Do you remember when you first tasted fruits like watermelon or strawberries in a savoury salad? Or carrot & apple juice? These combinations used to be innovative a few years ago, but they have meanwhile become mainstream. Today, vegetables have found their way in many more snacks than on-the-go salads or soups. Driven by health-conscious consumers, brands are developing more products with vegetable ingredients, often combined with fruit tastes.
Let’s have a look how vegetable ingredients are boosting new product developments in snacking. If you look at successful new product launches, there are some key factors driving the vegetable boost in the snacking market:
According to Euromonitor, the consumer shift towards a more natural offering has become particularly clear in energy bars: new products in this category often contain plant-based protein in combinations with fruits, nuts and vegetables, for more energy. The nutritional bars market is one of the fastest growing in packaged foods and is experimenting with new ingredients that can improve the health profile and the taste, such as fruit or vegetable pastes, chickpea or lentils.
For Millennials, snacks have become a real meal replacement. Their busy lifestyles don’t always allow lunch, so they want to eat a wholesome but neat snack, while they scroll through their smartphone. This habit brings critical insight for snack developers: a snack should not be sticky and it should be easy to consume with one hand. According to Mintel, soup is an interesting innovation category here, as 16% of Germans aged 25-34 drink soup as a snack on the go. Comparing soup to the on-the-go yoghurt category, there might be untapped opportunities here for creative toppings that combine crunchy texture with dried vegetables. Think of exciting soup toppings, just like the top-cups with crunchy muesli to add to your yoghurt. Co-creations between soup & trail mixes might be just around the corner.
Successful innovations often come by looking at other categories and wondering how to make it even better for the consumer. This is how smoothies in a bar were invented: the popularity of fruit & vegetable smoothies has inspired brands like Foodloose to combine fruits, vegetables with nuts, seeds and superfoods into a fun and convenient edible smoothie format.
Proven successful flavour combinations of fruit & vegetables include apple-carrot and beet-berry, sometimes combined with chia or popped cereal for a surprising texture. Globalisation also plays a role here, creating fusions of vegetables with spices like harissa or fruit & vegetable chutneys combining apple tomato bell pepper and red berries.
Did you know that Taura can create custom made fruit & vegetable inclusions and pastes? We are happy to advise you!