As we welcome a new year, it’s crucial to explore how our eating habits will continue to be shaped by trends. Our individual choices set the course for the culinary world that we share. The world is constantly changing, and trends are emerging and fading away all the time. Nonetheless, some significant themes have the potential to create a massive impact. These trends, identified as Mega Trends, can have a substantial influence on numerous industries and reshape our daily lives and culture.
Here are the top five Mega Trends to watch closely in 2024:
- Women’s Health
- Digestive Wellness
- Plant Protein Powers On
- Sodium and Sugar Reduction
- Sustainable Nutrition
1. Women’s Health
Women’s hormonal health concerns are getting more attention from social media and other influencers, drawing attention to managing hormone difficulties and validating women’s experiences. With half of the population being affected, this is a critical need state.
Women’s health refers to the unique physiological and nutritional needs of females at different stages of their life cycle, from adolescence to post-menopause. Each stage requires specific nutritional recommendations to support overall well-being. For instance, adolescent females need more calcium to build lifelong bone density. A calcium deficiency during this stage can result in increased osteoporosis risk post-menopause when estrogen’s protective effects decline.
Understanding the specific nutritional needs of each female life stage is becoming popular for women who increasingly use technology to monitor diet, menstrual cycle, and lifestyle data. It’s essential to continue studying the physiological differences between sexes and determine how nutrition can support women’s health, quality of life, sleep, and exercise performance. The microbiome and gut motility of females differ from males, and they may play a role in digestive symptoms. Nutrients and probiotics that support the microbiome are essential assets in addressing women’s health.
The focus on addressing female-specific nutritional needs continues to grow with innovative product launches in supplements for pregnancy, breastfeeding, infertility, yeast & UTIs, menopause, pre-menstrual cycle symptoms, breastfeeding, stress/sleep, heart health, immunity, and digestive health.
Key Points
- Expect to see this trend accelerate in the near future – with more clinical research into female-specific conditions and the growing capabilities of precision nutrition, there will be evolving evidence to support women’s health through diet.
- Certain plant-derived compounds have potential to support female specific conditions. For example carob fruit have been clinically proven to support hormonal and metabolic balance in the female reproductive cycle. Specific phytoestrogens from plants have also been shown to regulate menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes. Supplements positioned for female health are continuing to grow globally.
- Wearable devices and apps are allowing women to know more about what’s happening in their bodies and to better understand the symptoms they experience. This allows them to make decisions about the consumption of specific diets and functional ingredients to meet their needs.
2. Digestive Wellness
At any given time, one-third of people experience digestive discomfort. People are always motivated to improve their digestive wellness, especially those over 40, seniors, and women.
Thanks to diversity in consumer views about health and strong industry activity, consumers can choose from a wide range of digestive wellness options. However, brands must go beyond digestive health benefits and combine them with other motivators, such as more protein, less sugar, or fiber for better blood sugar. The most significant “go beyond” opportunity is the emergent gut-brain connection, addressing mood and mind. Brands that deliver a benefit people can feel will fare best.
The healthy gut microbiome topic remains at the forefront, with a growing interest in this area. We expect to see more fermented foods and probiotic/prebiotic products in the coming year, including yogurt, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, fermented cheeses, tempeh, miso, pickled vegetables, and even drinks like kombucha. To (re) balance a disturbed gut microbiome, personalization of the microbiome modulators – probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics, psychobiotics, etc. – will be critical.
Key Points:
- The gastro-intestinal tract is very long and comprised a myriad of microorganisms that are embedded in the gut lining, called the gut microbiome.
- The gut microbiome transforms nutrients and synthesises metabolites that may affect brain health and other targets beyond the gut.
- Personalization of the gut microbiome modulators will be critical to get the full benefits of these technologies.
3. Plant Protein Powers On
Despite challenges, there are significant opportunities in the plant-based market. Meaningful changes to the way we eat will continue, but they may be slower and take longer than initially thought. Flexitarianism is still the most common dietary approach, indicating an ongoing mainstream acceptance of plant-based meat alternatives. But as plant-based evolves, we need to continue to drive engagement and ensure plant-based products deliver on their promises.
People love the health halo and positive back-story of nuts, legumes, and similar items. They love them in whole “real” forms. A challenge for companies is the long ingredient lists that packaged foods with plant proteins often require. We know that taste is the most important reason consumers will choose a plant-based product, and that taste is also the top reason consumers will reject plant-based foods. Taste is missing in some plant-based categories more than in others, which spells opportunity for brands that can solve this problem.
Health and nutrition are also major drivers in this relatively young category, with a need to move away from long ingredient decks and toward ingredients that deliver positive health benefits and associations. Sustainability is also important to a growing number of consumers. Despite these growing needs of the plant-based consumer, it is still essential to keep costs down.
Key Points:
- The plant-based category is still ripe with opportunities, but the meteoric growth has slowed.
- Taste is the main reason consumers choose a product – and is also the top reason products are rejected – highlighting the need for improvements in palatable plant-based test.
- A majority of plant-based consumers believe plant-based products are healthier than traditional products, but innovation in the space is needed to ensure foods and beverages deliver.
- Other considerations to keep in mind are the importance plant-based consumers place on sustainability as well as the need to keep costs competitive.
4. Sodium and Sugar Reduction
Amid advancements in online payments, website user experience, and optimized checkout flows, the rate of abandoned carts has steadily increased over the past nine years. Governments and organizations worldwide are making efforts to combat non-communicable diseases, malnutrition and obesity. While sugar and sodium reduction has been a nutrition trend for years, several factors are now expediting the pace of change as the food industry reformulates for healthier products.
Initiatives to encourage healthier diets include:
- Taxes on foods high in sugar or salt: Countries are implementing taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages, high sugar foods or high salt foods.
- Legislation: Countries are adding legislation that places limits or penalties on foods and drinks high in saturated fat, sugar or salt (HFSS).
- Front-of-pack labelling: Labels that penalize foods on front-of-pack for high sugar or salt content are rising up in more countries each year.
Reformulation to reduce sugar and sodium in foods comes with challenges, including taste, functionality, food safety, cost, and consumer acceptance. Key takeaways include:
- Governments worldwide are introducing more legislation and initiatives to promote healthier diets.
- Consumers are becoming more health-conscious, resulting in an increase in front-of-pack signposting.
- Reducing nutrients of concern while maintaining taste, functionality, and shelf life are challenging and require innovation in taste modulation and food science.
Key Takeaways:
- Governments worldwide are introducing more and more legislation and initiatives to encourage healthier diets.
- Consumers are becoming more health conscious, resulting in an increase in front of pack signposting.
- Differing front of pack labelling and marketing restrictions across countries will make it more difficult for companies to sell products across several countries.
- Decreasing nutrients of concern while maintaining taste, functionality and shelf life are challenging and require innovation in taste modulation and food science.
5. Sustainable Nutrition
Consumers not only care more about what they eat but also how sustainable it is. The food industry is becoming more sustainable as farmers face climate change, and organizations fight against food waste. Food is at the heart of one of the biggest challenges of our time – how do we feed a growing population while managing the accelerated environmental degradation of our planet?
Sustainability is a must-do in every company’s strategy. While consumers care about sustainability, it is only a strong driver of purchase for a very small percentage. For the overwhelming majority, it is just one element in their decision-making about whether to buy a product that also includes taste, price, health, convenience, and other factors.
Sustainable nutrition is defined as the ability of food systems to provide sufficient energy and essential nutrients to maintain good health of the population without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their nutritional needs. The multifaceted challenge of providing adequate nutrition for a growing, global population while reducing negative environmental and social impacts is among the most urgent issues for our industry.
Key takeaways include:
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- Sustainable nutrition continues to be a megatrend within the food system.
- Food is at the heart of one of the biggest challenges of our time – how do we feed a growing population while managing the accelerated environmental degradation of our planet?
- We urgently need to find solutions. It is important that everyone in the world has a right to eat balanced, healthy and nutritious food.
- We need to make food consumption and production choices that reconcile the limited natural resources we have on our planet to feed everyone.
