Ideas to Make Your Food Stand Out From the Crowd

Health and wellbeing are primary concerns for both shoppers and consumers globally. No subject is off limits and consumers are looking to brands to help them maintain healthy lifestyles, all without losing taste and visual appeal, even when dining out.

Foodservice operators are having to react to long-term consumer trends driven by younger age groups who eat out-of-home most frequently. The millennials (those born between 1982 and 1996) and Generation Z (those born from 1997 onwards) are the ones driving growth in the UK’s restaurant industry and will be shaping it due to their frequency and spend on eating out-of-home. They are also willing to spend more on food that has a natural and fresh appeal and trust brands that use transparency as a key ingredient for their recipes.

Another key trait of this young consumer is a bigger connection with food to live not only healthier and better lives but also as a life style expression. The term "foodie" is often a self-adopted nickname among people who are driven to try new food and drinks and often expect high quality food, flavours and formats. Foodies are driving improvements in convenience products. In the UK, 38% of UK consumers describe themselves as a Foodie, including over half of 16-34s (53%) and 59% of female under-25s (Mintel GNPD 2019).

As they are super digital natives, always-connected and very eager to share on social media, the increasing use of digital technology is expected to provide challenges and opportunities to Foodservice operators, impacting the full “customer journey” as well as the business. The Smartphone has started to be an empowering tool for these young consumers and not just to post an “Instagrammable” burger or read other user reviews on a new cold brew latte. It offers an opportunity to know more about brands and their commitments, ingredients and supply chain.

Provenance, a Californian start-up, is making their case saying they envision a future where every physical product has a digital history, allowing consumers to trace and verify its origins, attributes and ownership.

In the UK, 73% of diners have used a Smartphone within quick service and 35% use it every time they visit, according to FSA. Transparency matters for young people dining out and they want tasty, authentic and appealing food. To avoid overly processed foods, millennials and Gen Z are looking to ingredient claims to satisfy their need for a healthy balanced diet, whilst also looking for convenient meals that adapt easily to the modern lifestyle.

The importance of using ‘natural ingredients’ increased from 13% in 2016 to 17% in 2018, according to Technomics when asking 1,500 people “What are the most important restaurant attributes when deciding where to eat?”. Naturalness is central to the ‘clean eating’ movement, which is now a mainstream phenomenon, with 30% of under-25s having tried to adopt a ‘clean eating’ diet (Mintel 2018). Transparency is the new competitive advantage opportunity for brands targeting these generational groups.

Offering ‘healthy food options’ (38%) and ‘natural ingredients’ (26%) are much more important to consumers who research foodservice brands than the overall consumer. These attributes are also important to consumers who pay attention to ingredients (34% and 24%, respectively).

The importance of specialty coffee shops and fast-food restaurants using natural ingredients has increased since 2016 and ‘free from artificial ingredients’, ‘extracted naturally’ and ‘made from real fruits and vegetables’ are the most important attributes for natural food colouring for consumers. Colour influences the actual taste experience and ensures food and drinks are recognizable, appealing and appetizing and in some cases, they can make a brand iconic and “Instagrammable”. Whilst leveraging natural colours to follow a fad can be a nice wave to surf, using it as a key component on a brand strategy can provide depth to restaurants bringing natural, safe and appetizing food solutions that customers will remember.

So have you ever considered how colour can help your brand strategy?

The challenge
How to address the consumer need with natural colours solutions?

Today, ingredients transparency is a fundamental component of branding and communication for brands as they are looking to build trust with consumers. At the same time, consumers are looking for healthier indulgences and adventurous flavours in their food and manufacturers must overcome those different challenges.

Chr. Hansen SOLUTIONS
Chr. Hansen has developed a new range of oil soluble colouring foodstuffs to complete our existing impressive range of colours from natural sources. The new products are based on vegetables and plants extracts and are fully compliant with the European Union Guidance Notes on the classification of food extracts with colouring properties. We have targeted our development to ensure high performance in the fat application, cost efficiency and a full range of shades to match the flavour profile of your product.

Our FruitMax® Range Benefits

• “All natural” packaging claims
• Excellent plating of dry seasoning mixes 
• Easy dispersible into seasoned oil-slurry 
• Easy to blend into additional shades
• Minimal settling of the bulk product
• Ambient storage with long shelf life
• Neutral flavour

Our FruitMax® range can easily be used for seasonings and snacks and is available in shades such as Pink, Warm Pink, Blue, Brown and Yellow. They can also be blended further to achieve shades like Green, Orange and Red. In addition, we have also updated our range of oil soluble natural colours with non-Cu chlorophyll green.

Interested in knowing more? Contact us today.

Chr. Hansen is a leader in natural colours. Sourced from nature, our colour portfolio is the largest and most vibrant
in the food industry.

Chr. Hansen Natural Colors
Email: [email protected]
www.chr.hansen.com/naturalcolors