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Growing colour trend in food and beverage industry for 2022
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Monday, 29 November, 2021, 14 : 00 PM [IST]
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Vinod Rajashekaran
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The power of colour in influencing taste and flavour perception in consumers is well-established. Within the first 3-7 seconds people take to make the purchasing decision, 90% are swayed by the colour of the food and the perception it instantly creates. As the fear of the pandemic is slowly subsiding and the world is gradually returning to work, people are looking for flavours that emulate happiness, signaling optimism. What better way than resorting to bright, cheerful colours to present refreshing and uplifting flavours in 2022.
Colour can create psychological impact on consumers at different levels. Human brains are heavily reliant on visual impact since 50% of our cerebral cortex is devoted to visual processing and only 1-2% for taste. At the same time, it is not just colour but past experiences that create conditioning to predict future experiences.
For instance, red could trigger appetite, epitomise energy, passion and positive action while illuminating yellow can be suggestive of a sun-filled day. Blue could denote novelty and excitement, and green can represent freshness. Thus, even if a real flavour of the food fails to meet expectations, colours can help in elevating tastes that are milder than expected. Also, bright-coloured foods are often associated with superior nutrition and flavour.
Colour Perceptions
Consumers of 2022, who should be moving from comfort to celebratory foods will gravitate to food and drinks that feature brighter colours. Yellow can be a particularly attractive pick for health-conscious shoppers since consumers link it with ingredients like turmeric and lemon which are known for aiding digestion, immunity etc. Similarly including pink and red fruits in foods help in creating the impression of being rich in antioxidants, polyphenols, lycopene and other phytochemicals which are good for heart health, eye health and cancer prevention.
Brightly coloured food and drinks are particularly appealing for the younger consumers. The desire to see more instagrammable colours across categories is growing leading to trends like pink innovation- ruby chocolates, pink gin, guava juice and more. The Generation Z (Up to 24 yrs) and Millennials (25-31yrs) are more pulled towards vibrant colours. Moving away from the classics, out-of-the-box shades are also seeing takers.
Looking Beyond Colours
As plant-based revolution is on the rise, consumers of the day are increasingly curious to know what makes the red look red or yellow look yellow? ‘Are they using actual lemons and watermelons to bring the hue?’ Enter growing interest in natural colours. Bakery and Dairy applications lately have been seeing significant experimentation with plant-based hues. Ingredients like radish, hibiscus, beetroot and berries are used to create bright red colour while certain microalgae can make lighter blue shades.
However, creating bright natural colours that have longer shelf lives and are stable across wide range of applications is a challenge. For example, colours like blue, green and violet, which have a pleasant emotional appeal on consumers are tough to reproduce naturally. Popular natural colouring agents like turmeric comes with its herbal aftertaste as well. With the global natural food colouring market poised to grow in sales of up to $3.7 billion by 2027, we must expect more research happening in this sector.
Globally inspired flavours, nostalgic tastes and sweet decadence, all these and more driven by rich natural colours will see an upward trend in 2022.
(The author is director - sales and marketing at Stonefield Flavours)
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