flour,
beverages and candies, the flavor trends are moving beyond traditional Tigernut (a root vegetable) flour, coconut flour, nut flours (almond, cashew,
fruits and highlighting more unusual flavors. Coming from an overseas macadamia, etc), and sorghum flour.
influence, we’re seeing fruits like yuzu, lychee, blood orange, prickly Expect to see more “boosted” flour options too that feature added protein,
pear, calamansi (a hybrid between a kumquat and mandarin orange fiber and other nutritional benefits.
– more on hybrids later in our trends!), Meyer lemon, and Japanese In the CPG arena, more snacks will feature these new flours as key
plum. ingredients to offer a gluten-free snack option.

Sweet Heat Mood Boosted Food
The consumer’s sweet tooth is transitioning into more of a spicy tooth. We covered the functional food trend in last year’s report and this year we’re
As sugar continues to be looked upon as a negative, product diving deeper into mood-boosting foods. Foods and beverages featuring
development teams are looking into less sweet flavors that will keep mood-boosting ingredients are on the rise this year as consumers want
consumers interested. The combination of sweet and heat is continuing those added benefits from their snacks. Mood-boosting ingredients are being
to gain ground, especially moving into candy. As spicy, global cuisines featured on packaged snacks and restaurants are even testing special
continue to be a huge trend in the foodservice industry, that has filtered menus to shift your mood in a particular way.
down to confections with spicy chocolates, baked goods and candy. More Nut Butters
Similar to gluten-free alternative flours, nut butters are getting more unique
New Flours options to compete with the OG peanut butter. These plant-based butters
As a grain-free lifestyle becomes more popular, alternative flours are avoid peanut allergies and many of them also eliminate the use of palm oil
hitting the mainstream and you can expect to see even more versions whose harvesting can be harmful to the rainforests. Look for new nut and
this coming year. Popular for a few years in pre-made cauliflower crust seed butters that are made from watermelon seeds, macadamia nuts,
pizzas, cauliflower flour will be available in bulk and packaged for the pumpkin seeds, and coconut.

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