Flavour and fragrance ingredient trends for 2019

Flavour and fragrance ingredient trends for 2019 are likely to focus on health and the environment, with natural aroma ingredients and natural flavours firmly on the agenda for the coming 12 months.

Although this continues the trends of recent years, consumer awareness is becoming much more significant as big brands start to disclose the fragrance ingredients they use across entire product ranges.

Combined with initiatives like Veganuary, which encourages consumers to start 2019 by adopting more vegan-friendly practices in their daily lifestyle, this stands to accelerate the trend towards all-natural recipes.

All spice, no sugar?

In their forecast for the 2019 flavour and fragrance market, Mordor Intelligence predict a drop in salt and sugar as health initiatives continue to transform the food and beverage segments.

This is likely to lead to a rise in demand for alternative natural flavours – but will it also cross over into the fragrance ingredient market?

As consumer tastes move away from the sweetest foods and beverages, fragrances could follow suit, reinforcing the trend in recent years towards aroma ingredients with less sweet, but more spicy, earthy or musky tones. Oud is a typical highly- priced example of this trend. Less expensive products that perform especially well in such applications,  such as Ambernote, from Payan Bertand, are also becoming more popular.

Back to nature

In addition to dietary trends, environmental awareness continues to drive the shift towards all-natural aroma ingredients, especially as part of consumers’ broader efforts to live more naturally.

With this trend spanning both flavour and fragrance ingredients alike, Mordor Intelligence predict that the natural segment will see the highest compound annual growth rate from 2019 for the next five years.

Again, with consumer awareness increasing over time, this is a trend that is likely to crystallise in the coming months as customers look for more concrete credentials on ‘natural’ claims like organic essential oils and other eco-friendly farming methods.