Who said the weekly food shop was a chore? In the next couple of years, supermarket shelves may be stacked high with tempting new items such as grated ketchup, chocolate pasta, liquid egg or exotic baobab juice from Africa.
"Around 50 percent of sales today of mass market foods concern products that were unknown only five years ago," marketing intelligence expert Xavier Terlet said in an interview during the SIAL international food fair in Paris this week.
Of the new products launched, some never quite make it to the supermarket and one out of every two that does is pulled off the shelves within two years, he said.
New-to-the-west African drinks, of throat-wrenching ginger, sweet baobab or thirst-quenching red hibiscus, also known as Bissap, Roselle or Red Sorrel, will probably go down well in a clean-living health-conscious market which is increasingly turning up its nose at alcoholic drinks.
But will average consumers go for grated ketchup from France, a hard-boiled egg sold in a plastic packet with a ready-to-use non-messy tube of mayonnaise, or an Austrian-made soft drink combining "natural brine from primeval seas" and colostrum, the antibody-rich liquid secreted from the mammary glands after giving birth?
"The trend today is for healthy natural foods with a modern fun side that are packaged with sophistication and, if possible, are ready-to-eat," said Terlet, a consultant for the two-yearly SIAL, which draws 135,000 visitors and is billed as the world's biggest food industry event.
So glorious fruit and veg of all colors and varieties, fresh, frozen or packed, and even cut into strips of spaghetti, featured prominently among the 5,200 stands from 98 nations at the fair.
New countries and areas attending this year were Japan, Belarus, Finland, Gabon, Latvia, Pacific islands, Serbia and Yemen.
With health at the center of consumer concern -- "Obesity has replaced `mad cow' as the consumer's over-riding worry," Terlet said -- many of the 510 new mass market products on show came enriched with extra minerals, trace elements and omega 3, or were delivered slimmed down with no extra salt or cholesterol.
Likewise, a slew of ready-to-eat products were ready-to-steam, with fresh cooked veg from the UK provided in a ready steam tray, with sauce on the side, or a bag of fish-to-steam from France that whistles when ready.
Quick solutions for snap meals in a busy world ruled the day, with lots of spray-on flavors, ready-to-eat omelette, ready-to-eat peeled fruit, parmesan-in-a-box-with-mill for easy grating, or liquid egg in a brik with a measuring window, to indicate how much is left.
"Traditional country foods and label-of-origin products are on their way out," Terlet said. "After the food safety scares of the 1990s, consumers were on the look-out for authentic homegrown-type produce, they wanted traceability, organic foods, guarantees, tradition. But now the importance of `terroir' is on the wane."
In France in 2002, 37 percent of food products on the market touted tradition. That percentage fell to 28 percent in 2003 and to 20 percent this year.
"Consumers have reached a new maturity," Terlet added. "They want healthy, natural foods, but they also want food that sparkles, they don't want dullness."
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