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Europe is hungry for Japanese flavours, with katsu leading the way

As consumer interest in global flavours has intensified, product launches featuring Japanese-inspired tastes have multiplied across Europe – first in restaurant chains, followed by food and beverage products in mainstream supermarkets. In recent years, UK consumers have shown a particular interest in katsu curry flavoured menu items, snacks, soups, and ready meals.

Boomerang effect

“Katsu (noun). In Japanese cookery: a piece of meat (usually chicken), seafood, or vegetable, coated with flour, egg, and panko breadcrumbs, deep-fried, and cut into strips. Also: a dish of this, typically served with shredded cabbage and tonkatsu or curry sauce.”

Along with other Japanese culinary terms like hibachi, donburi, okonomiyaki, karaage, and onigiri, this new entry for katsu in the 2024 update of the Oxford English Dictionary reflects the growing influence of Japanese culinary traditions in the global food lexicon.

It might have been long overdue, as the word katsu originated as a Japanese adaptation of the English word "cutlet," just as the dish itself began as a Western-influenced style of Japanese cooking. Both the term and the food itself have now been thoroughly reabsorbed into the English language and culinary culture. But as the term gets applied to an ever-growing range of flavoured products, the word might already need an update soon.

From katsu fast food and ready meals...

The rise of katsu has been particularly prominent in the UK. One of the most notable examples of the mainstream appeal of the Japanese trend is the introduction of the Katsu Chicken Bake, available in the UK bakery chain Greggs' 2,500 locations from July 2024 onward. This British-Japanese fusion product contains a tender chicken breast in a katsu-style curry sauce encased in puff pastry.

Greggs’ offering followed the introduction of Willy’s Pies’ Chicken Katsu Pie at the restaurant chain Wagamama during National Pie Week in March this year. Fast-food giant Burger King was ahead of the trend in 2022 when it introduced a limited-time katsu curry range, including the Katsu Royale and Katsu Chilli Whopper. And the trend is not limited to traditional meat-based dishes. Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket chain, expanded its vegan Plant Chef range for Veganuary 2024 with products like the Sweet Potato Katsu Style Curry.

... to katsu mayo and baby food

New product launches of ready-meals and sauces – likely encouraged or inspired by the popularity of foodservice katsu offerings – have given rise to an ongoing expansion of katsu and other Japanese flavours into multiple product categories.

According to Mintel’s Global New Products Database (GNPD), in the entire decade leading up to 2015, just 21 product launches featured Japanese flavours in Europe. This changed in 2015, when 31 new products hit the market. This trend has continued, with more than 40 new Japanese flavour products hitting the shelves every year in the last five years. The rise of katsu in the UK is even more precipitous, growing from seven launches in 2020 to 18 in 2021, 22 in 2022, and 26 last year.

The data reveals that the most popular categories for Japanese flavours include snacks, sauces, and ready meals. However, there has also been a notable increase in other products such as seasonings, including Yawataya’s Japanese Allround Seasoning Shichimi Togarashi sold in Sweden as of 2024; and condiments like the Lidl private label Batts brand spicy plant-based Katsu mayonnaise, sold in the UK. Children and baby food brand Ella’s Kitchen even sells “organic nicely spiced chicken curry meal with veg + rice” baby food called ‘cracking katsu curry with chicken’ as part of its “explorer’s range” of easy-to-eat food pouches for seven months and up.

The appeal of world flavours

Innova Market Insights has noted that the rise in popularity of Japanese flavours is part of a broader trend towards diverse global flavours. This trend is driven by consumers’ increasing exposure to global cuisine through travel, social media, and the growing availability of international foods in local markets. Younger consumers, in particular, are eager to explore new tastes and are influencing the development of products that bring global flavours to the mainstream.

This trend is further supported by a desire for novelty and authenticity, as consumers seek out products that offer both a new experience and a connection to authentic culinary traditions. Manufacturers that can effectively tap into this demand by offering Japanese-flavoured products that balance innovation with cultural integrity are likely to find success in the European market.