Today’s consumers are invested in learning about what goes into their favourite products – with ‘clean’ and ‘healthy’ ingredients preferred, and biases or misconceptions held over certain ingredients and types of labels. This is even more prominent in purchasers of plant-based food and drink items, which come under greater ingredient scrutiny.
No problem! In the second installment of their Ingredients Spotlight series, ProVeg International makes recommendations for plant-powered businesses that are keen on taking consumer ingredient considerations into play. Let’s look at a few of them.
Research ingredients and audience thoroughly
You likely carry out audience research before starting on your products, but have you ever looked specifically into ingredient drivers and barriers? When formulating a new plant-based product, explore consumer desires and opinions on ingredient choice. What does your audience want from a plant-based food product? Make sure to align your ingredients with your target audience’s preferences.
Weigh up the pros and cons
Before you decide on using certain ingredients in your plant-based product, weigh up the pros and cons of including them. It’s important to include ingredients that are loved by consumers, as well as those that are less well-favoured that increase flavour, nutrition, functionality, etc. Not all the ingredients you formulate your product with will achieve both. It’s important to strike a balance between pros and cons.
Consider judging ingredients by multi-functionality
By choosing an ingredient that serves multiple purposes in the product you can keep the ingredients list as small as possible – this is attractive to some consumers and saves your company time and money.
However, if you are seeking a ‘clean label’, some ingredients (for example, protein isolates) are highly functional but also very processed (which some consumers are averse to). What avenue you take will depend on your target audience, and desired final-product outcome and label.
Prioritise taste and texture
Whatever ingredients you opt for, make sure your final product has a premium taste and texture. Taste is the greatest factor driving consumers to make a plant-based purchase. Work with a tasting-and-feedback service (like ProVeg’s) to ensure that your product will be a hit with consumers.
Read the full article, and work with ProVeg to learn more about creating plant-based products that will achieve high sales. Get in touch at [email protected]
