Last week 4 of us from Opalbond, along with many suppliers and customers across the industry headed to London for the increasingly popular industry exhibition ‘Food Matters’. I remember going to the first Food Matters a few years back, which was a much quieter event and more of a meeting venue but no less showcasing a mixed bag of exhibitors.
Cleary some attempt had been made to ‘group’ similar industries. Loosely, Food Ingredients suppliers were on one side of the hall and the smaller, ‘niche’ food brands were huddled together in another corner. It certainly feels as though the show is trying to be all things to everyone.
However the range of products being showcased at the show plus the subject matter on debate in the talks was none-the-less pretty interesting. Common challenges regardless of whether you are selling beer, turmeric latte, diet meal plans, confectionary, balls or fruit bars appear to be the demand to reduce sugar in products. This is a consumer driven demand perhaps also coupled with the UK governments own move on drinks with the sugar tax coming into force in 2018. However there still appears to be a mixed level of understanding as to what is an acceptable alternative among consumers and industry. Stevia still has some way to go until it works as a replacement for every consumer’s palate, yet it satisfies that demand for genuine ‘natural’ sweeteners which has nil impact on GI. An alternative to that would be sucralose which has a perception of being cleaner than Acesulfame K and is seen as the current go-to for many products, indeed isomalt is increasingly finding its way into low sugar chocolate and confectionary because of its sweetness profile.
The sheer number of chocolate bars and even lollies with no sugar (either as 100% cocoa products or using isomalt) would suggest that the drive for indulgence without the guilt means that soon enough consumers really will be able to have their cake and eat it.
So as I made my way out of the show and towards Costa for a meeting with a customer, a question struck me which has been continuing to bug me for a while; Why aren’t Food To Go brands such as Costa, Starbucks and Pret a Manger selling healthier chocolate based treats and drinks?
Does the Costa customer not want to watch their calorie intake? Is having a low GI snack not relevant to these customers? Looking at the show perhaps these retailers don’t need to look too far away to see what I think they should be moving towards.
Opalbond offer a range of low sugar chocolate snacks and drinks for own-label food service or food-to go customers. So get in touch at enquiries@opalbond.co.uk if this is something that would fit nicely with your brand.