Key Takeaways
- Consumers increasingly prioritize health and wellness, especially with new year resolutions.
- Food manufacturers are reducing ingredients like sugar and fat to meet consumer demands for healthier products.
- Edlong applies its dairy expertise to develop flavors that enhance taste while supporting health goals.
- Examples include a dairy-free milky coffee with Sweet Spot flavor and a lower-fat Wisconsin Cheddar dip.
- Edlong offers more innovative product ideas to cater to health-conscious consumers and boost business profits.
Consumers are becoming more progressive in pursuit of their health and wellness. This is even more apparent at the start of a new year. At this time, resolutions focus on healthy lifestyle habits, with many people starting to explore less through science as a way to simplify their well-being. The science of less is influencing how both consumers and companies make choices about wellness. According to The Hartman Group’s Health + Wellness 2017 report, 52% of consumers have changed their views and have become more engaged in their health and wellness in the past few years. The top triggers for managing health include aging, increasing energy and managing stress.
As a result, food manufacturers are developing more food and beverage products. These products feature a healthy reduction of ingredients that consumers feel are contrary to their health and wellness goals, such as sugar, fat and sodium. Likewise, the food scientists at Edlong have risen to this challenge. They are applying their expertise in the inherent qualities of dairy to create the delicious and authentic tastes that consumers love, all while respecting a science of less philosophy. As a result, these products are ones that they can feel good about buying. Moreover, the concept of less in science inspires ingredient innovation in this sector.
Science of Less: Recent Examples of Healthy Ideas
We applied our expertise to turn traditional products into something that is both healthy and authentically delicious, following principles taken from the science of less movement:
- An Edlong® Sweet Spot flavor was used in a dairy-free milky coffee beverage. This helped define the rich and delicious sweetness that is inherently characteristic of milk—without adding any lactose or allergens. Additionally, the flavor enhances the perception of sweetness. It adds an indulgent mouthfeel to a reduced added sugar beverage, and demonstrates less ingredient reliance through science-driven formulation.
- A Natural Cheddar flavor and a Natural Butter flavor were used to create a Wisconsin Cheddar-Style creamy dip with a cottage cheese base in place of higher-fat cream cheese. The dip contains 4g protein and 2g fat per 34g serving. This is compared with vegetable oil-based dips containing 3g fat and less than 1g protein per 34g serving. The Natural Cheddar flavor contributed a creamy and authentic Cheddar profile. It also contributed some sharp cheese notes to balance the creaminess of the cottage cheese. The Natural Butter flavor contributed a fatty, dairy quality. This ensured that the higher fat cream cheese would not be missed, which ties into the science behind less unnecessary ingredients, reflecting the science of less approach.
Many food innovations follow less is more science direction, which means reducing or removing unnecessary ingredients for better health. Edlong has many more tasty product ideas that can help you satisfy health and wellness-focused consumers. To see how we can create healthy profits for your business. Contact us
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