Posts Tagged ‘consumer trends’

Wellness Takes on a New Meaning for Consumers

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

As more Americans become take an active interest in their health, it has become apparent that wellness doesn’t just correspond to the nutrients in their food. It has become an integral part of consumers’ everyday lives. In the presentation “Formulating & Marketing for Health,” Lynn Dornblaser, Director of Innovation & Insight at Mintel, explained how wellness is manifesting itself in the marketplace, and how food manufacturers are addressing consumers’ desire for it.

Lynn DornblaserLooking at data on new product introductions in the United States, there has been growth in ethical and environmental claims. Dornblaser explained that usually this growth is about a food products’ packaging, not necessarily its formulation. This showcases consumers increased desire for environmentally-friendly and recyclable packaging and highlights the fact that wellness extends to a company’s environmental responsibility. In addition, 35% of all food product introductions contain “suitable for” claims, meaning they are suitable for diabetics, or they are Halal, or Kosher. “Consumers are demanding Kosher products not necessarily for dietary or religious reasons, but because in consumers’ minds it is more wholesome,” said Dornblaser.

This idea of wholesome can be seen in many new product introductions. For example, Kroger’s Wholesome@Home has a mac and cheese chilled side dish, which by all nutrition standards is not that healthy, but the brand name conveys a sense of home-cooked goodness.

Another factor influencing consumers’ perception of wellness is the authenticity of a product and where it came from. With consumers being more skeptical about the products they ingest, they are looking for products to come from the best possible origin. For some, this reflects the product’s sustainability, and for others it highlights a product’s safety. For example, 31% of fish eaters say that whether a fish is wild-caught or farm-raised is very important to them. Marketers are taking advantage of this, by playing up the item’s origin to add a sense of authenticity to the product. ChangingSeas has a Smoked Salmon that specifies on the packaging that is from farm-raised fish in Norway.

Dannon Pure YogurtAlthough not a new concept, the idea that natural foods are healthier than non-natural foods is now apparent at all price points. Even more than that, natural has come to reflect the inherent goodness of a product’s ingredients. Companies are taking a softer approach to the natural claim, by seeking clean labels and minimal packaging. Dannon’s yogurt brand Pure gets that natural vibe across with its name and the fact that is only has seven ingredients. Consumers want to recognize the ingredients on the back of the product, so that instead of seeing strange chemical names they aren’t familiar with they see ingredients they know and trust.

Wellness is no longer about just claims and fortification of products; it extends the packaging, marketing, and aura of a product. Dornblaser predicts that the future will be about “clean fuel” but for your body.

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Fat Profits from Slim Calories

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

It may seem logical to place the responsibility for making better food choices squarely on consumers, but food manufacturers bear at least some responsibility as they develop the foods that consumers eat. But can food manufacturers develop lower calorie foods and still make a profit? In the session “Cut the Calories, Not the Profit” on Thursday morning, June 28, presenters discussed how food manufacturers can develop and distribute more food products that meet the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans while increasing their bottom line.

Speaker Indra Mehrotra, Bell Institute of Health at General Mills, said that health is important to General Mills, the sixth largest food company in the world. The company has made great strides in improving the health profile of its products. General Mills uses the U.S. Dietary Guidelines to help determine recent product reformulations. As a consequence, more of the company’s food products contain more whole grains and low-fat dairy and less sugar and solid fats.

Even though various surveys indicate that consumers want healthy food that tastes good and is convenient, a dichotomy exists between what consumers say and what they do. “We need to understand consumer behaviors in order to understand how to help them cut calories,” said speaker Rodrigo Troni, Birds Eye Foods. According to Birds Eye Foods’ consumer research, dinners prepared at home are the key to helping consumers balance their diets. This is because Americans consume 80% of their vegetables during dinner. Unfortunately, most dinnertime meals do not meet the recommended daily servings of vegetables and whole grains. Birds Eye Foods offers a variety of vegetable-rich side dishes that can be prepared in a short period of time, giving consumers solutions for a more balanced, nutritious dinner while increasing Birds Eye’s bottom line.

Restaurants are also altering their menus to include more healthy food options. Cheryl Droven, Darden Restaurants, said that nutrition is part of the conversation more and more at the restaurant company, which owns Olive Garden and Red Lobster. To cut calories, the restaurant has down-sized portions, decreased fat, and increased vegetable content in entrées. The company’s newest restaurant, Seasons 52, has a menu on which nothing exceeds 475 calories and everything is roasted, grilled, or braised.

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Consumer Education Remains a Challenge in Sodium Reduction

Wednesday, June 27th, 2012

Despite the food industry’s concerted efforts in the last few years to reduce sodium in foods, consumers still have many misconceptions about sodium’s impact on health. As moderator John Ruff, IFT President-Elect, said in his introduction to the “Stimulating Sodium Reduction and Overcoming Technological Challenges” late-breaking session held Wednesday morning, June 27, only 50% of consumers are aware of the link between sodium and high blood pressure. With 31% of deaths in America caused by cardiovascular diseases and the majority of Americans consuming way more than the recommended daily intake of sodium, it is apparent that the challenge to educate consumers is a vital one.

Part of this education needs to entail communicating with consumers about where the majority of their sodium is coming from. According to Ruff, 77% of sodium comes from processed foods, and only 11% comes from cooking and adding salt at the dinner table. However, when consumers think about making an effort to cut down on their sodium, they often forgo the salt shaker at meal time. In addition, “consumers think that salty snacks are the main source of sodium in their diets,” said Ruff, “when in reality, out of processed foods, breads contain the most sodium.”

There are obvious and known challenges to decreasing sodium in such processed foods. As MaryAnne Drake, North Carolina State Univ., explained to attendees, salt is a very functional ingredient in food products. It provides microbial stability, structure/texture, and flavor. And with salty taste being a main driver of liking, reformulating products to lower sodium needs to be done cautiously. “The products have to taste good and similar to their traditional full-sodium counterparts,” explained Drake.

“Very few consumers are willing to give up taste for health benefits,” said Barbara Davis, Health Focus International. In fact, even when faced with a serious illness or heart-related disease, only 17% are willing to sacrifice taste for health. Davis went on to say that in order to drive home the point that consumers need to reduce their sodium intake, the messaging need to be relevant to them. And sometimes, this is not a health message. For example, while 37% of women respond to medically driven concerns surrounding sodium, almost as many (26%) respond more to concerns over sodium causing bloating and water weight gain.

Davis also believes that instituting a new method for labeling sodium on food packaging might help consumers keep tabs on their daily allotment. “Milligrams don’t mean much to consumers when they are looking at the Nutrition Facts Panel,” said Davis. She proposes a point system for sodium, in which one point would be equal to 100 mg of sodium. Similar to the Weight Watchers Points program, consumers would know that, if they are healthy, they should consume 23 points or under a day, and if they are at risk, they would have 15 points/day.

So obviously there are still hurdles to overcome for the food industry to market low-sodium foods and have them accepted by consumers. However, it is clear we are moving in the right direction. “More than 50% of consumers say that reduced-sodium products taste better than they used to,” said Davis. And as Ruff said in his introduction, a step-wise approach to modifying food products is necessary in order for consumers to get used to lower levels of sodium in foods.

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Innova Market Insights: Protein, Sustainability Are Key Trends

Wednesday, June 27th, 2012

Consumers globally are seeking out more protein-rich food products, and interest in alternative protein sources is surging, reports Innova Market Insights. Information on this trend—“a boom for protein”—and dozens of others is highlighted on the Food Expo floor within Innova Market Insights’ Taste the Trend Pavilion (booth 2669).

“Europe is ahead [in this area],” said Lu Ann Williams, Innova Market Insights’ Head of Research, but the U.S. marketplace won’t be far behind. “It’s about to jump a notch,” she predicted.

Innova Market Insights research has shown that the U.S. accounted for more than 40% of recent alternative protein patent activity [1980–2011]. “Greek yogurt woke American consumers up to the fact that there’s an alternative to eggs [as a protein source],” said Williams.

Consumers understand the benefits protein delivers, including its ability to promote satiety, Williams continued. “It’s one of those benefits you can feel,” she said. “You know you’re less hungry when you consume protein.”

According to Innova Market Insights, traditional protein sources like soy and chickpeas are getting product development attention, and a range of new products are starting to appear based on beans as well as nuts, seeds, and grains. In addition, new techniques are being developed to enhance the texture, juiciness, and flavor of meat analogs and proteins. In the 12-month period ended March 2012, more than one-third of the new product launches marketed on an “added protein” platform contained soy, according to the research firm’s data.

Part of what’s driving interest in alternative protein sources is growth in the number of flexitarians—consumers who enjoy meat but occasionally opt out because of concerns about health and the environmental impact of heavy meat consumption, Williams added.

Innova Market Insights' Taste the Trend PavilionInterest in meat alternatives can also be linked to another of the top trends Innova Market Insights has identified—sustainability or, as Innova and Williams put it, “green is a given.” Companies are approaching sustainability in myriad ways—as it relates to packaging, water, and energy. “Everybody isn’t going to be able to do the same thing,” said Williams, but most will make an attempt to take some action as it relates to operating more sustainably.

For a close-up “taste” of these trends and dozens more, stop by the Innova Market Insights’ Taste the Trend Pavilion. The Pavilion includes six large-scale trend presentations featuring data on ingredient technology, new product trends, and consumer insights as well as more than two dozen smaller presentations broken down into “Packaging & Technology,” “Ingredients & Flavors,” and “Consumer Insights” categories. More than 200 innovative products from around the world are also on display.

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Advancing On-Trend Innovation Via New Technologies

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

Representatives of Innova Market Insights and Netherlands Food Valley offered an update on ways in which consumer demand for healthy products, an emphasis on food safety, convenience solutions, and sustainability are advancing innovation in the Netherlands—and globally—in a Tuesday afternoon Special Events Pavilion presentation titled “Trends + Innovation + New Technologies: Bringing It All Together.”

LuAnn Williams“Food safety has crossed the barrier of being just an issue for a production manager to being something that you can market to consumers,” said LuAnn Williams, Head of Research with Innova Market Insights. She pointed out that manufacturers’ use of pesticide-free claims is increasing, for example.

That food companies will operate sustainably is becoming something of an expectation with consumers, according to Williams. “Last year we were still defining what sustainability is,” said Williams.  Now, however, “I think all consumers will assume that companies are trying to take action to reduce packaging and water use.”

Health positioning continues to be a huge driver of product development, Williams continued. Healthy aging is a particular hot button, she said. “I think every customer we have is interested in this, but no one has figured out how to crack this nut.” That’s because it’s tough to communicate the message of healthy aging without making consumers feel old, she said.

Food Valley is a community in the Netherlands comprised of food-related companies, science companies, and research institutes, explained presenter Bernold Kemperink. Food Valley provides an environment that allows companies to shorten product development time, share state-of-the art facilities, and access a worldwide trade network, among other benefits.

A long list of food industry innovations have flourished in this environment, said Kemperink. They include, among many others, new approaches to salt reduction, innovative encapsulation techniques, ingredients to help slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, 3D food fabrication, and packaging technology that helps control the temperature of different microwaveable meal components so that they can be heated at different rates. Food Valley is even home to “The Restaurant of the Future,” a field laboratory for consumer sensory research.

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Americans Seek Satiety Claims

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

“Wellness has become a part of consumers’ everyday lives in a variety of ways,” said Lynn Dornblaser, Director of Innovation & Insight at Mintel, in her introduction to Mintel’s “Approaches to Weight Management” presentation at their booth (Mintel’s “New Products and Consumer Insights” pavilion, booth 1569) on Tuesday afternoon. In fact, 42% of Americans strive for balance when it comes to their health, and they are starting to understand that healthy means many different things—from getting enough sleep, to riding a bike to work, to eating more fruits and vegetables. Moderation has become the key to living well for 98% of consumers. But while moderation, diet, and exercise seem to be well understood, consumers are still not necessarily following through.

Given the obesity epidemic, “weight management is the single most important health and wellness issue facing the nation,” said Mintel’s David Jago, Direcotor of Innovation and Insights. And food manufacturers are taking notice; there has been an increase in active health positioning of products to aid in weight control. Americans are using products that increase satiety, enhance metabolism, and block fat to aid in weight management. “There has been a shift away from dieting to lose weight towards dieting to maintain weight,” said Dornblaser. This demonstrates that consumers are increasingly seeking balance and health management and not a “quick fix.”

FiberOne BarOverall, Mintel sees the concept of satiety gaining ground, especially using high fiber and protein claims. For example, General Mills’ Fiber One Bar provides 20% of the daily recommended fiber as a way to maintain fullness longer. And this is ringing true with consumers; the popular product had $149 million in sales in 2010. Other products are combining fiber and protein to enhance the message of satiety and healthiness. Take Life Choice Foods’ Wellness Bar, which contains fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals.

“Staying fuller longer really does resonate with consumers,” said Dornblaser. Given this, manufacturers are starting to expand beyond cereal-based products with fiber and satiety claims. Baxters’ Stay Full canned soup was launched in the U.K. and claims to balance carbs, increase protein, and keep you full longer. Although sales for the product have been slow, they are building and Mintel expects to see more products like this one introduced in the marketplace in the near future.

Additionally, Mintel expects to see the idea of “stealth health”—or building better nutrition into various products—increase over the coming year. “The focus is shifting to the positives of fullness and away from the negatives of dieting,” concluded Dornblaser.

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IFT Food Expo Provides an Array of Themes—Part 2

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

Imagine an oasis … not in the middle of the dessert, but rather on the IFT Expo floor. That is just one of the many exciting (or in this case relaxing) themes that can be experienced by attendees. Yesterday, we looked at several of these themes, and now here’s the second installment.

• “Flavor Oasis.” Attendees can sit by a waterfall while enjoying a refreshing, healthy, lightly flavored spa-type beverage. At Virginia Dare (booth 2521), trendy new flavors, varieties of vanilla, various masking flavors, and new teas and coffee concentrates are featured for all you “nomad” food professionals out there. Quench your thirst with a ready-to-drink iced tea made from tea concentrate and fruit flavors. The company recently developed new chocolate flavors coupled with natural black tea that impart a distinctive chocolate scent and taste. Several prototypes made with new coffee concentrates are being introduced, including several roasts and popular flavors. Or visitors can sample a refreshing healthy frozen dessert designed with masking flavors and made with natural fruit flavors. And then there’s vanilla’s delicate aromatics and complex, full-bodied flavor profile that can be experienced in a beverage formulation. As you enjoy, just remember one thing: Please leave your camel parked outside.

• “Developing Kid-Friendly Foods.” New ingredients and prototypes that illustrate kid-friendly food and beverage products are showcased by Cargill (booth 1721). These products do not compromise on taste, while containing less sodium, calories, and fats, and more whole grains, fiber, and protein. For example, Blueberry Breakfast Cookies with Yogurt-flavored Drizzle, feature white whole wheat flour, inulin, a stabilizer blend, and a yogurt-flavored compound. Mini burgers—Soy Sliders—are formulated with textured soy flour and served on a white whole-wheat bun. Chicken Quesadillas contain a new sodium reduction system (SodiumSelect™) that has less sodium than traditional chicken quesadillas, and the tortillas offer whole-grain nutrition benefits. Sugar-free Mint Patties are a sweet treat made with erythritol and maltitol syrup for a 50% calorie reduction compared to full-sugar mint patty candies. Other formulations include fiber-containing pretzels, a reduced-sugar raspberry juice beverage made with sucromalt, and beverages that feature omega-3 oils. Kristen Dammann, the company’s Regulatory Senior Scientist, is conducting live presentations at the booth on Tuesday, June 26, at 1:30 p.m. and Wednesday, June 27, at 11 a.m. to help product developers better understand how the regulatory environment is changing in regard to children’s nutrition.

• “The Color House.” Almost sounds like a new Las Vegas casino, but actually it is the theme of D.D. Williamson/colorMaker Inc. (booth 1551). Come visit The Color House to see the newest innovations in color, including certified organic annatto powder, oil-dispersible caramel color, low 4-Mel caramel color, and acid-proof Class One “Plain” caramel color. A variety of food and beverage prototypes made with naturally derived colorings are available for sampling, such as lemonade tea, non-alcoholic mango margarita, snack/cereal bar, processed cheese shaped for children, panned confections, potato chips, popcorn, breakfast cereal, and crackers.

• “Finger Food Fusion.” Finger foods that capture the eye and the palate are available for sampling at Gold Coast Ingredients (booth 1435). The prototype formulations demonstrate the use of both sweet and savory flavors from the company’s extensive portfolio.

• “Salt Inspiration Station.” Morton Salt (booth 2559), is displaying its specialty products at its Salt Inspiration Station. Visitors can learn more about how these products deliver on three important fronts for food manufacturers—shape, size, and stickiness or adhesion—and experience for themselves different salt particles and their functionality across a range of product categories. Specialty products include Morton California Pure Salts, Star Flake® dendritic salt, and Top Flake Coarse Salt. Newest addition to its line of sodium-reduction solutions is Fine KaliSel Potassium Chloride.

• “How to Build a Better Burger.” Bringing value to every layer of a hamburger is demonstrated through the use of a broad range of potato-based ingredients by KMC (booth 138). Let’s start by giving your buns a lift by adding potato flakes, potato granules, or FiberBind, which can help delay the staling effect in yeast-based dough and keep those buns fresh and appealing for longer. Representatives show how potato-based ingredients can improve the functionality of beef patties, cheese, and dressings.

What theme are you interested in? Most likely, you’ll find it at the IFT Food Expo.

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Starbucks’ Schultz Urges Business Authenticity, Transparency, and Humanity

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

Despite the economic challenges facing the nation—and the world—business operators can prevail by staying authentic and transparent and managing their companies through a “lens of humanity,” said IFT Keynote Speaker Howard Schultz, Starbucks president, chairman & chief executive officer. Speaking to an attentive crowd at Tuesday morning’s Keynote Session in the convention center, Schultz reflected on the essential principles that have guided the company he took public 20 years ago.

Howard SchultzAfter leaving the role of Stabucks ceo more than a decade ago, Schultz returned to lead the company in 2008 at a time when the nation was in the midst of a financial crisis and Starbucks was in danger of losing $25 million in market capitalization. For the first time in its history, Starbucks had negative comp store sales, and the company was confronted with an economic climate in which consumers were cutting back on discretionary spending. “We were facing a situation in which, literally, we were on a collision course with financial failure,” Schultz said.

Returning to lead his company, Schultz was committed to operating transparently and keeping employees fully informed. “I believe that at a time like that you have to be 100% honest and transparent,” said Schultz. “You can’t ask people to follow and believe in you without 100% honesty and transparency.”

Recognizing the value of your employees is essential, said Schultz. While everyone says that their employees are their most important resource, Schultz said that he truly believes it. “What has been the key to our success, without question, has been valuing our people. I don’t believe that you can build a great organization of any kind without having people aligned in their vision,” he added.

The Starbucks ceo, who grew up in a lower middle-income family, believes that being successful requires staying firmly committed to your dreams. “The worst thing that can happen is that you give up on the things you believe in and settle for mediocrity,” he said.

The vision Schultz had when Starbucks went public two decades ago was to “create a national company around a different business philosophy—to create a company that would balance profitability and a social conscience,” Schultz said.

Schultz devoted part of his Keynote presentation to discussing the commitment he feels to encouraging entrepreneurial innovation even at a time when national political leaders have become gridlocked over solving the nation’s economic challenges. To support entrepreneurialism in the United States, Starbucks launched the Create Jobs for USA initiative, which helps provide loans to deserving small businesses.

 “Your businesses and your respective careers cannot and will not be isolated from what is going on in our country,” said Schultz.  “I can speak to that, having grown up in the projects in a blue collar family. I ask a question: Are those kids that are growing up on the other side of the tracks like I did, are they going to have the same opportunities?

“We in America are facing a crucible, a test,” Schultz continued. “We as Americans cannot continue to ignore the elements that are challenging and threatening the aspirations, the dreams, and the values that have made this country great.’

Above all, Schultz emphasized the importance of dreaming big—and sticking to those dreams. “The true greatness of America is not about policies, it’s not about ideology, it’s about people and giving them hope and opportunities to believe in the American dream. Our parents, our grandparents, gave us this foundation. It’s up to us. It’s up to you to preserve it and enhance it.”

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Tap into the Insights of IFT’s Beacon Lecturers

Monday, June 25th, 2012

Want to spend a fast-paced 45 minutes expanding your horizons and gaining new insights? If so, you’ll definitely want to set aside time in your schedule for the Beacon Lectures, which take place from 4 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday, June 26, and Wednesday, June 27, in Room N101 of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Interestingly, both of this year’s speakers will bring a health and wellness perspective to their respective presentations. Both are medical doctors who have high level food industry experience.

Tuesday’s lecturer, Mehmood Khan, M.D., Chief Executive Officer, Global Nutrition Group, and Chief Scientific Officer of PepsiCo., will speak on the topic “PepsiCo: Leveraging a Legacy of Taste to Lead Global Food and Beverage Innovation.”

On Wednesday, José M. Saavedra, M.D., Head of Medical and Scientific Affairs, Nestlé Nutrition, and Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Gastroenterology, and Nutrition, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, will discuss “Diet and the Epidemics of Today: Opportunities for Change.”

Mehmood KhanKhan’s lecture will consider the resources and expertise that global food and beverage businesses can leverage in order to provide consumers with access to food that is safe, delicious, affordable, and nutritious. At PepsiCo, Khan has been tasked with an ambitious project: more than doubling sales of the company’s portfolio of nutritious foods and beverages, taking it from the current level of $14 billion to $30 billion by 2020. The Global Nutrition Group he leads works to accelerate product and process innovation for brands including Quaker Oats, Tropicana, Gatorade, Pepsi, and Lay’s. Khan was previously a faculty member at the Mayo Clinic, where he served as Director of the Diabetes, Endocrine, and Nutritional Trials Unit in the division of endocrinology.  

José M. SaavedraSaavedra holds joint appointments to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In his role at Nestlé, he has worked on furthering the development of education and research into nutrition products for infants, children, and adults for broad clinical and medical applications. His current focus is on fostering collaborative efforts between industry, healthcare providers, and academic organizations to develop interventions for the prevention of childhood obesity. His career highlights include creating and developing the Johns Hopkins Children’s Nutrition Center, which he directed for a decade.

The backgrounds that both men bring to the speaker’s podium make them a perfect fit for the role of Beacon Lecturer. The lectures made their debut last year as a vehicle for adding new perspectives to the Annual Meeting with presentations by high-profile individuals capable of imparting cutting-edge, game-changing perspectives on food science and technology. The format for the lectures on both days is a 30-minute presentation followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer session.

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Special Events Pavilion Features Trends, Competitions, and Marketing Tips

Friday, June 22nd, 2012

Almond Board of CaliforniaIt’s easy to get swept up in the craziness and excitement that is the Food Expo floor. However, apart from holding meetings and presentations in their booth, some exhibitors will be featuring larger-scale presentations in the Special Events Pavilion, booth 776. And this year there is some exciting presentations planned … everything from product development competitions, trend reporting from Mintel and Innova, information on patent reform laws, to price trends for key ingredients. This year’s Special Events Pavilion is sponsored by the Almond Board of California. Here’s the schedule:

Trends + Innovation + New Technologies: Bringing it All Together
Lu Ann Williams, Innova Market Insights; Bernold Kemperink (Director Foreign Investments, Food Valley/Oost NV); Kees de Gooijer
Tuesday, June 26  |  12:15 – 1:15 p.m.

Innova Market Insights and Food Valley come together to show how consumer demands for healthy products, new convenience solutions and sustainability are driving innovation and the development of new technologies. Trends are moving around the globe faster than ever and companies must have a global outlook for their business as well as for their technology solutions. This presentation will highlight the most important global trends driving new product development in the food and beverage industry today and some new technologies being brought to the market by a highly innovative group of companies with the support of a sophisticated innovation network.

Commodity Trends in the Food industry
Tuesday, June 26  |  2:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Ron Sterk, Associate Editor of Food Business News will present a price trend and supply update on key ingredients, including sugar, cocoa, dairy, eggs, major fruits and vegetables, nuts, dry beans, red meat and poultry, along with raw commodities including wheat, corn, soybeans, rice and oats…all from a food product developers perspective.

Are You Prepared for the Effect the Patent Reform Laws Will Have on Food Packaging R&D Strategy, Organization, and Management?
Tuesday, June 26  |  3:15 – 4:15 p.m.

Significant changes to the U.S. patenting system are going to take place starting in September 2012. The law’s provisions, such as inter parties reviews and first-inventor-to-file, will likely have a profound effect on food packaging R&D. Failure to respond proactively to these changes will increase the likelihood of competitive threats, alter open innovation initiatives, and provide fewer opportunities for leadership. We will present strategies that can help R&D food technologists successfully respond to patent reform and increase their ROI from innovation.

The Making Healthy School Meals Easy Challenge Awards Presentation IFT and American Culinary Federation
Wednesday, June 27  |  10:30 – 11:30 a.m.

Teams competed to recreate USDA Recipes for Healthy Kids to promote accessibility of healthy school food options. The teams, comprised of food technologists, chefs, manufacturers and food service workers, recreated recipes for a manufacturing environment, while keeping the product cost effective and retaining original recipes nutrient content, flavor and taste.

Partnering for Success with your Contract Manufacturer
Wednesday, June 27  |  12:00 – 1:00 p.m.

Food companies choose to work with contract manufacturers for two primary reasons: to get products to market faster, and to augment internal capabilities. But unlike their internal operations, companies have limited control over the processes used by contractors to manufacture their products. Yet they are completely accountable for the quality and safety of the product that’s produced.

Knowing the technical capabilities a contract manufacturer has is only part of the selection criteria. Equally important are their processes, safety standards, and service protocols. So how can you guarantee your contract manufacturer will deliver the results you need for your project to succeed? How do you ensure your products will be safe? That the products will meet your company’s quality, service, and processing standards? What should you expect from your partnership with a contract manufacturer?

Whether you are a food scientist needing a manufacturer for a new formula, or an engineer requiring a smooth technical transfer and scale-up, you’ll learn from a diverse, highly-qualified panel how to create a successful partnership with your contract manufacturer; how to understand critical qualifiers to help you identify a worthy partner; and how to cultivate a partnership that delivers trust, confidence, and sustainable benefits over time. Equipped with practical screening questions, participants will understand how to qualify prospective contract manufacturers step-by-step, and how to make their product or process a success!

Disney-IFTSA Product Development Competition: Nutritious Food for Kids
Wednesday, June 27  |  2:00 – 5:00 p.m.

This competition has challenged student members of IFT to address an important wellness need by creating healthy snacks for kids. Participating teams must develop a nutritious, unique, and innovative concept, applicable to a food or beverage item for retail or foodservice, and intended for children under 12. Based on preliminary reports, finalists will be notified on March 15 for the 2012 Disney-IFTSA Product Development Competition, sponsored by Disney Consumer Products. Winners will be
announced at the IFTSA Welcome Assembly on Wednesday night, where
Disney will present the winning teams with their prizes.

Formulating and Marketing for Health
Lynn Dornblaser, Director, CPG Trend Insight
Thursday, June 28  |  10:30 – 11:30 a.m.

We have seen shifts in how “healthy” is marketed to consumers, as products with “low-in” claims drop and those with some types of fortification and those with a focus on “natural” formulations continue to grow. This presentation will look at product activity and consumer preferences regarding “healthy” foods.

The “Real, Fresh, Natural Foods” Trend: How to Win With Consumers
Rachel Kyllo, Vice President of Marketing, Kemps Diary LLC; Loren Ward, Director of Research and Development, Glanbia Nutritionals; and Cara Kelly, Director of Strategy, Insights and Planning, Dairy Management Inc.
Thursday, June 28  |  12:00 – 1:00 p.m.

New research provides insights into the growing consumer movement toward real, fresh and natural foods. Learn about the consumer segments driving this trend, their attitudes and motivations, what product, packaging and placement cues work for this audience, and how dairy and dairy ingredients can help deliver what they’re looking for.

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Snacks Take Off as Food Industry Struggles to Define

Monday, June 13th, 2011

by Kelly Hensel

Woman eating potato chipsThere’s a phenomenon that has taken the United States by storm in the last 30–40 years. In session 136 “Snacking: Insight and perspectives on contributions to the American diet,” held Monday, June 13, three experts examined how snacking has taken over and its role in the growing obesity epidemic. Rick Mattes, Purdue University, kicked off the session by explaining that there is a lack of consensus on a definition for “snacking.” While researchers usually look at the time of day, portion size, and eating events to define snacking, consumers usually have their own definition based on the type of the food, where it is consumed, and its relation to meals. G. Harvey Anderson, University of Toronto, and his colleague G.H. Johnson, came up with their own definition:

“A snack is composed of solid foods including those typically eaten with a utensil (with or without a beverage) that occurs between habitual meal occasions for the individual, is not a substitute for a meal, and provides substantially fewer calories than would be consumed in a typical meal.”

There is definitely a need for a common definition for snacking. As Nancy Auestad, Dairy Research Institute, stated, “The line is very blurred between meals and snacking.” Often consumers self-define the term. Although the industry is lacking a definitive definition, there is no doubt that consumers are snacking more. According to Mattes, consumers have increased the number of snacks they are eating per day so much so that a quarter of total energy taken in is from snacks. “This is a substantial portion of daily calories coming from snacking,” explained Mattes.

While, Anderson didn’t include beverages in his definition of snacking, Mattes believes this is a key part of consumers’ snacking behavior. In fact, according to his data, 40–50% of snacking is happening through beverages. It may even be easier for consumers to take in more calories through beverage snacking than through food snacks. A study Mattes highlighted showed that daily energy intake—regardless of source—is higher when drunk as a beverage than eaten. So, it is obvious that food form is important.

Mattes went on to describe that energy intake is a function of how often one eats and the portion size of what is eaten. But he posed the question: “Which is a bigger player?” He believes that the amount of secondary meal times (snacking) has been increasing at “an alarming rate.” According to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data that Auestad shared, two-thirds of consumers report that they eat 2–4 snacks per day. And since Auestad believes that snacking is not where Americans are getting many of their nutrients from, there is a definite need for an understanding of the motivations for consumer snacking. In addition, “good tasting snacks that provide dietary fiber, vitamin D, calcium, and potassium can help consumers meet recommended intakes,” concluded Auestad.

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Tapping Into Trends Courtesy of Innova Market Insights

Monday, June 13th, 2011

by Mary Ellen Kuhn

What’s driving consumer behavior in 2011? Experts from Innova Market Insights mapped it out for Food Expo attendees with comprehensive top 10 trend displays in the Taste the Trend pavilion (Booth 6253) on the show floor. Innova showcased a list of overarching top 10 trends as well as lists of numerous secondary trends. 

The year’s No. 1 trend, according to Innova, is consumers’ tendency to turn away from overly processed foods formulated with long ingredient lists or boasting an overly long shelf life.

“Consumers are looking for products that don’t seem as processed,” said Lu Ann Williams, Head of Research at Innova Market Insights. “They are looking for products that are recognizable—ingredients they understand and products that they could in theory make themselves. For example, a typical consumer could understand how to make a potato chip but an extruded snack—that is something many consumers consider to be more processed than a potato chip because they wouldn’t know how to make it themselves.”

Here’s a look at the next four trends on Innova Market Insights’ top 10 trends list.

• Offering real value. “Value is vital in this age of austerity,” Innova states. Value-driven consumers will respond well to bigger pack sizes, but they’re also likely to go for small, affordable luxuries—the kinds of things they can treat themselves to without breaking the bank.

• Proven is the new buzzword. European regulations governing health claims are stringent, which means that companies that do manage to make it through the health claims maze are eager to tout their status. Increasingly, marketers are making “clinically proven” or other scientific research claims on the front of packages, Innova reports. Recommendations from nutritionists and other health professionals are likely to carry weight with consumers.

• Return to softer claims. On the other hand, because health claims are so closely scrutinized in Europe, some manufacturers have had to rely on softer claims or tag lines such as “may reduce risk,” “sensible solution,” or “smart choice.” Innova reports that the number of “active” health claims in which a marketer is targeting a product’s added benefits was down by 4% in 2010 vs 2009, while the number of “passive” claims, which describe attributes such as reduction of fat or cholesterol, increased by 25% in the same timeframe.

“The new regulatory environment is proving to be challenging but there is an opportunity,” said Williams. “Companies investing in good science can offer consumers a good reason to believe—a proven health claim. We have been tracking the impact of the regulations on innovations in the health and wellness space and we can see dips and peaks in health claims that follow the pattern of the regulatory process. While companies have been waiting on their claims to be approved, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in softer (passive) claims like simply, sensible, and smart, usually in combination with reduced fat, sugar, or salt.”

• Getting connected. Social media is attracting a lot of attention, and, not surprisingly, a growing number of manufacturers are tapping into social media platforms to hype their products. Examples of such initiatives include promotions in which consumers are invited to help determine what flavor a brand will add to a product line and interactive online diet-tracking options for weight-conscious consumers. 

Find out more about the trends driving consumer packaged goods sales at the Taste the Trend Pavilion or at http://www.innovadatabase.com/.

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Consumers Seek Simplicity, Innova Reports

Monday, July 19th, 2010

by Mary Ellen Kuhn

When it comes to food and beverages, consumers want to keep it simple, according to Innova Market Insights (“Taste the Trend” Booth 3660).

Consumers are seeking products made with simple, wholesome ingredients with minimal processing, and manufacturers are responding with an array of new “clean label” offerings. Lay’s Classic Potato Chips, for example, now feature the claim “made with three simple ingredients in as little as 24 hours, and that’s it.” Pillsbury Simply…Cookies are advertised as being “made with just the simple, whole ingredients you and your family know and love.”

Innova Market Insights tracked 987 new products using either the word “simple,” “simplest,” or “simplicity” in 2009 vs 467 tracked in 2008. Use of the word “pure,” “purity,” or “purely” grew from 3,013 in 2008 to 5,705 in 2009. Consumers are also being greeted with an array of new products marketed using terms such as “like grandma made,” “homemade,” and “homestyle.”

Even if a product doesn’t have a particularly healthful profile, consumers seem to be responding to simple ingredient statements, observed Lu Ann Williams, Head of Research at Innova Market Insights. So important is the drive toward simplicity that Innova ranked it as the year’s No. 1 trend.

No. 2 on Innova’s trend list is sustainability. The company listed the top 10 market categories for products with “sustainable claims” in 2009. They are as follows, in descending order: chocolate; tea; juice and juice drinks; fish and seafood; breakfast cereals; cake—pastries and sweet goods; sweet biscuits/cookies; vegetables; carbonates; and cooking sauces.

Here’s a round-up of the year’s Top 10 trends, per Innova.

1. Sense of Simplicity

2. Sustainable Gathers Steam

3. Continuing to Cook at Home – Driven by the economic downturn, more consumers are cooking at home, but often seeking to prepare higher quality products.

4. Inherent Nutrition – Rather than relying on specific health claims, for which it may be difficult to get regulatory approval, marketers are touting products’ inherent health benefits and natural goodness.

5. Functional Superstars – Healthful ingredients that have survived European regulators’ early rulings are moving to the forefront in functional foods as others are forced for the moment to rely on softer claims.

6. Going Immune – Interest in immunity-enhancing products may have been boosted by last year’s H1N1 virus; ingredients to boost immunity are turning up in a variety of product forms.

7. New Delivery for Energy – Energy is a popular benefit, and products positioned to deliver it are proliferating in a broad range of categories including drinks, bars, tea, breakfast cereals, and more.

8. ‘Free From’ Rises – More and more companies, including major players, are rolling out gluten-free and other “free-from” offerings.

9. Extreme Flavors – Rising levels of interest in very hot and extreme flavors are being reported, with major brands (i.e., Pringles Xtreme) launching products.

10. Real Authenticity – It’s no longer enough to simply create a product with a regional positioning: the product should be based on ingredients from a specific region and ideally even produced there.

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