Christmas is almost upon us and is one of the most important dates in the food industry calendar. More than ever customers expect quality ingredients and beautiful dishes, requiring more preparation and planning to meet customers constantly evolving tastes.
Whilst there will always be those looking for the traditional turkey with all the trimmings, we also need to consider trends, such as health and free-from, that are currently dominating the eating-out market.
At Christmas people want to treat themselves and with consumers’ ever-enduring appetite for global cuisine, it’s the perfect time to feature some internationally inspired dishes on your menus.
Different diets and lifestyles used to mean it was tricky to cater for all when sitting down for the feast of the year, however free-from, vegetarian and vegan options are now menu essentials. 3.5 million Brits now identify as vegans and one in five choose to avoid gluten and or milk.
Across the industry, daring new taste profiles are capturing the attention of adventurous consumers – with cocktail flavours making a crossover into mainstream consumer goods, and charred, burnt, smoked, caramelized and blackened flavours adding new dimensions to traditional foods.
This is according to Kerry Group's recently released 2019 Global Taste Trends, which may be leveraged by manufacturers and formulators for new food and beverage concept inspiration, pulling in key cross-regional taste influences from around the world. The trends list showcases key macro flavour trends and how they are evolving across the globe – from market inception to mainstream establishment.
Ginger, according to 2019 Global Taste Trends, has experienced “remarkable growth” over the past five to 10 years, from being a seasonal, festive Christmas flavour (gingerbread, gingersnaps in cookies, cakes, etc.) to evolving into a seasonal coffee beverage flavour at cafés.
Flavours like pumpkin spice, maple, eggnog and caramel apple are popular in limited-time offers because they trigger nostalgia inspired by season change and holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
(Source: The Grocer, Mintel and 2019 Global Taste Trends)