Provenance, functional ingredients, clean-labels, and tropical flavors are among the trends that iTi Tropicals expects to see throughout 2023.
Provenance and Authenticity
Consumers are excited about products that come from another country provided the products are natural, authentic, and have clear provenance. Promoting a product as exciting and authentic by using a “from there” gives companies an opportunity to differentiate their products.
iTi Tropicals can help support provenance and authenticity for consumer products because our products come from a number of different countries. We import fruit juices, purees, and juice concentrates from countries including: Columbia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Peru, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Functional Ingredients
Not only do all of our products have a provenance story, but they are also all functional ingredients. All of our fruit purees, juices, and juice concentrates have functionality, usually specific to the type of fruit.
iTi Tropicals offers a broad portfolio of functional fruits including acai, acerola, banana, coconut cream, coconut milk powder, coconut water, dragon fruit, guava, mango, passion fruit, and pineapple. Acai, for example, is known as a superfruit due to its high levels of antioxidants and anthocyanins while acerola is a powerful source of vitamin C with 3.5 ounces of single strength puree containing 25 times the recommended daily intake.
Clean-Label Ingredients
Consumers seek real food that has been less processed and contains fewer ingredients. iTi Tropicals’ fruit purees, juices, and juice concentrates are minimally processed and free from added flavors and colors. Many of our products contain only one ingredient, the fruit the juice is made from, however, some products have been acidified to help maintain color and flavor.
Flavor Trends
Throughout the year, we expect that tropical flavors will continue to trend upwards in the market. We have broken down the flavor trends into categories including beverages, bakery, snacks, and savory trends.
Beverage Flavor Trends
We are expecting that fruit juices, purees, and juice concentrates will continue to be utilized in place of flavors when it comes to beverage innovation. Such a trend has been steadily rising in popularity and we expect continuation of that as more consumers request products that contain fewer ingredients. As far as flavor goes, we expect to see guava, passion fruit, and coconut continue to increase in popularity while mango and pineapple will remain mainstream.
Bakery and Confectionary Flavor Trends
Creativity in candies, cookies, desserts, bars, pastries, etc. is as popular as ever. Innovators are constantly seeking new flavor combinations and ingredients to differentiate their products. As innovators do so, there will likely be an increase in tropical flavors such as guava, acai, passion fruit, coconut, and banana, both due to their flavor profiles as well the functionality of these fruits.
Snack Flavor Trends
Snackification is perhaps one of the largest trends we are seeing across the industry right now. Innovation continues to reinvent the old by adding a new twist to an existing product. As innovation in snacks continues to expand, tropical flavors will find their way into the mix. Flavors include mango, coconut, and guava.
Savory Flavor Trends (Sauces, Dressings, Marinades, Etc.)
The savory flavor trends are the most unique out of the bunch because many flavor trends are international flavors where tropicals tend to accompany and/or enhance the main flavor trend. Thai Red Curry, for example, is an international flavor where curry is the focal point, but coconut cream tends to accompany. The same could also be said for Mexican Chamoy and Mango, Korean Sweet Barbecue and Pineapple, and Galangal and Coconut Cream.
