Transparency, personalization and immunity will dominate 2021, predicts Innova Market Insights

20 Oct 2020 --- Transparency will dominate next year’s product launches, according to Innova Market Insights’ Top Ten Trends for 2021. The F&B market researcher also spotlights how COVID-19’s impact on health and immunity will continue into the new year, while personalized nutrition comes to the fore.

“Fortified and functional foods are back. They changed the industry 25 years ago, and we’ve come full circle,” Lu Ann Williams, director of insights and innovation at Innova Market Insights, tells NutritionInsight. 

There has been a major shift due to regulations and the move to clean labels where consumers look for more inherently healthy products, she also notes.

“Vitamins C, D and zinc are flying off the supplements shelves. There’s definitely an opportunity to communicate around the benefits of many foods that contribute to immunity and overall health,” Williams explains. 

“Transparency Triumphs”
Innova Market Insights’ top trend for 2021 explores how transparency is increasing to meet evolving ethical and environmental benchmarks. The market researcher notes that six in ten global consumers are interested in learning more about where foods come from. 

Additionally, the consumer lifestyle trend toward cleaner living is broadening and heightening expectations around what constitutes a clean label. Aspects include human and animal welfare, supply chain transparency, plant-powered nutrition and sustainable sourcing.  

Technology also plays a role here, with brands adopting and pairing new packaging technologies such as invisible barcodes and near-field communication technology. This can help establish creative, meaningful storytelling – 2020’s top trend. 

Innova Market Insights’ top trend for 2021 explores how transparency is increasing to meet evolving ethical and environmental benchmarks.A recent example of transparency in action in the nutrition industry is FrieslandCampina’s Organic Friso Prestige Bio. The milk formula’s packaging offers on-pack traceability features, including a QR code to follow the supply chain. 

“Plant-Forward”
The second trend notes how the “plant-based” definition is ever-evolving. Its rising mainstream appeal will drive expansion to different regions and categories in 2021, including accelerated demand for new formats, plant proteins and more sophisticated alternatives.

Plant-based proteins have been popular in the nutritional sphere, with Synergy Flavors recently rolling a range of new products for pea, brown rice, hemp, pumpkin seed and sunflower seed sources. 

Other companies embracing plant-based include Phytaphix, which has launched an immunity powder, and IFF Health, which gained Non-GMO Project Verified certification for its Go-Less Men. 

“Tailored to Fit”
In third place, personalized nutrition is in the spotlight as consumers look for food and beverage options that fit their unique lifestyles. The Innova Consumer Survey 2020 shows that 64 percent of global consumers have found more ways to tailor their life and products to their individual style, beliefs and needs.

“Consumers know there is no silver bullet, but we do know that some things work for me, while other things might work differently for my sister and brother,” says Williams.

She observes how she can now track, order, shop and research products around the clock. “Of course, consumers are going to seek out the perfect solution for themselves. The simple answer to why personalization is becoming more important is simply ‘because I can.’”

Technological breakthroughs, constant new launches and exciting sensorial experiences provide the opportunity for customized lifestyles to extend to food and beverage consumption.

Sophisticated personalized nutrition advice on functional foods is still expensive, but the emergence of tech platforms allows for comparable customer service via automation.

Lu Ann Williams is the director of insights and innovation at Innova Market Insights.For example, Abbott’s Libre Sense Glucose Sport Biosensor allows athletes to measure their glucose levels continuously. Meanwhile, myAir offers personalized, stress-countering nutrition bars featuring adaptogens and plant-based ingredients. 

“New Omnichannel Eating”
As foodservice and retail domains increasingly overlap, consumers can eat what they want, when and where they want it. 

Traditional hospitality is getting edged out, particularly with COVID-19 giving consumers more time to stay at home and sharpen their own culinary prowess.

In the nutrition realm, this is having an impact on people looking for better-for-you meal kits and ready meals, with demands from weight loss and senior nutrition to personalization being addressed. 

Notably, US National Institutes of Health recently awarded a US$2.9 million grant for “food as medicine” research that will focus on using medically tailored meal delivery as an effective health care intervention for diabetes. 

“In Tune with Immune”
Immunity has no doubt become more of a buzzword this year as COVID-19 amplified anxieties. According to the Innova Consumer Survey 2020, six out of ten global consumers are increasingly looking for food and beverage products that support their immune health, with one in three saying that concerns about immune health increased in 2020 over 2019.

The market researcher’s fifth trend for 2021 explores how immunity interest will carry on as research and interest in the role of the microbiome and personalized nutrition will accelerate. 

Immunity NPD has been booming with recent launches coming from Kyowa Hakko, Pharmactive and Arthur Andrew Medical, to name just a few.

The rest of Innova Market Insights’ Top Ten Trends for 2021 are:

6. Nutrition Hacking

7. Mood: The Next Occasion

8. Product Mashups: When Trends Collide

9. Modern Nostalgia

10. Age of the Influencer

These will be detailed in a webinar presented by Williams on November 11, 2020. Register to attend the upcoming webinar here.

By Katherine Durrell

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