Hot Right Now: 2023 healthy food trends, Ajinomoto growth strategies, food price hikes due to EU deforestation law and more trending social media stories

2023 healthy food trends: Clean label and positive nutrition claims crucial for consumers​

Consumers in the Asia Pacific region will continue to be strongly driven by products with clean label and positive nutrition claims moving into the new year, with food and beverage brands also set to boost innovation to meet these demands.

The health and wellness trend has been constantly on the rise in the food and beverage sector over the past few years, accelerated even more since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

Moving into 2023, industry experts are confident that this trend will continue to guide consumer purchasing decisions, with particular emphasis on the clean label and positive nutrition claims that are drawing great interest especially in larger markets.

Amino acid adaptations: Ajinomoto targets alternative proteins and frozen foods growth after leadership shake-up​

Japanese food giant Ajinomoto has highlighted alternative proteins and frozen foods as two of the firm’s key growth strategies, in its first public report issued since its new leadership took over office earlier this year.

Ajinomoto elected its new President and CEO Taro Fujie into office in January this year, and recently released its first annual report under his leadership, renamed from its traditional ‘integrated report’ into the ‘ASV Report’, with ASV representing the firm’s sustainability and growth strategy ‘The Ajinomoto Group Creating Shared Value’.

More hikes imminent: EU’s deforestation stance set to cause food price rises – policy experts​

The EU’s recent approval of its controversial deforestation regulation is expected to drive up the cost of palm oil and other affected commodities, and thus food and beverage prices, amid ongoing inflationary pressures that have already affected a majority of countries globally.

The European Union parliament voted on and approved its long-debated deforestation regulation on September 13 2022, turning a deaf ear to strong opposition voiced by multiple countries, particularly producer countries of commodities such as palm oil which would be the most heavily impacted by the new regulation.

Crawling up the charts: APAC insect protein tech ahead of the curve, but market readiness still lagging​

Insect protein-based foods in the Asia Pacific region have a distinct advantage in terms of production costs and are ahead of the curve when it comes to technology, but market readiness still remains the main bottleneck for the sector to fully thrive locally.

In this edition of the FNA Deep Dive, we take a closer look at the trends that continue to slowly but surely drive the growth of the insect protein foods sector, and the major challenges continuing to hinder it in the APAC region.

Growing up with grains: Nestle India says traditional ingredients in children’s foods key to boosting parent confidence​

Nestle India has highlighted the incorporation of traditional ingredients into children’s foods as a key strategy to boost parent confidence in a product’s nutritional benefits, on the back of its latest ragi-based cereal launch.

Marketed under the popular children-focused CEREGROW brand, the new sub brand is dubbed CEREGROW Grain Selection and has a strong focus on the use of traditional Indian ingredients such as ragi (finger millet) as opposed to wheat and ghee (clarified butter).