Tasty but Healthy

SOUP is traditionally perceived as being most popular with  older consumers, but category players are aiming to attract the lucrative Millennials with  inspiring  products, notes  market research firm Datamonitor in its new report. In‘Consumer and Innovation Trends in Soup’, Datamonitor reports that the soup category is evolving significantly, as players in the industry look to exploit rising value-consciousness and trends towards dining at home amongst consumers.

Category players are aiming to emphasise soup’s convenience  aspects, whilst also promoting the values of freshness, ‘naturalness’and healthiness. There is a big push underway, adds Datamonitor, to enhance consumer perception of the category by providing standout packaging (See related stories beginning on page 46 – Editor) and novel flavourings, increasing the sensory experience of soup.

Souped up soups
Millennials are from the last generation born in the 20 th century, and we mention them here because the  Campbell Soup Company has developed many of their recent  brand releases to cater to this demographic. In the past decade,Campbell saw its share of the US soup market drop to 53% from 67% – not surprising since, according to research firm Euromonitor International, overall canned  soup consumption  was down 13% over the same period. Obviously, comfort food like tomato soup in an iconic red-and-white can, made even more famous by Andy Warhol, didn’t appeal as much to this market subset of 18- to 30-year-olds as it does to their baby boomer parents and grandparents. It became obvious that after over a century of dominating the soup market, it was time to spice things up and get the attention of Millennials–a market said to spend $300 billion annually, according to Campbell.

Towards the last quarter of 2012, the company  launched the new soups that included such ingredients as coconut,chorizo and quinoa. The line-up, packed as ‘Go Soup’in microwavable pouches, addresses young consumers’more adventurous tastes. At the same time, the Gourmet Bisques in aseptic cartons were launched with healthy and trendy flavours like butternut squash, tomatillo and Thai tomato coconut. The ‘Chunky’ range was also souped up with bigger, bolder soups to appeal to diverse palates and the demand for more exciting flavours like chipotle, buffalo and jerk.

Health and wellness drive development
Whilst bigger and bolder flavours may be trendy, formulations that address health and wellness are the more dominant. Consumer interest in food that can deliver nutritional benefits continues to grow. Soups are an excellent vehicle for development of variants, particularly reduced salt and low fat options:

Salt reduction More consumers  are becoming aware that processed foods can be the major source of salt intake, and are now more proactive about selecting low salt alternatives. Achieving salt reduction, whilst maintaining taste and  consumer acceptance, is always a challenge. According to Packaged Facts, some of the most promising approaches to watch for in 2013 include restructuring salt crystals to maximise surface area and salty taste perception for both sodium chloride and potassium chloride, the well-established salt  replacer. In the case of potassium chloride, maximising surface area enables greater saltiness to be perceived whilst also minimising  the  accompanying  metallic and bitter tastes. Other likely approaches include identifying and utilising umami The final test of consumer acceptance, however, will always be based on sensory evaluation. Enticing aromas, bold flavour combinations and savoury mouthfeel can be achieveWomens Running Shoes