Health & wellness have taken on a vital and pressing meaning during the COVID- 19 pandemic. With the outbreak of the virus, sugar will be of increasing concern for consumers and governments because diabetes is considered to be a risk factor for COVID-19.
India has the second largest population of diabetics in the world in absolute terms, after China, making sugar intake a major health concern in the country. The International Diabetes Federation’s (IDF’s) 2019 report estimates the number of adults (aged 20-79 years) living with diabetes in India to be 77 million. This is expected to grow to 134.2million by 2045. IDF’s trends predict that by 2045, India will exceed USA in the number of people older than 65 years with diabetes. As such, the diet of Indian consumers is in the spotlight.
Food producers are expected to be part of the solution when it comes to providing healthier alternatives to consumers. One key area of focus is sugar reduction, with many health departments pushing producers to do more to reduce sugar in their food and drink products.
According to Mintel’s Global New Products Database, there has been an increase in new products launched globally that address sugar content. In 2019, 7.4% of food and drink products launched globally featured claims of either low/reduced sugar, no added sugar or sugar-free. If we look to India, the trend is similar with 5.7% of Indian food and drink products launched in 2019 incorporating sugar reduction related claims.The year over year increase in sugar related claims reflects producers reformulating existing products or launching new sugar-free items.
Globally, during 2015-2019, low/no/reduced sugar claims have been seen to impact categories such as juice drinks, snacks and dairy the most. According to Mintel’s research, the juice category followed by bakery and snacks were the most affected categories in India during 2015-2019.
Mintel’s India consumer research highlights that as of December 2019, 22% of consumers have tried to reduce the amount of sugar they consume over the past 12 months. Despite this growing trend of reducing sugar, it comes with challenges for producers. When exposed to reduced sugar claims on product labels, consumers often become concerned over the impact on taste which in turn impacts brand perceptions. As such, finding solutions that don’t negatively affect the taste profile is paramount.
As consumers look for alternatives, the space of natural sweeteners is gaining traction steadily with year over year growth in new product launches. Overarching themes across food and drink indicate more natural formulations being preferred by consumers. According to Mintel’s Indian consumer research from 2018, 44% of consumers say it is important to eat natural foods.
Today, there are a broad range of ingredients and solutions that can help reduce or replace sugar from food & beverage products. However, most of these fall short in ensuring a clean and natural taste which makes it difficult for consumers to chose these healthier products.
Even natural sweeteners such as stevia suffer from aftertaste issues and visible differences in mouthfeel.
Firmenich’s Taste offerings include a comprehensive range of natural as well as other sugar reduction solutions that help to address all taste challenges.
Firmenich’s unmatched solution - TastePrint SW combines a proprietary blend of non-nutritive sweeteners with flavor technology to create clean tasting integrated sweetening solutions that deliver consumer needs of naturalness along with up to 100% sugar reduction. This unique approach to sugar reduction addresses the taste, timing and delivery issues associated with sweeteners, providing well-rounded and clean profiles you can trust to deliver taste consumers love.
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Clean Label |
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Reduce Complexity |
Healthier and more joyful eating experiences are only made possible by truly understanding the science and emotion behind food. We are excited to partner with you to anticipate consumer acceptance and trends with confidence for effective new product development and successful market products.