Grains & legumes: what's trending in 2018?

As another year draws to a close, we’ve been looking at key trends for 2018 – so what’s influencing innovation and driving consumer behaviour for the year to come?

“A key trend is a genuine growth opportunity. It’s a set of changes in consumer beliefs and behaviours, leading to a change in a market. It’s something on which a company can base its strategy to increase sales of existing products or create new products, to boost market share and profitability.”

In the first of a series of trends reports, we’ve taken a look at two of 2018’s top trends (with more to come) and the opportunities they present for industry innovation!

Number 1: Plant Based

Plant based is one of the biggest trends right now and this wide reaching category is having an effect on nearly every other foodie trend out there. In 2017, plant based was the second biggest trend, having a considerable impact on innovation and product development. And during 2018, the lifestyle shift that’s driving plant based is the rise of the inclusive Flexitarian diet, not so much an increase in the number of people adopting a vegan diet as many people think. A Flexitarian is defined as.... ‘a person who has a primarily vegetarian diet but occasionally eats meat and/or fish.’ 

Emerging research is also helping to drive the prevalence of plant based eating with more and more evidence pointing to the many health benefits of eating mostly plant based, including up to a 25% lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes and a lower frequency of obesity (1). Protein has a part to play here too with many consumers increasingly looking for alternatives to meat. In 2017, a massive 43% of Australians are strongly influenced by protein claims on pack (2).

As a result, consumer demand, changing eating patterns and technological advances are pushing innovation. Legumes are now appearing in all sorts of traditional foods, including breakfast cereals, snack bars and pasta as well as new development with smoothies, savoury snacks and bliss balls. Whole grains feature here too, due to their many health benefits and links with the benefits of increased fibre consumption, cereal fibre in particular. Both categories are driving innovation here.

So what's new within this space?

Plant based meat alternatives - Gold & Green Foods latest product combines oats and beans to create their plant based meat alternative – Pulled Oats...

A focus on plant protein - The Lupin Company’s Lupin Flakes are highly versatile and can be used in baking, added to breakfast cereals or porridge or used in plant based patties to add plant protein, texture and additional nutrients...

Reformulation to up the veggie/legume content of many traditionally grain based foods - the bread market too is seeing diversification with Finnish bakery Fazer adding vegetable and legume purees to breads to create new and innovative offerings...

Plant based is an exciting trend that's set to drive strategy within food for at least the next 5 years.

Number 2: Snackification

The next big trend for 2018, continuing on from 2017 and previous years, is the rise of the snack market. The younger generation is driving most of the growth within this trend, with millennials primarily looking to snack to tide them over between meals and increasingly replacing traditional sit down meals with a snack or two. And with 56% of us eating at least one snack every day (3), consumer demand is higher than it's ever been and is set to continue to grow. This change in the way we’re snacking, from between meal and on-the-go snacks to keep you going until your next meal to whole meals based on a selection of snacks, has prompted a change in consumer demand, with many of us now looking for healthy snacks instead of typically indulgent snack foods that have dominated this category in the past. This shift has ensured both whole grains and legumes are now featuring prominently within the many innovative new offerings available.

Opportunities here are plenty, but where's the biggest potential gain?

Creation of premium products - we’re increasingly willing to pay a premium for a great tasting snack that caters to our lifestyle and fulfils a genuine need. Good Thins crackers are a prime example with a range of different options for all (premium) tastes...

Ever more innovative offerings - Regrained Cereal Bars use leftover grains from the beer brewing process to create whole grain snacks...

There are no limits on innovation - perhaps the biggest opportunity of all within this space - from meat to dairy to veggies, any category is open for disruption. Health and often a focus on protein drives new development, take Biena’s new chickpea snack for example, which combines a typically savoury food with chocolate to create an unusual but delicious snack option...

Manufacturers and retailers will continue to experiment with new trends to fulfill consumer demand and as we become more adventurous with our food and more of us become food explorers, the opportunities for ever more exciting options continues to grow.

To find out more about the fascinating rise of the snack market, read our article here.


References

1. Harland J, Garton L. An update of the evidence relating to plant-based diets and cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and overweight. Nutrition Bulletin. 2016;41(4):323-38.
2. GLNC. 2017. Consumption & Attitudinal Study. 2017. Unpublished.
3. Choosi. Modern Foods Trend Report. 2017.

Looking Ahead to 2017: 5 Key Food Trends

By Alexandra Locke

As the year draws to a close, it’s time to start looking at the key trends for the year to come, highlighting new and innovative ways to reach consumers, provide key benefits and ultimately raise awareness of our brands by offering a new outlook for the coming year.

We’ve taken a look at 5 of 2017’s top trends and the considerable opportunities for change and innovation!

“A key trend is a genuine growth opportunity. It’s a set of changes in consumer beliefs and behaviours, leading to a change in a market. It’s something on which a company can base its strategy to increase sales of existing products or create new products, to boost market share and profitability.”

Number 1: Digestive Wellness 2.0

Forecast to be the biggest trend for 2017 according to the New Nutrition Business 2017 Trends Report, digestive wellness reflects the rise in consumer awareness of the effects of good and bad digestive health. Emerging research is connecting the digestive system to all areas of health including anxiety, depression, weight management and diabetes amongst many others and is continuing to reveal new developments in this area. No longer purely a reaction to the hot topic of gut health and the microbiome, this area encompasses other trends such as the gluten free movement and rise in plant based eating. 

Consumers are now paying more attention to how a specific food can make them feel, so want to feel the benefit of the products they buy and feel assured that they’re promoting their digestive health and overall wellness when making food choices – these consumers will pay a premium for products which taste good and offer functional digestive benefits. And so the opportunities for manufacturers within this sphere will grow too – this is a trend to get on board with now!

Many consumers identify gluten and lactose free foods as a key to digestive health, which will ensure these trends persist. As such, those products experiencing the most growth in this area fall within the dairy alternative category. This highlights plenty of opportunities for both grain and legume products too, as consumers become increasingly aware of the benefits of fibre on good digestive health. Key opportunities include dairy alternatives, gluten free innovation and fermented foods which are also experiencing significant resurgence and innovation - pickled lentils anyone?

Number 2: Plant-Based

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Sage advice from Michael Pollan which many consumers are now taking to heart with the rise of the second biggest trend for 2017 and perhaps the most opportunistic for those in the grains and legumes industry - the plant based diet. With new research demonstrating the multiple benefits of a mostly plant based diet, ranging from up to a 25% lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes to lower incidences of obesity and smaller waist circumferences (1), the possibilities for product development within this space are numerous, with plant milks and meat and dairy alternatives all increasing and a spotlight moment for seeds and grains.

Within this trend there’s been a significant increase in the number of consumers following a Flexitarian diet promoting a mostly plant based or vegetarian approach, whilst also including small amounts of animal based products. With an increase of seven times the amount of plant based claims on packaging since 2011 (2), there’s a clear indication that this trend is here to stay. The future looks bright for natural products, legume snacks, tempeh and protein based plant foods.

Number 3: Inflammation

A relatively recent area of focus in the FMCG space, inflammation is fast becoming the next hot topic. With inflammation now linked to everything from the development of chronic disease to how effectively we handle stress, this trend is driving consumer purchasing and behavioural decisions. A recent study has shown that whole grain intake had the strongest link to anti-inflammatory markers out of 37 foods studied (3) – highlighting more opportunities for the whole grain category in 2017. 

The star in this space is surely turmeric, recently attracting much praise for its anti-inflammatory properties and appearing in everything from wraps to tea to smoothies. You only have to take a quick sweep through Instagram to encounter numerous Turmeric Lattes, Golden Mylks and Glowing Smoothies. And single serve on-the-go drinks are the number one opportunity for manufacturers looking to weigh in on the inflammation trend, offering plenty of potential for dairy alternative inflammatory busting beverages. With research on inflammation coming thick and fast, this is one trend that’s not going away!

Number 4: Good Carbs, Bad Carbs

Over the past year we've increasingly seen consumers choosing between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ carbs, with an emphasis on the importance of choosing the most healthful carbohydrate format. Both the media and consumers are becoming more aware that carbohydrates are essential as part of a healthy balanced diet, focusing on crowding out refined and processed carbohydrates by increasing intake of whole grains, wholemeal bread and pseudo-grains, as well as eating more ‘alternative’ forms of carbohydrates, think sweet potato toasts and zucchini noodles. But consumers are still cutting carbs with 35% actively cutting down on carbs as a dietary priority with the breakfast cereal category amongst the hardest hit due to the persisting perception that many cereals are overly refined, processed and high in sugar (4).

With ‘healthier’ forms of carbohydrate on the rise in 2016, we’ve seen significant movement towards alternative pasta products made with quinoa, chickpea or rice flour to products avoiding the traditional carb-heavy format as much as possible such as veggie noodles made with zucchini or beetroot, with this trend set to continue well into 2017. The focus should now be on manufacturers emphasising the importance of good forms of carbohydrates and making traditional carbohydrates more convenient - think porridge and traditional breakfast items in on-the-go formats alongside products incorporating vegetables wherever possible.

Number 5: Snackification

And finally, the rise of the snack market. With the Australian snacking market now worth more than $2 billion and climbing fast (1), this field is seeing the most innovation in response to massive consumer demand for snack products of all varieties. Grains and legume innovation in this area is rife and for good reason – Australians are now snacking four times as much as 10 years ago.

This innovation combined with a low failure rate for products makes an attractive proposition for manufacturers, with 60% of snacks launched between 2003 and 2013 still on the market in 2016(4). And it would appear that anything goes with this trend, any food can be engineered to be thought of as a snack, any time of day is open to snackification and there are no limits on product development - almost any ingredient that can be dried, pureed, shaped, extruded or frozen is open to innovation. Take Peeled Snacks for example – a vegetable based snack made from rice and pea flour which passed $10 million in sales this year (4) thanks to hitting three of the recent major trends: plant based, no added sugar and a source of veggie protein. Chickpeas in particular have seen a surge in innovation, with products including low sugar, plant based cookies, roasted chickpeas and a range of healthy spreads made with the humble legume.

Professor David Hughes, Emeritus Professor of Food Marketing at Imperial College London, sums up the gravitas of this trend, “...such is the degree to which snacking is becoming part of people’s everyday habits, whatever food commodity you are in, you need to have a snacking variant.”

For more on the irrepressible rise of the snack market, click here.

Consumers look set to continue experimenting with their preferred way of eating, working out what approach is best for them but the more trends a product can align with, the more successful it’s likely to become. And with so many areas of new and emerging research and technological and processing advances being made almost every day, it appears there are no limits to the opportunities manufacturers face throughout 2017 and beyond.

References

1. Innova Market Insights Report. 2016.

2. Harland J, Garton L. An update of the evidence relating to plant-based diets and cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and overweight. Nutrition Bulletin. 2016;41(4):323-38.

3. Ozawa M, Shipley M, Kivimaki M, Singh-Manoux A, Brunner EJ. Dietary pattern, inflammation and cognitive decline: The Whitehall II prospective cohort study. Clinical nutrition. 2016.

4. Mellentin, J. New Nutrition Business. 10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition and Health 2017. 2016.

The Rise & Rise of the Snack Market: A Focus on Legumes

By Alexandra Locke

The Australian snacking market is worth more than $2 billion, with an annual growth rate of 4% and climbing (1). New technology and continuing consumer demand for healthy alternatives is fuelling innovation in the snacking arena. We take a look at the latest trends on snacks featuring legumes, the most innovative products in this space and where the opportunities lie for manufacturers to produce healthier snacks for our changing lifestyles.

Australians now snack four times as much as 10 years ago (2), with this growth being driven by our ever-changing and increasingly busy lifestyles. And it’s the younger generation driving the trend in snacking, where consumers are shying away from traditional mealtimes and instead consuming more small snacks throughout the day.

Consuming food on-the-go is no longer seen as an anomaly, but a necessity with 96% of Australians regularly consuming snack foods (3). Snacking allows us to fuel ourselves in a way that fits in with our modern, fragmented lifestyles and consumers are increasingly demanding healthier, more innovative options. And this is where the unlikely legume fits in.

Although previously an often overlooked food group, the popularity of legumes continues to grow in all food sectors, helped along by their exemplary health benefits. With 40% of Australians citing that one of their top health priorities is to consume more fresh fruit and vegetables and 23% looking to eat healthier snacks (4), it seems only natural that snacking and legumes have combined to take advantage of this niche.

“Snacking is no longer about a specific product category but rather about a set of behaviours – a way of eating and drinking – a kind of occasion. In other words, anything and everything can be a snack – and increasingly is.” 
Food & Drink News

With 2016 being the International Year of the Pulse, it’s fitting that this year has seen an increase in legume based snacks. And there are many benefits associated with eating legumes; they’re an economical source of plant-based protein, inexpensive, a good source of fibre which helps to keep you feeling fuller for longer and they’re great for the environment too as they help to promote soil health.

With this push for new snack products, innovation is increasing on a daily basis - lentils are being puffed, chickpeas are being roasted, salted and served as a snack and lupins are being ground into flour. In fact, the number of new snacks containing legumes launched around the world increased by an astounding 54% between 2014 and 2015 (5)

We’ve taken a look at some of the top products emerging in legume based snacking.

• Partner Foods has developed a range of roasted legumes including roasted and seasoned chickpeas and fava beans, Chic Nuts and Fav-va Nuts, which come in small portion controlled packs, providing a healthy snack at any time of the day.

• Taking the Pea is another example of a company cashing in on the savoury snack trend with their range of crunchy flavoured peas, promoting their high fibre and protein content to young consumers.

• Simple is the new natural and it doesn’t come much more simple than The Good Beans’ roasted, seasoned chickpeas.

• Luke’s Organic range of corn chips includes a red lentil variety - a great way of getting plant-protein into the diets of those who may otherwise overlook the humble legume.

• One of the more innovative products comes from Chaat Co who have produced a savoury yoghurt based snack topped with lentil puffs.

• Many café’s and restaurants are now using chickpea flour to create gluten free snack products and pea protein to up the protein content of their bite-size snacks.

• And there’s an increasing number of manufacturers using legume flours in their snack products, including chickpea and lupin flour – Good Thins snacks are made with chickpea flour.

As the snacking category continues to grow in both definition and financial growth, there are multiple opportunities to be had for manufacturers. Discerning consumers are looking for a number of attributes with their snacking choices…

• Nutrient dense
• Small, individual serving sizes
• Rapid hand-to-mouth format
• Fresh ingredients
• An emphasis on less processed ingredients
• Plant protein based
• Most importantly, consumers want new and different products!

And there are plenty of options for product growth, with companies competing in this growing market by adapting existing lines with new ingredients, such as new varieties of puffed legumes and products made with lentil or lupin flours. As well as new innovation, such as savoury yoghurt with bean puffs or high protein smoothies made with chickpeas.

One thing’s for sure, anything goes and the market is wide open for new products and innovation.

To make your own legume based snacks, visit the GLNC website for a range of delicious recipes.

References
1. IBIS World. AU Snack Food Manufacturing. 2015
2. Australian Food News. Australian's Snacking Ten Times as Much as Ten Years Ago. 2015
3  Australian Food News. Australia's Snacking Habits Revealed. 2014
4. IPSOS, Food Chats. 2016
5. Innova Market Insights. Pulses are Still on Beat. IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo 2016.