3 Insights into Food for Immunity

In this time of global pandemic, consumers are increasingly aware of their health and the practices necessary to defend it. While the last year has seen consumers increasingly turn to food and beverage for functional benefits, we’re seeing staggering growth in the trend while consumer routines are upended by coronavirus. Interest in immune-system supportive ingredients alone in the past month is up +66%, and we expect the trend to continue to rise.

Immunity Trends during COVID-19

In this time of global pandemic, consumers are increasingly aware of their health and the practices necessary to defend it. While the last year has seen consumers increasingly turn to food and beverage for functional benefits, we’re seeing staggering growth in the trend while consumer routines are upended by coronavirus. Interest in immune-system supportive ingredients alone in the past month is up +66%, and we expect the trend to continue to rise.

Immunity, stress relief, medicinal benefits and more are all skyrocketing; it is more important now than ever for food industry players to understand what solutions consumers look for in stressful times, and why. Read on for a look at the trends, then download the full spotlight below.

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3 insights into health and wellness trends for March 2020:

1. The top 3 ways consumers look to support their health right now through food and beverage? By focusing on ingredients that contain sickness treatment, stress relief, and immunity–boosting qualities.

Example: Rosemary is up +114% since this time last year for “stress relief”. Understanding that consumers are looking for stress relief right now gives important insight into the mentality and behavior of your target audience.

2. Unexpected sources can provide big benefits in our current landscape. Melon and pickles are examples of food ingredients that are starting to show early trend signals for immunity-boosting motivations.

As consumers look for wellness, vitamin, antioxidant, and fermentation-rich ingredients can provide comfort in innovative ways.

3. Beverages continue to be an important source of functional benefits for consumers looking to boost their health. We know kombucha has been on consumer radars for years as a gut-health drink; however, with the addition of medicinal ingredients like mushrooms, kombucha is showing a +73% YoY boom in consumer interest right now.

We see that consumers turn to what they know during times of crisis; chamomile, another familiar wellness drink, is up over 80% for anti-inflammatory benefits.

Want to dig in to the data behind trending, health-focused ingredients? Tastewise harnesses billions of data points to provide a real-time understanding of the consumer motivations behind today’s most promising food trends.

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