Food and Beverage Trends 2019

Which trends will accompany us for the new year? Here is the preview of new colours, flavours and textures!

In 2019, the food and beverage industry will again be marked by many new, exciting trends. Above all, the trend colour Living Coral will accompany us through the year. In any case, the bright colour matches perfectly with the trendy luminous colours that combine look and functionality.

Some of these colourful ingredients also score with the benefit of antioxidants, which promote the detoxification processes in the body and strengthen the anti-aging effect. Brilliant colours are also an ideal match for the growing "Eat with your Eyes" effect: after all, food, dishes and drinks should be photogenic and social media-suitable to attract as many likes as possible on social networks!

Everything, just not boring: From cookie dough to Jalapeño

With flavours we can now also activate nostalgic feelings from childhood: Rice milk, cake, cookie dough, spicy pumpkin, maple syrup, eggnog or apple caramel are just a few flavours for drinks, that release consumers perfectly from the stress of everyday life and lift them back to sweet childhood for a few moments of pleasure.

The tastes will be inspired from around the world in 2019: after all, consumers are becoming more and more connected to other cultures. Between 2013 and 2017 there was an annual increase in spicy flavours such as cardamom, ginger, cayenne-pepper-jalapeño, rosemary as well as exotic notes such as blood orange or guava.

Exciting: Especially with drinks, the texture is increasingly becoming the center of attention. This trend is mainly related to the rise of the different coffee to go's. Shake-up drinks are just as much on the rise as whipped textures, which can be found especially with coffee, tea, pre-mixed cocktails or protein drinks.

Mindful choices: Sustainability remains top

In manufacturing and packaging, the industry is now more committed to sustainability: Consumers are becoming more critical with regard to manufacturing processes as well as ingredients of beverages and food. The increased demand for naturalness and clean label products does not stop with regard to packaging. Surveys by Mintel and Nielsen show that in the future, consumers will be willing to pay more for their proven sustainable products.

Innova Market Insights summarizes for the past year 2018 that the top trend is mindful choices. This means that good is everything that is healthy, tasty and sustainable. Anyone who eats or drinks wants to feel good in every way: through the taste, the health effect or the effects on nature, the environment and people, which arise from the production of the product.

It is not for nothing that the market for plant-based foods and beverages shows no sign of stagnating - on the contrary. This is accompanied by the trend towards "Alternatives to All": more and more ingredients that do not meet these criteria are being replaced by other suitable ones. "The Good Seed Kefir" soda, for example, uses local, plant-based ingredients and is bottled manually in Melbourne. Containing chrysanthemum variant, it is sweetened with honey and produced according to the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). (Source: Mintel)

Hemp is also increasingly being used in beverages on the international market: "Happy Hippie Kombucha" is a tingling tea that is fully enriched with healthy enzymes. In addition, hemp oil was added as an additional health benefit.

A treat for the "Generation Snack"

Due to the increasing flexibility of working hours, the subject of "snacking" is becoming more and more of an ever-increasing success. For most consumers, snacking is part of everyday life. That's always been true, but the trend is increasing. According to Innova, 63 percent of millennials say they replace meals with snacks because they're always busy. And for snacks the following applies: Everything that is healthy, good and "mindful" tastes even better!

In the context of snacking as well as ordinary meals, the global trend "Table for One", which Mintel identified, is significant. More and more people live alone, which is why adequate product sizes are required. At the same time, different campaigns of the food and beverage industry aim to strengthen communities and alleviate feelings of loneliness. With good reason: 53 percent of Americans say that food has an important social character for them.

Innova also highlights for 2019 that the "adventurous customer" - is leading the list of top trends this year. According to the international market research institute, consumers are increasingly leaving their comfort zones – which means everything they know - to gain experience with all their senses. For example, KitKat launched a chocolate bar with chilli on which the spiciness of chilli during the meal increases from mild to intense!

Conclusion:

At the top list of trends in 2019 are sustainability, healthy ingredients and bold new tastes with spices from all over the world. Colours and textures are becoming more and more the focus of attention, especially for drinks. In times of social media, it is not only important that the product tastes good, but is also attractive on photos!