NZMP picks its top 5 consumer dairy trends for 2019
Insights from some of the world’s largest food and nutrition research providers including Mintel, Globaldata and Innova, has been analysed by NZMP, which has identified picking its top five trends for food and beverage manufacturers worldwide, focusing on dairy. NZMP, the global ingredients brand of Fonterra, hopes the information will help its customers worldwide with their product development and positioning.
Alex Turnbull, NZMP marketing director, said the trends are helping to shape the global FMCG marketplace, with NZMP at the forefront of delivering to the trends in all of its markets.
“At a macro level, these trends are driven by a changing global demographic, rapid urbanisation and rising wealth. NZMP helps our customers meet their consumers’ changing needs by being relevant and insightful, at scale. With a wide-reaching dairy-based ingredient range and a wealth of global dairy expertise that leads the world, NZMP plays an active role in driving these trends forward,” said Alex.
The five trends are:
Digestive wellness
There is increasing mainstream demand for products that focus on digestive wellness. James Dekker, NZMP programme manager, Nutrition and Health, said a diet that aids gut health may have a number of benefits: “Years of research have been conducted on probiotics and their role in sustaining good gut bacteria. Indeed, dairy probiotics are sought after and are well known for supporting immunity. More recently, we have started to see evidence that probiotics may play other beneficial roles in areas such as cognition, anti-inflammation, and metabolic health”.
According to New Nutrition Business, yoghurt stands out to consumers as one of the top three ‘good foods’ for digestive health, along with fruit and vegetables.
Snacking as an occasion in its own right
NZMP research showed snacking has a share of 40% of food and beverage consumption in diverse markets and is becoming an established meal occasion in its own right. As snacking solutions become more accessible and common, demand for the quality of food and beverages in snacking also evolves, and consumers expect to pay a premium for healthy/functional snacks.
Ethics goes 360
Consumer interest in ethical sourcing and sustainability continues, now evolving to extend throughout the whole supply chain.
According to Globaldata, 41% of consumers look for ethical or sustainable logos when shopping, 38% are willing to pay a premium for sustainable materials and 30% are willing to pay for social responsibility claims such as ‘pasture-raised’ and ‘humane’.
Lara Phillips, Manager, Sustainable Value says consumer concern about sustainability will see them look for products that are both “healthy for the world” and “healthy for me”.
Total wellbeing
Consumers are increasingly mindful of their overall health, evolving from just physical to total body, mind and emotional wellbeing. As a result, positioning products on demographics such as age and gender alone will become less relevant with lifestyle-based positioning taking its place.
Adventurous consumption
Launches tracked by Mintel show an increase of 39% in food and beverage launches with “discovery” a key message appearing on pack in 2017 and 2018. Innova noted that, ‘arousing consumer curiosity by including an element of surprise’ is a way to activate this trend.