ITS highlights seven key flavour trends for 2020

Experts from natural flavourings company International Taste Solutions (ITS) have put together a list of key trends for 2020 and beyond, with new trends to look out for in the dairy sector:

Trend 1: Floral and Botanical

Floral flavours started to gain real traction in 2019, particularly in the beverage market. The floral and botanical theme works perfectly with the rise of popularity in lo and no drinks and gives them an extra depth of flavour to help the product appear more grown-up.

What we’ll begin to see this year, says ITS, is the floral and botanical trend start to spread across other sectors such as dairy and bakery, particularly in the dairy market which is seeing a great deal of new ice cream innovations.

Trend 2: East meets West 

Already dominant in the savoury snacking market, ITS believes that Asian flavours are set to really boom in 2020. With the Japanese Olympic Games helping to shine a spotlight on Eastern flavours, the Western market can expect to see new and interesting flavours arrive on supermarket shelves, blended with existing and familiar flavours in order to help boost sales from casual customers to whom the new flavour profiles will be relatively unknown.

Trend 3: Blue

With Pantone labelling Classic Blue as their colour of 2020, along with the rise of brands looking for products to stand out, ITS says that blue certainly looks the way to go.

The bakery sector has already picked up this trend, with blue icing adorning cupcakes all over Instagram. ITS experts believe that the already popular blueberry flavour will become massive this year and will take a real stronghold in beverage and dairy markets.

Trend 4: Fantasy Flavours

Fantasy flavours such as unicorn and llama are gaining increasing traction and give brands a new way to introduce flavour profiles.

Brands have also been using this to create interesting collaborations, such as Ben & Jerry’s and Netflix with their Netflix and Chill’d flavour.

Trend 5: Traditional is Trendy

Sometimes when looking for new flavours, a tried and tested classic works just as well. ITS states that traditional flavours, or classics from the past will make a resurgence this year, with throwbacks to classic dessert flavours from the past, or old but popular limited edition flavours.

ITS says to look out for nostalgia as not only a flavour trend, but a packaging trend too.

Trend 6: Flavour Fusion

Classic flavour fusions, such as strawberries & cream and lemon & lime, have been big for decades, but ITS believes that brands will be pushing the flavour fusion boundaries even further in 2020, trying to upsell and drive for an extra level of luxury in products.

Trend 7) Citrus

Citrus was a popular flavour trend last year and this year is no different. ITS states that citrus is a universal flavour profile that will always sell well. This year, consumers should keep an eye out for new and developing flavours to join existing citrus classics.

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