The Year 2012 looks favourable for those players in the market who wish to outstand themselves with new food products, catering to their customers to meet the growing demand and change of tastes.
Undoubtedly, today the trend has turned towards cereals for breakfast, yoghurt, sugar-free, fat-free and gluten-free food products considering the rising health-consciousness of the consumers in the scenario.
Therefore, cereals and yoghurt might be some of the food products that would be on the floors, this year with major players like Kraft Foods and Nestle gearing up for launches.
Easy-meal solutions
In this regard, Kraft Foods, USA, one of the brands of supermarket food items is reportedly updating a line-up by launching more than 70 brands whereby all these products have been created for those consumers who look for easy-meal solutions with new flavour combinations.
Barry Calpino, VP, Kraft Foods, USA, was quoted as saying that Americans were having more interactive experiences with food and that they wanted the opportunity to do some of the cooking themselves, whereby with the global influence and the merging of different cultures, consumers were open to new flavour combinations and that being able to customise the flavour and texture to enhance the end dish was important and Kraft foods was delivering.
According to reports, the company is offering convenient dinner kits such as Kraft Sizzling Salads, Fresh Take and Velveeta Cheesy Skillets where each of them features a unique flavour combination and allows consumers to add their own chicken, pork or fish.
While in Breakfast items, options include Breakfast Biscuits, Kraft Milkbite Milk, Granola Bars and Philadelphia Cooking Creme.
Health-conscious food
All these products would provide the consumers with more health-conscious food items for the breakfast-on-the-go as biscuits consist of whole grains and the Granola Bars were to deliver calcium.
Meanwhile, Kraft Foods in the US will also be launching a new range of products, including a line of energy drinks. One squirt of MiO Energy Liquid Water Enhancer, for instance, is said to deliver 60 mg of caffeine, the equivalent of a six-ounce cup of coffee when mixed with eight ounces of water, a report said.
Further, in the category of easy-meal solutions, Kraft has also added new flavours to its Sizzling Salads dinner kits like Zesty Fajita and Teriyaki Ginger. The kits include sauces and toppings that allow consumers to build starter and dinner-sized salads with a cooking sauce for meats and a salad dressing, the MilkBite Milk and Granola Bars contain the equivalent calcium of an eight-ounce (235 ml) glass of milk, reports added.
Therefore, considering all the aspects of health and the demand for such products in the market this year, from breakfast to dinner with snacks, drinks and many more products, the company is expected to have good rolls.
Further to say, the US-based General Mills, one of the leading food companies for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks has reportedly announced its latest cereal flavour, Dulce de Leche Cheerios, which has undergone a makeover and can be easily available in peanut butter-flavoured cereals.
Not only this, but also the company is preparing itself for the launch of other products in the pipeline like lactose-free yoghurt, “Yoplait Lactose-Free” and calcium-fortified Granola Bars.
“Yoplait Lactose-Free” is reported to be available in strawberry, peach, cherry and french vanilla flavours across the US late this month.
Strong trends
Meanwhile, according to some of the research groups such as Technomic, Mintel and Leatherhead have predicted that lactose-free, gluten-free and sugar-free would become a strong trend in the food and nutrition sector this year.
Talking about the cereal partners in the food industry Nestle would be one of the important points of ace. The company, in its 50: 50 joint venture with the US-based Green Mills, is planning to continue to have expansion in the breakfast cereal market, as it is reportedly expecting consumption of cereals will increase in the coming years.
The new food magazine in its website has published that the company has planned to open a new factory having an annual production capacity of about 15,000 tonnes of breakfast cereal in western Turkey as the trend of having cereals for breakfast is gaining ground in that country.
The Indian scenario
In the wave of growing food business, the Indian market has different demands. As the consumers believe in natural food products “yoghurt” is consumed and being considered as healthier for breakfast in particular.
“At this jucture, Parag Foods has flavoured yoghurt in its kitty,” Rahul Akkara, VP, marketing, Parag Foods, informed F&B News in a chat over telephone.
Akkara said that the flavoured yoghurt, albeit in its nascent stage was growing at a rate of 20 per cent every year in India as the demand was high, particularly in metros such as Mumbai, Delhi and Gujarat.
Western influence
He said that the reasons were typically due to the Western culture. People who travel to other countries have noticed that flavoured yoghurt was widely consumed specially by children.
He further said that this was an impetus for the Indian companies to offer the same on a wider aspect at an international competitive price as this was natural and had no preservatives added to extend the shelf life of the product.
Hence yoghurt is considered to be a healthy breakfast, according to him.
