Bell Flavours & Fragrances has announced its annual selections for top trends and flavours for 2014. The worldwide marketing teams have compiled five trends with supporting flavours that, according to the company, will help developers understand consumer demands when launching products in the year to come.
Bell’s worldwide marketing teams researched the top consumer macro trends, tracked sample requests throughout 2013, visited numerous restaurants and stores, and sourced external databases to learn about menu trends, product launches, and consumer preferences, to deliver the hot trends and flavours for 2014.
A lot of the macro trends seen in 2013 will be continuing into 2014, said Bell. Allergen concerns will continue to increase and innovative solutions will be developed. Cooking sauces like red miso, oyster, soy, peanut and fish sauces will be reformulated to offer allergen free versions.
Bell said that it has also noticed that the gluten free craze isn’t slowing down and flavours will play an important role in the development of these products as consumers demand high quality, great tasting flavours.
Diet crazes come and go, but healthy lifestyles are here to stay, believes Bell. This can be seen in products that are putting a healthy spin on familiar flavours. The company says it is also seeing a whole new generation of superfruits, such as its featured flavour, aronia berry, popping up in grocery stores nationwide.
Latin America and Asia have proven to be popular sources of new ethnic flavours, notes the company. High profile events like the World Cup and Olympics will pique interest in Brazilian and South American culture and cuisine. 2014 will also continue to bring the heat as consumers explore new ways to add a kick to their meals.
