Due to our increasingly hectic society, snacking is gaining in importance for today‘s consumers. People have little or no time to cook or to prepare food. But even when snacking in-between meals or on the go, food has to be fresh, appealing and satisfying. Exberry, the leading global brand of colouring foods, has identified the top five current snacking trends to fulfil consumers‘ wishes.

Trend “Health”: when it comes to nibbles for on the couch at the weekend, unhealthy snacks have served their time. Due to the growing consumer concern for health and well-being, completely natural products are more in demand. There has been a 45 % average annual growth of food and beverage launches with a vegan positioning. Therefore, vegetable and plant-based snacks with ingredients such as beetroot, carrot, kale, nuts or seeds are popping up more often on supermarket shelves.

To create the fresh and healthy appearance expected by consumers, it is important to colour them in a natural way. The deep purple of a beetroot or the vibrant orange of a carrot, for example, can easily be achieved with Exberry colouring foods (colour concentrates made exclusively from fruit, vegetables and edible plants) – simply colouring food with food.

Trend “New eating experiences”: colour and flavour come hand in hand. With international cuisine growing consumers are embracing new experiences, leading them to exciting worlds of taste. Unusual and exotic colours can help to stimulate appetite and enjoyment, a key driver for consumers choosing products for snack­ing moments.

When it comes to flavour, Europeans, for instance, tend to choose ingredients such as exotic spice blends or wasabi. In Latin America, cheese and pizza flavours are in high demand. But even the most exotic flavour is not enjoyable without an appealing look. Natural colours are indispensable because they influence taste experiences and are the primary indicator for quality and freshness. Comprising more than 400 different shades, the Exberry colour portfolio, for example, offers all shades to create a perfect colour concept for any new flavour trend.

Trend “Colourfulness”: colour is not only required to support new flavours, it has actually become a trend in itself. Market Research Institute Innova identified “Say it with colour” as one of the top developments in 2018. This applies equally to snacks. Colour is the first characteristic that customers recognise when browsing supermarket shelves: we eat with our eyes. The rise of social media has moved the importance of colour up a level. Colourful and delicious looking food gets photographed and shared with friends and family on social media – be it pink crackers or rainbow popcorn.

Purple is just one unusual colour becoming more popular in snacking products: weaving purple into savoury applications is a great way to engage customers as well as suggesting potential nutritional benefits visually. Creating these eye-catching concepts in compliance with the global health drive requires clever product design and technical knowledge. The experts behind Exberry, for example, can assist throughout the entire product development process, from colour matching to upscaling.

Trend “Popcorn”: popcorn is no longer only a snack for the movies. Having already emerged some time ago, salty popcorn is experiencing a major boom. Unexpected flavour combinations are creating hot, grown-up snacks that go nicely with a glass of wine as well as a relaxing evening in front of the TV. Gradually, the savoury alternatives are outstripping sweet popcorn options – whether in the form of green popcorn tossed with herbs and parmesan or an chili-jala-peno snack. Consumers have acquired a taste for premium creations, with unusual flavours and appealing colours. To provide premium solutions, brands have to deliver high-end ingredients. This means that additives and artificial colours are becoming a no-go.

Trend “Proteins”: when working out, the effort needs to be worth it. After training, people no longer want bars that are loaded with sugar. To guarantee optimal nourishment, snacks such as dried meat and fish bits are on the rise. The launch of meat snacks has grown globally by almost 30 % over the past five years. When it comes to colouring meat, additives or nitrites are still commonly used, as there has until now been a lack of natural solutions available. However, these kinds of colourings clash with consumers’ expectations. Thanks to the Exberry Savoury Range, the first full range of colouring food ingredients for savoury applications is now available, providing truly natural colour opportunities for meat products and the overall savoury market.

The major trends in snacking all point in the same direction: playfulness and conscious eating. To fulfil consumers’ demands for healthy and delicious snacks in appealing colours, manufacturers only have one choice: colouring foods. With Exberry concentrates from fruit, vegetables and plants clean, clear and easy to understand labelling can be achieved. The concentrates can be labelled quite simply as “Colouring food (concentrate of carrot, beetroot)” providing positive and informative communication for the consumer.