We recently sat down with Meat Management Magazine to discuss trends within ingredients and flavours and how we stay ahead of the curve to offer customers innovative products.
Ben Smyth, partner at Smyths Ingredients, highlighted the importance of cultural shifts when looking at flavour trends: “The growth of K-pop culture over the last few years has bled into the food industry and led to consumers wanting to experience new spicy, tangy, umami flavours and dishes from South Korea. In recent years Youtubers and influencers have launched brands/restaurants, specialising in products like flavoured chicken wings and beef jerky. Using their huge following to generate interest quickly, they also generate new trends, fast. This means that the meat industry and ingredients suppliers need to be able to react quickly to trends and update their offerings regularly."
"We are predicting a huge uplift in more specialist & authentic asian flavours, particularly from the Far East. Consumers are seeking new tastes, beyond the more established dishes. We expect flavours/dishes like sriracha, gochujang, okonomiyaki, kimchi and bulgogi to start becoming regular offerings and the meat industry to match their offerings with these tastes."
Check out our new range of asian / oriental flavours here...
Changes in legislation to smoke flavourings have led ingredients companies to rethink how they get signature smokey flavour into their products. In 2023 the EU Food Safety Authority EFSA found that it “could not rule out concerns regarding genotoxicity for any of the eight smoke flavourings” up for authorisation renewal.
“Smoke flavourings made using natural smoking are being phased out to avoid potentially harmful carcinogens, and so clean alternatives will need to be adopted industry wide,” said Ben Smyth. “Using a natural flavouring, made without smoke, allows for more consistent, great tasting products with a cleaner ingredient declaration. We have spent a long time developing natural smoky flavourings, without smoking, for every meat application as we expect this to be a big shift in 2025. Even producers using traditional smoking methods are considering switching to these alternatives as they can be safer for the consumer, far more sustainable and can also provide a huge saving on energy costs.”
Changes to regulations can lead to changes in the ingredients used to produce. This also provides an opportunity to shake up traditional style products with new flavours and ideas. I also think we are also starting to see AI become relevant in the industry. Restaurants, retailers and producers are using real time data and research, alongside AI tools to predict trends and tastes over the next few years. This will drive new product development going forward and hopefully allow meat producers to stay ahead of the curve.
To see the full feature and learn about future flavour trends, visit the Meat Management eMagazine
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