Kerry, the Taste and Nutrition Company, released its 2019 Taste Charts, which represent the company’s annual review of the food and beverage landscape utilizing sales performance, consumer trends, foodservice influences and internal culinary and mixology expertise to predict tastes for the coming year.

Kerry’s predictions forecast that 2019 will bring further specificity to the origin of flavors and ingredients as consumers seek tastes that delight, surprise and excite them. As a leader in taste, Kerry is on a constant quest to discover and translate the best taste experiences from nature’s high quality ingredients.

Americans have begun to step out of their comfort zones with the third to explore authentic and unconventional taste experiences. Taste from whole ingredients and inclusions is poised to grow, and add to the overall functional appeal of the products. Ashwagandha, turmeric, and holy basil are examples of this rising push for added functionality. There is also a unique balance between nostalgic taste and avantgarde experiences that consumers seek today. Nostalgic sweet flavors such as snickerdoodle, cookie dough, and s’mores will continue to inspire up-and-coming sweet flavors. On the other hand, there is an interesting rise in floral, botanical and savory flavors in sweet food and beverages. Rose is an emerging flavor in sweet, alongside its savory neighbors—miso and rosemary.

“The Taste Chart program has a rich heritage, spanning over a decade of providing the industry and our customers a proprietary view into our predictions for sweet, beverage, savory and salty snacks,” says Soumya Nair, director of market isights for Kerry North America. “You can expect to see the dramatic duality of sweet and savory appear across categories, predictable growing with experimental, such as maple and miso in sweet, or pink peppercorn and peppermint in salty snacks. Furthermore, as Americans gain more familiarity and affinity for international taste, Moroccan, Mediterranean, and Asian flavors continue to grow, such as agrodolce, Baharat, bagoong and many more.”

Customers can leverage Kerry’s unique expertise as a food and beverage company with a built-in flavor house to create differentiated products with the tastes consumers seek, that go beyond flavor. The Taste Charts are available for download HERE.