2023 Food and Beverage Trends

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With only a couple of exceptions, lower-and zero-calorie sugar alternatives have failed to live up to the multifaceted functionality and flavor of sucrose and its components, glucose and fructose. In fact, great taste remains one of the primary obstacles to overcome with the range of sugar alternatives cropping up in the marketplace. A close second, of course, is performance in a formulation.

"Alcohol marketing is evolving rapidly," said Patrick Egan, director of research & insights, DISQO. "With budget-constrained consumers who are increasingly focused on health, our insights suggest that marketers should be intentional in their messaging. Whether that's educating about differentiated offerings, touting unique production processes, emphasizing functional benefits or justifying higher price points, advertisers need to keep up with consumers in an increasingly crowded category."

Consumers of all ages are most willing to try ethnic cuisines in their home cooking, at restaurants, and when traveling. They name Asian, European, and Latin American flavors as the most influential and Asian as the most familiar and inspirational. Preferences for specific ethnic cuisines, however, vary somewhat based on food and beverage category.

Although there are dollars-and-cents implications for every aspect of a new product, you can’t put a price on absolutely every ingredient. That’s because some brands embrace purpose-driven goals or “social ingredients” that factor into the finished product.

A.I.'s capabilities can reduce product development cycles from 1-2 years (or at best, half a year) to as little as one month. This process is the result of coordinated efforts between multiple A.I. systems, each excelling in different areas, while collaborating on the development. With more than one hundred A.I. systems in existence worldwide, collective operation ensures a high level of innovation.

One product maker who has cracked the code of exceptionality in the highly frenzied and increasingly crowded field of plant-based protein is Chi Foods, by Imlak’esh Organics, Inc. The makers of plant-based ground pork and pork chorizo analogs was co-founded by Tucker Garrison, and in this rapidly growing universe of plant-based meats, where alternate proteins are the star ingredients, Chi Foods is truly a unique player.

The findings display valuable insights into dining preferences, favorite restaurant types, ordering habits, tipping practices, and what this means for foodservice operators across the country.

The report found that less than half of food retailers (44%) and suppliers (32%) believe supply chain disruptions will negatively impact their businesses in 2023, compared to 70% of food retailers and 82% of suppliers in 2022.

With 12,198 new products with almonds introduced globally in 2022, almonds are recovering from the COVID slowdown. Other key findings for 2022 are below:

For the manufacturing community, a fundamental challenge resides in the fact that many high-intensity sweeteners feature undesirable characteristics. Most of the components contain off-notes, which often unbalance flavor, especially if a product developer is also attempting to add active substances to increase health attributes.