New Cargill report highlights key trends in cocoa and chocolate

Cargill’s cocoa & chocolate business has just released its comprehensive report highlighting key sector trends to help manufacturers develop their next winning innovations.

Based on insight gained from interactions with customers across numerous application categories, and on information gathered from projects with customers through Cargill’s application centres, the report highlights trends across four key themes: Indulgent; Premium; Healthy; and Sustainable and clean.

Indulgent – today’s consumer is looking for an ever-more indulgent experience, across flavour, texture and colour, inspiring new levels of creativity in sweet foods around the world.

In flavours – vegetable and chocolate combinations are becoming popular across a range of categories and texture is also evolving towards more indulgence, with larger chocolate chunk inclusions.

Premium – demand for premium products is at an all-time high, with provenance and origin being key among cocoa and chocolate products. Besides specifying the origin of cocoa or chocolate, manufacturers increasingly highlight the country where the end-product was manufactured.

Healthy – how diet affects health and wellness is increasingly on consumers’ minds. Besides the long standing trend for sugar reduction and gluten free, lactose free claims are increasingly being observed in cocoa and chocolate products.

Sustainable and clean – where food comes from and how it is produced really matters to today’s consumer. Certified chocolate products are becoming more popular and spreading their reach out from chocolate tablets into dairy, bakery, biscuits and ice cream.

Niklas Andersson, Marketing Director Cocoa & Chocolate Europe explains: “Whether working in confectionery, biscuits, bakery, cereals, dairy or ice cream, our report provides real insights that can help manufacturers get a head start on the competition when creating new products and innovations.

“Only Cargill can provide the insight, ingredients and end-to-end expertise that takes manufacturers every step of the way – from inspiration to application and then to market”, concludes Andersson.

To download a copy of the Trends report and discover how to stay ahead of consumer tastes visit http://www.cargill.com/trends/