As consumers become increasingly health-conscious, healthy eating continues to dominate food trends in 2020. According to Food Ingredients Asia 2019 (FI Asia 2019), a leading event for the ASEAN’s food and beverage industry, the food trends in 2020 include the following:
Healthy ready meals: Thanks to the modern, busy lifestyle, ready meals have become a convenient alternative. However, they must also offer healthy options – low in sugar, fat, saturated fat but containing enough protein.
Personalized nutrition: Thailand is forecast to have an upwards of 4.6 million elderly people in 2022. Because of this, personalized nutrition will become more popular, as food will be adapted to individual needs, so it will not cause any harm to the person it is being uniquely tailored for and has no effect on their existing medical conditions.
Less sugar/use natural sweeteners: A healthier alternative that has been gaining attention recently is natural sugar-free sweeteners, which have been used in both food and drinks. They were a big hit in 2019 and are expected to maintain their popularity well into 2020.
Healthy drinks that are more than just less sugar content: Also up-and-coming are healthy drinks containing ingredients that boost brain power and promote a healthy nervous system, drinks with added fiber supplements or ingredients that improve digestive health, and beauty, anti-aging drinks with collagen, Vitamin C and zinc.
Meat substitutes and novel proteins: Protein from plants and plant-based milk is likely to grow in popularity due to increasing demand for high-protein foods, as consumers opting for meat substitutes look for a balanced diet. Non-meat protein sources include nuts, mushrooms, seaweeds as well as nut products and microbe-based protein.
The rise of artificially-flavored clear drinks: Another food and beverage trend in 2020 is Water Plus, a clear drink that is all the rage now. We’re talking about transparent liquid that looks like water, but which has been artificially flavored for refreshing experience. It is one of the hottest healthy drinks in 2020. In addition to being colorless, these drinks are low in calories.
Bottled water and coconut water: More consumers are looking for clean and good-quality water, the most popular being bottled coconut water. Based on trends in the coconut water market, the worldwide market for coconut water is expected to grow by up to 50%.
