Bringing Culturally Inclusive Flavors to Life in Snack Seasoning
Bringing Cultural Roots to Commercial Shelves
To celebrate cultural inclusion, consumers turn to the shelves in search of products that champion diversity through authentic flavor and global taste profiles. Over 75% of adults say that internationally inspired foods are a good way to experience other cultures (Mintel 2021).
Sensient is seeing two ways to bring global flavors to life in salty snack seasonings:
With traditional dishes and new twists on cultural classics trending, it’s up to packaged brands to bring the corners of the world to consumers, and Sensient is here to help.
To bring forward these unique flavor profiles, color is a key contributor to a consumer’s decision-making process. Sensient’s research indicates consumers perceive brightly colored snacks are more flavorful.
Bold color conveys bold flavors, so if your brand marketing is centered around “taste” then color should be a key consideration, as it can lift purchase intent by 12%.
Developers can use synthetic lakes or natural color equivalents like Sensient’s Microfine solutions to achieve these flavor-forward hues for snack seasonings.
Bold red shades, from deep maroons to fiery scarlet, can be achieved with Microfine™ solutions based on beet, annatto, red sweet potato, and red radish.
Since spirulina is not permitted in salty snack seasonings, our color experts will recommend green Microfine™ blends with vegetable juice, turmeric, anthocyanins, or beta carotene.
To bring bold yellow flavors to life in snack seasonings, turmeric, beta carotene, and annatto Microfine™ solutions offer a range of yellows with the necessary stability characteristics.
To achieve oranges across the shade spectrum, look to Microfine™ solutions based on annatto, beta carotene, and turmeric.
Purple shades come from Microfine™ solutions made with anthocyanins, beet, or annatto.
Blends of several Microfine™ solutions or a single-source caramel-based Microfine™ offer developers browns from pale khaki to deep chocolate shades.
While an unusual shade to see in many snacks, black seasoning can convey specific unique flavors, and can be achieved using black Microfine™ blends that include vegetable juices.
See a shade you like? Request a sample to get started on your next internationally inspired launch today! If you still have questions about Microfine™, concept ideas, or which solution will work best for your application, reach out to my team—we love to talk color!
