The nature of new products

Considering the list of new products that were launched at Sweet and Snacks Expo in Chicago, alongside the NCA’s summary of trends that they are seeing in 2010, there seemed to be the common mix of ‘trying to make a new trend out of existing products’ and genuine interesting developments.

Some aspects of the NCA list, such as the wide variety of chocolate covered items and the expanding list of fruity flavours, can’t be considered novelties. They did pick up on natural ingredients and free-from varieties of sweets and the healthy connotations that go alongside that. On the health aspects, bite-size products and aerated products also had a good showing.

Completely new flavours and experimental products actually seemed to be lacking a bit, which gives me rather less to write about. However, the

It might reflect the facts that I also encountered here in the UK recently. Manufacturers have put more emphasis on advocating changes to their existing lines rather than experimenting with new ones. Hence, more labels are popping up on recognised products, advocating things like less packaging, fairtrade ingredients, natural ingredients, locally produced, single origin etc etc.

Have a look at the NCA’s opinions on trends here: http://www.sweetsandsnacks.com/