2021 Seven major food and beverage innovation inventory: food addition and subtraction, variable plant-based, "local specialties" on the top...

This year, the food and beverage industry "on the new" stream, relying on the strong consumption enthusiasm of the Chinese consumer market, product innovation continued to accelerate, and gradually become the incremental engine driving the development of brands and industries. According to Nielsen data, 46% of the growth of China's FMCG comes from the continuous emergence of new product innovation [1], which confirms the view of "innovation leads development" in the food and beverage industry.

But innovation is not easy. Under the condition of huge market base and continuous segmentation of consumer demand, how to accurately understand market demand and grasp the direction of innovation has become the top priority.

By combing through the industry innovation development trend in 2021 and combining with the analysis of some representative new products, in this article, we will provide some new ideas and new thinking for the innovative development of the food and beverage industry in 2022.

01, reasonable "indulgence" : delicious and healthy, indispensable

The trend of health has a profound impact on the food and beverage industry, and has gradually transformed into a driving force and become a driving point to guide industry innovation.

In 2021, new products featuring healthy food and beverage continue to emerge, accurately catering to consumers "want to eat, but afraid of fat, afraid of high sugar, afraid of greasy....." The demand, so that consumers to meet the appetite at the same time, have a healthier food choice, "reasonable indulgence" has become possible.

Sugar reduction, fat reduction, low calorie, zero addition, etc. have become the vane of industry innovation, leading the iterative upgrading direction of products. "Not only good to eat, but also healthy" has become one of the most obvious trends in food and beverage innovation in 2021.

In order to comply with the trend of sugar reduction, Mondelez launched the 0 sugar series of sandwich cookies in the Chinese market, replacing the traditional white sugar raw material with maltitol, in order to achieve the purpose of reducing sugar intake on the basis of maintaining the original taste.

Moselian went further, aiming at the pain points of high sugar addition of traditional yogurt and high fat content of dairy products, launched a series of "sugar control and fat control" yogurt, accurately grasp the psychological demands of consumers, and make drinking yogurt a burden.

When sugar substitutes and sugar alcohols became the trend of the whole industry, Good Hope Water "adhered to the original taste" and launched the Forot lemon sparkling water, the main content of not less than 80% NFC juice added, without adding any additional sugar and sugar substitutes, the sweetness of the product comes from natural fruit fructose ingredients.

Vitality Forest further "do the best thing", its newly launched fiber tea, the main mulberry leaves, corn beard and other natural plant raw materials, no additional sugar added, no caffeine, tea body to restore the original taste of raw materials.

It can be said that in solving the problem of "wanting to eat, but afraid of fat" for consumers, relevant enterprises have never stopped working hard. Now, even the heavy oil and salt hot pot has a healthier "advanced" version.  461 grams of ingredients per serving, 367 calories overall.

However, the fear of sugar, oil, fat and body preservation is only one aspect of this change, on the other hand, consumers are increasingly concerned about food cleaning labels. Meat monitor Fang lunch meat will strictly control the ratio of fat and lean products at 1.5:8.5, through fine ingredients, to solve the drawbacks of lunch meat greasy, in order to comply with the trend of reducing fat intake. At the same time, the meat monitor more clearly defined the "six no" quality standards, and made the slogan of not adding nitrite, phosphorus salt, sucrose, flavor, color and preservatives, which further caters to the development trend of healthy consumption.

It can be predicted that the trend of healthy development of the food and beverage industry will continue, and doing "delicious and healthy" food has become an important direction of industry innovation.

02, variable plant base, everything can be "vegetarian"

In 2021, the plant-based concept continues to be hot, and related new products are emerging one after another, showing an explosive growth trend.

Compared with the initial single plant milk and plant meat varieties, the innovation of plant-based food and beverage has greatly promoted the increasingly rich and diversified development of plant-based products, making related products appear in the consumer market with more and more daily appearance. The wide range of readily available products has further stimulated consumers' enthusiasm for plant-based foods.

Two new products of plant label black sesame plant milk and pistachio plant milk break the inherent impression of consumers for the concept of plant milk, in addition to oat milk, to provide consumers with more diversified taste choices, make the face of plant milk more diversified, more everyday, and promote plant milk from "coffee companion" to a broader field of ready-to-drink consumption.

Innovation in plant-based meat has gone even further. Monday zero launched the Master Black pepper plant beef series, through technological upgrading, strengthen the physical organizational characteristics of plant meat products, so that it completely simulates the fiber texture of beef, forming a "meat block". It has certain breakthrough significance in restoring true fleshy feeling in plant meat.

At the same time, OMNI new meat, launched plant-based seafood products, further expanded the richness of plant meat products form, to give consumers more plant meat products imagination space.

The plant-based trend has also penetrated into the field of conventional food development, giving consumers a sense of surprise. With OATLY's oat-based ice cream, the ice cream is also becoming more vegan.

The capybara family makes potato chips by mixing vegetarian protein raw materials such as soybeans and rice, making traditional potato chips and plant-based new chemical reactions.

Sparkling Power and AKOKO's joint gift box bring plant base into the context of traditional festivals to explore new space for plant-based development. The launch of the plant-based mooncake gift box has become an example of the adaptation and development of plant-based food in combination with national conditions, deep innovation.

The power of plants cannot be underestimated. After the enthusiasm of market consumption has been gradually awakened, the innovative development of plant-based foods has gradually accelerated. In 2022, we believe there will be more plant-based innovations that will add vitality to the food and beverage industry.

03, "local specialties" attack, from the minority to "explosive" regional characteristics

2021 is also a year of "long knowledge" with the food and beverage industry. No longer satisfied with the monotonicity of conventional tastes, various brands have dug deep into the rich natural resources on the vast land of China and successively launched new products with very regional characteristics. From the minority to the "circle", the food and beverage industry "makes stars" more than.

This year, perhaps you also like me, have repeatedly asked Baidu: "What is the orange?" "Is yellow skin a fruit?" . Behind the people's crazy thirst for knowledge, Nai Xue の tea and happy tea have carried out a vivid "science popularization" of real estate style for the people of the whole country with their new products. With the topic of "scraping oil" and "reducing fat", the topic of "controlling small red book" and circle of friends, the people all over the country competed to experience its "astringent, but back to sweet" wonderful taste.

Not to be outdone, the tea-loving yellow skin dew followed suit. The niche fruits from Chaoshan region helped Hitea to achieve a sales performance of 60,000 cups in 3 days in the main stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

The "coconut wind" blowing from Hainan Island also helped Luckin create the explosive single product of "YYDS" in the summer of 2021 - raw coconut latte. It is sweet and natural, vaguely revealing the light milk aroma, and perfectly highlights the rich and smooth taste of the thick coconut milk with the coffee. At the same time, the word "raw" in the name of the product also gives people the association of "raw press", "natural" and "healthy", as if you drink a mouthful, you can feel the "coconut wind Hai Yun" coming.

Made drinks as a regional characteristics of the experimental field, all the way first, capture the city and land. Pre-packaged food and beverages are also trying to accelerate research and development, and enrich their product lineup with new regional characteristics.

Taking advantage of the fire of orange, MissBerry launches lemon-orange wine, which is concentrated into wine by pitting orange, squeezing raw fruit and adding lemon, thus bringing regional characteristics into the field of light drinking.

Bright is launched Xianju a bayberry Popsicle, the main origin characteristics, the high-quality bayberry origin of Zhejiang Xianju as their own publicity signboard.

If the fruit juice is further, its products cleverly integrate the origin of fruit raw materials into the packaging design, "Lipu Litchi", "Chengde hawthorn", "Ningde Jufeng", with distinct and direct regional characteristics for their juice quality "endorsement", but also let consumers feel the unique beauty of mountains and mountains.

From the region to the whole country, from the minority to become "explosive". On the vast territory, there are still many natural resources to be discovered and their potential to be released.

04, delicious is not enough, to add strengthening function to new products

"Reduce sugar, fat and calories", but this is only one aspect of food and beverage innovation in 2021, on the other hand, there are some products are "crazy added". Hyaluronic acid, collagen, niacinamide, a variety of raw materials previously only heard in the field of skin care products, are increasingly appearing in food and beverage. Consumers not only want to taste good, to be healthy, but also hope that the food and drink is best to have a little function superposition. 2021 has become a year of attack for food functional innovation.

In January 2021, the National Health Commission clarified for the first time that hyaluronic acid components can be used for food addition. This move seems to set the tone for food and beverage innovation throughout 2021, with various functional food innovations emerging in endlessly.

As a leading enterprise in the production of hyaluronic acid in China, Huaxi Biological took the lead and launched Shuiji Spring hyaluronic acid drinking water in March 2021, adding 66mg of food-grade hyaluronic acid to each 330ml bottle of drinking water, focusing on the function point of human moisturizing and replenishing, bringing hyaluronic acid components into more frequent daily consumption scenarios.

Ilianmuthi combined hyaluronic acid ingredients with yogurt to launch skin-relationship yogurt, adding 30mg hyaluronic acid to each bottle, and adding astaxanthin ingredients to the rain red chlorella cheese in the yogurt, so that every "skin care ingredient party" to see "My God".

Consumers have a variety of functional requirements for food, moisturizing and hyaluronic acid in addition to collagen components have also received attention.

Sumidagawa launched collagen hanging ear coffee to explore more possibilities beyond the "refreshing" function of coffee.

Collagen hanging ear coffee photo source: official flag of Sumida River on Tmall

Yida launched the Genji Collagen peptide gum series, focusing on oral health, but also committed to helping consumers replenish collagen anytime, anywhere.

Consumers not only want pure food and drink, but also want to feel the functional experience from food and drink. Kill multiple birds with one stone. Perfect choice.

Budweiser China launched the Zhihe series of sparkling water, adding whey protein, dietary fiber, grape seed extract, minerals and other ingredients, adding nutritional supplement, intestinal health, antioxidant and other functions to simple water.

JOLIYOYO launched enzyme jelly with the addition of six lactic acid bacteria strains to help maintain the balance of human intestinal flora. While eating snacks, you realize body maintenance.

More and more food and beverages have begun to "make a big fuss" in functionality and find innovative directions. According to the forecast of Middle Class Business Research Institute, the market size of functional food in China is expected to exceed 600 billion yuan in 2022. Compared with the functional food penetration rate of more than 60% in the United States market, China's 20% penetration rate still has great room for growth. After all, eating well and drinking well at the same time can achieve body maintenance, which is very nice to think about.

05, maverick and different, strange taste and break the dimension wall joint name

In 2021, the food and beverage industry has also emerged with many operations that people call "don't understand". Strange flavors and cross-dimensional co-branded products are becoming a trend.

Novel experiences, sensory stimulation, and social monetization products have become new ways to break the circle of products and influence the way food and beverage innovation.

Go Clear wine launched lime pepper juice sparkling wine, using natural pepper particles raw materials, cold brew, mixed apple fermented wine base, publicity can give consumers the tip of the tongue to be "electric" novel experience. Seemingly completely incompatible materials together, always stimulate the curiosity of consumers eager to try.

Smelly snail launched lemon Perilla spiral rice noodle, the first name gives people a "want to speak but do not know how to speak" strange feeling, "one second as if you were in Thailand's charming beach, the next second was sour bamboo shoots and spiral snails pulled back to the Liuzhou beach, a bowl of soup time, also went to more than 200 Southeast Asia." A bowl of powder can actually eat such a rich sense of layers.

Alps launched a New Year limited series of candy, respectively, spicy crayfish flavor, rattan pepper flavor and coriander lemon flavor, but also give people a "clueless", "want to say no" novelty, upholding the "big New Year" inclusive spirit, consumers may want to say "good job, don't do it next time."

Are these weird flavor products any good? It's hard to say. The fact is, the relevant companies are not holding the idea of creating a lasting big product to launch these novelty products, instead, they value freshness, specificity and originality. When novelty and novelty have gradually become a motive that cannot be ignored in food and beverage consumption, more and more products have begun their own "strange evolution" road.

Similarly, the joint name of the broken dimension wall has also begun to develop rapidly. Uni-president Ice Tea and Single Food jointly launched iced black tea flavored potato chips, and Yanjing Beer and Haagen-Dazs jointly launched Yanjing U8 ice cream.