Synergy Flavours identifies nine consumer needs functional beverages can address

Synergy Flavours, has conducted an assessment of the functional beverages market, using data from a range of sources, including consumer research platform, VYPR. The research analyses flavour trends and product launches that cover key consumer health concerns, or ‘need-states’, and highlights opportunities for new beverage and nutrition innovation in these areas.

The research identified nine key “need-states” that consumers are seeking to address with functional beverage products: energy, gut health, immunity, muscle building, brain health, skin health, hydration, female nutrition, and healthy aging.

5,000+ respondents, which included an even split of male and female consumers from around the world between the ages of 18 and 65+, were surveyed through VYPR. They were asked to confirm which functional products they either used, or were interested in using. Responses were split by demographic profile to identify trends in usage, and respondents were also asked to highlight preferred flavours in products for the functionality they had expressed interest in.

Gut health was the most sought-after functional benefit in the research, with 39% of respondents expressing an interest in products that promote it. It was also the fastest growing search topic since 2019 when compared to the other need-states, according to data from Google Trends and SEMRush. 32% of respondents said they were interested in ginger-flavoured digestion products, and 31% in mango – however, only 9% and 4% of launches respectively featured these flavours. Synergy has developed a mango and ginger flavour concept for gut-health beverages, for discussion with its customers. Other flavour concepts based on the insights from the research have also been developed.

Other emerging functional benefits of interest to consumers included skin-health and hydration. Skin health, or skin care, is one of the most widely searched functional benefits. However, it also accounted for the fewest food and beverage launches since 2019. The research showed that 33% of consumers would be interested in cranberry-flavoured food and beverage products with skin health claims, yet cranberry flavours were only featured in 4% of launches. For hydration, 58% of consumers surveyed said that staying hydrated was the biggest lifestyle change they had made to improve their health. 49% of consumers also said they would look for citrus flavours in hydration products, with lemon and lime being the most popular flavour choice – however, this flavour only accounted for 6% of launches.

Chris Whiting, European category development manager at Synergy, notes that its primary consumer research and analysis of different data sources paints a clear picture of what functional benefits consumers are looking for – what flavours they’re looking for in these products; and whether the current market offering is meeting those expectations.

“The global self-care industry is expanding at a rapid pace, and to stay competitive, beverage manufacturers can use these insights to deliver products in the flavours consumers are most interested in,” he says.

For more information about the research, and to learn more about how Synergy can support functional beverage innovation, visit https://uk.synergytaste.com/home-page/find-your-flow/.

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