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Making sustainable choices
1 May 2024
2024 the year of the ‘conscious consumer’
We have leveraged our market intelligence and application knowledge to pinpoint the trends that will drive consumer preferences in 2024. These trends will be translated into the foods and beverages of tomorrow as they shape the concepts we share with our customers.
To date much of the food & beverage industry’s focus on sustainability has been around packaging and the development of plant-based offerings. As we move through 2024, we can expect to see the industry transitioning to a more holistic approach to sustainability and taking plant-based innovation to the next level. “Many companies have responded to the sustainability challenge by changing packaging because it is the most visible and fastest solution, but conscious consumers are looking for all-encompassing solutions that go beyond packaging. Plant-based and hybrid foods offer a lot of scope for helping consumers make more sustainable choices,” says Justyna Rynkiewicz, Market Insight Manager, Nutrition, at Brenntag EMEA, with reference to the EMEA market.Trend #1: holistic sustainability
The plant-based space has exploded in recent years, but some early attempts at innovation fell short of the mark on taste and texture. According to Justyna, this issue has now been addressed with the help of companies like Brenntag, who have supported the food industry with solutions for improving the taste, texture and appearance of plant-based foods.
Nutrition next in focus
Next the category must turn its attention to improving the nutritional profile of plant-based foods - in particular the protein component. “Now the focus is on delivery of nutrients; consumers expect the nutritional profile of a plant-based food to match that of an animal-based food, so, for example, a faux fish product will need to be high in protein and omega-3. We are working in this space right now,” says Dr Nadia D’Incecco, EMEA Strategic Marketing Director at Brenntag.
Consumers are very receptive to trying plant-based foods, so if the industry can crack the dual challenge of taste and nutrition, the hope is that it will drive the repeat purchase that is needed for plant-based products to cross over into everyday territory. “The plant-based movement has been building for a very long time but in Asian countries, is still a niche. The challenge is one of evolving the category so that plant-based moves into the mainstream,”notes Sherlyn Sim, APAC Strategic Marketing Director at Brenntag.
In North America, discussions around plant-based product development always come up against cost obstacles because meat is heavily subsidized by federal funding, says Joanna Self, Americas Strategic Marketing Director at Brenntag. She believes the answer lies in creating more novel offers that will appeal to adventurous consumers: “Plant-based has to offer something more - it is not enough for it to be an ‘alternative’ to meat products,” she says.
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