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Asian consumers get ingredient-savvy, Cargill’s 2025 IngredienTracker exposes key trends in health, sustainability & taste
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Saturday, 22 November, 2025, 13 : 00 PM [IST]
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Singapore
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In a striking new study, Cargill APAC’s IngredienTracker 2025 reveals that more than 70% of consumers in Asia check food labels before buying, marking a major shift in how people choose what goes into their meals.
The survey covered 2,000 people across China, Indonesia, Australia, and Japan, evaluating perceptions around 91 ingredients, grouped into four categories: Chocolate & Cocoa, Sweeteners, Texturizers, and Fats & Oils.
A big takeaway: health and familiarity matter. Concern for the immune system has jumped 101% since 2017, and consumers tend to trust ingredients that “sound natural” or plant-based. Unfamiliar, scientific-sounding ingredients, on the other hand, evoke suspicion.
Money talks too — over 58% of consumers are willing to pay 10% more for premium, sustainable or nutrient-fortified ingredients. And health perceptions of ingredients are becoming a social currency: more than half of the respondents said they like to talk about what they know with friends or on social media.
Digging into ingredient categories:
• Chocolate & Cocoa: Ethical and local sourcing is in demand. Organic and dark chocolates are widely seen as the “healthiest,” while high-fat cocoa powder is viewed more skeptically.
• Sweeteners: Reduced sugar, plant-based, and functional sweeteners are being preferred over traditional sugar. Natural-sounding sweeteners like cane sugar or monk fruit are more popular than chemically named ones.
• Texturizers: There’s a rising love for Asian-inspired textures like boba and mochi. Plant-based texturizers — for example, pectin from fruit peels, or proteins from soy, chickpea, and rice — are becoming more mainstream.
• Fats & Oils: Consumers are looking not just for any fats, but for those that offer functional benefits — think cardiovascular health, immunity, bone strength. Oils like sunflower, canola, coconut, and soybean, plus vitamin E–rich oils, are perceived as healthiest when locally sourced.
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Cargill isn’t just studying these trends — it’s acting on them. According to Yuchu Zhang, VP of R&D for Cargill Food APAC, they’re already launching products that align with consumer demand. Some recent innovations include:
• Aerated dark chocolate and cocoa-almond milk, using high-quality cocoa powder.
• Zero-calorie vanilla latte syrup for healthier milk-based drinks.
• Mango gummies, almond tofu, and cheese sauce with natural texturizers like UniPECTINE.
• Healthier snacks: air-fried sweet potato fries and Korean-style crispy wings made with sunflower oil.
• Functional condiments: low- or zero-sugar ketchup, reduced-salt oyster sauce and a salad sauce with plant sterols (Corowise) that support cholesterol health.
By tapping into what Asians really care about — health, sustainability, familiarity — Cargill is not just observing food trends, but helping shape the next wave of F&B innovation.
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