GLOBAL – Health and closer scrutiny of ingredients are likely to be near the top of consumers’ minds in 2024, a Just Food report citing several industry analysts has predicted.
Siobhan Gehin, a senior partner at global consultancy business Roland Berger, and one of the key voices in the report said he believed that “ there’s a real thing about healthiness, but maybe not quite the same perspective as during Covid.”
He added: “There’s a whole rise in consumers being really well informed about nutrition and longevity. Everyone wants to know what’s in it”.
Companies therefore need to be a lot more mindful of this fact, according to Gehin.
Some of the foods that are expected to see an uptick based on the health-and-wellness consumer trend include Fortified foods, vitamins, minerals and supplements.
Greater scrutiny of ingredients is also a trend which Gehin believes manufacturers should take seriously as it was one of the reason plant-based food lost steam in 2023.
“People are now scrutinising the ingredients more and I think that’s one of the reasons plant-based food came a cropper because for food that was meant to be healthy a lot had a list of ingredients as long as your arm.”
Despite these two trends being at the back of many consumer minds, the analysts told Just Food that cost and value will, however, continue to dominate their shopping behavior.
The report noted that inflation rates may be easing in many markets but prices remain higher year on year with the prospect of deflation becoming a far-off phenomenon right now.
“In terms of trade down into Lidl, Aldi and private label, I see those trends carrying on until a bit of a feelgood factor comes back,” Shaun Browne, the UK-based co-head of corporate finance at investment group Houlihan Lokey, told Just Food.
“I suspect for the next six months it will still be more of the trading down, more of the cheaper products, more of the own label.”
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