Beverage trends beyond 2021

In recent years, consumers have become more skeptical, and want to know and understand more about what is in the products they buy. Transparent and easy to understand labels allow consumers to make ethical and healthier choices, and are becoming more popular among consumers. Food Review recently spoke to Thomas Schmidt, marketing director at Beneo about these and other trends that beverage manufacturers should consider for the future.

Q What role does storytelling play in attracting consumers to beverages?

With 43% of European consumers ‘always’ or ‘often’ looking at nutritional informationi, both the label and the story it tells are vital for commercial success. Storytelling is a key trend for the upcoming years. While communicating that the product contains no ‘nasties’, the label also needs to show the provenance of the ingredients used and whether they are natural or organic to have real consumer appeal.

Q What are the latest opportunities in functional beverages and which ingredients are being utilised?

Consumers are adopting a long-term holistic approach to their health and are increasingly looking to beverages to support their self-health strategies. With 65% of worldwide consumers saying that mental well-being is the definition of ‘being healthy’ to themii, there is an opportunity for beverage innovation and developing drinks that promote improved focus, benefit the microbiome and promote positive nutrition. We are seeing more of our prebiotic fibres being added to new products such as coffee, and low glycaemic carbohydrates such as Palatinose added to drinks to deliver sustained energy. Holistic health has opened the door to some exciting new beverage products and in my opinion, there are many more to come.

Q What are the key trends to look out for in the next years?

Digestive health and sugar reduction are still mega-trends. However, there is also an increasing focus on mental health and how to successfully promote this benefit in food and drink products. We are seeing this demonstrated for example in the growing use of our low glycaemic carbohydrate, Palatinose in the e-sports community. Due to its unique glucose-fructose binding, the full carbohydrate energy is released more steadily than by traditional carbohydrates, allowing the person consuming it to stay focused for longer. We are also seeing a much wider range of digestive wellness and sugar-reduced new drink products containing Beneo’s prebiotic chicory root fibres brought to market. They not only add fibre and come with approved EU digestive health claims, but they also reduce sugar on the ingredients label.

Q Is it the role of the government, industry or the individual to make healthier food and beverage choices?

At the end of the day, it is the individual who makes the choice on what to consume, influenced by their taste preferences, life experiences and the appearance of the chosen product’s packaging. Increasingly though, nutrition and health-related messages are helping consumers decide what they will and won’t consume. However, sometimes health-related messages are oversimplified, and scientific correctness is sacrificed for the ‘easy message’. This has happened with the public health messages surrounding the avoidance of sugars for example. Not all sugars are equal. Carbohydrates other than sucrose (e.g., maltodextrins) are worse metabolically, but are not counted as sugars, while Palatinose is ideal for low glycaemic beverage formulation and sustained energy release, but is counted as a sugar on the ingredients label. As long as the ‘easy message’ dominates, the challenge will remain for industry and the government to offer long-term support for consumers wanting to choose healthier nutrition. •

REFERENCESi FMCG Gurus 2019; Health and Nutrition Survey 2019ii

Euromonitor International’s Health & Nutrition Survey, 2019 I Innova I Foresight Factory

Savannah Fine Chemicals – www.savannah.co.za Beneo – www.beneo.com