Top 5 Consumer Trends 2019

The top trends in dairy for 2019 are:

1. Digestive wellness

New Nutrition Business and Mintel report that people’s increasing awareness of microbiome science, and how it can affect overall health and wellbeing, is changing the way consumers think about food. As a result, there is increasing mainstream demand for products that focus on digestive wellness.  

James Dekker, Fonterra Programme Manager, Nutrition and Health, says a diet that aids gut health may have a number of benefits.

“Years of research have been conducted on probiotics and their role in sustaining good gut bacteria. In the past, the effect of probiotics on the gut microbiome has been all about digestive comfort and wellness.

Indeed, dairy probiotics are sought after and are well known for supporting immunity.

They are now moving more mainstream as part of sports and active lifestyle products for adults,” says James.

According to New Nutrition Business, yoghurt stands out to consumers as one of the top three ‘good foods’ for digestive health, along with fruit and vegetables.

3. Ethics goes 360

Consumer interest in ethical sourcing and sustainability continues, now evolving to extend throughout the whole supply chain. 

According to Globaldata, 41% of consumers look for ethical or sustainable logos when shopping, 38% are willing to pay a premium for sustainable materials and 30% are willing to pay for social responsibility claims such as ‘pasture-raised’ and ‘humane’.

Lara Phillips, Manager, Sustainable Value says consumer concern about sustainability will see them look for products that are both “healthy for the world” and “healthy for me”.

“New Zealand farmers lead the world in many aspects of sustainable dairying, with high productivity, year-round pasture grazing and low use of supplementary feeds. 

As a result, our dairy has amongst the world’s lowest carbon footprint, and amongst the highest rates of grass-feeding. 

“A number of NZMP customers are leveraging the NZMP New Zealand grass-fed icon worldwide, which gives consumers confidence in the supply chain and the origins of their product.  We look forward to working with more customers to help bring their sustainability story to life,” says Lara. 

5. Adventurous consumption

Launches tracked by Mintel show an increase of 39% in food and beverage launches with “discovery” a key message appearing on pack in 2017 and 2018.  Innova notes that ‘arousing consumer curiosity by including an element of surprise’  is a way to activate this trend.

According to Roshena, “New experiences as part of food and beverage consumption remain important. Consumers will place value on the authenticity of these experiences in place of generic products and will pay more attention to higher quality, unique and differentiated offerings.  

On top of this, the glocalisation of food that started years ago will be given a boost and we will see more ethnic foods being introduced, including ethnic dairy options.”