Continued growth in natural flavours predicted

Natural flavours will not overtake synthetic flavours until 2022, and sales of natural flavours in Asia Pacific will surpass those in Western Europe within three years.

Those are two of the key conclusions contained in a report published by RTS, entitled “Flavours – Natural and Synthetic”. It also notes that the global market for high impact natural flavours in food and drink is worth $3.3 billion and is growing at 9.1% per year.

However, the report notes some slowing of growth. Growth in China is forecast to drop from the 15% it has seen over the past several years to around 7.5% by 2015.

The growth is being driven by growing consumer preference for natural ingredients, and growing food manufacturer and retailer demand for ‘clean label’ products.

Potential barriers to the continuing growth in natural flavours are said to be supply – demand currently outstrips the ability to produce – and the need to find ways of making natural flavours as stable as synthetic flavours under a wide variety of processing conditions.

The report notes that growth is inconsistent across markets and product categories and issues of supply and sustainability means it is unlikely that synthetic flavours will ever be entirely replaced by natural alternatives.

At present, usage of natural flavours is estimated at 132,842 tonnes, while usage of synthetic flavours is 184,236 tonnes.