Ice 2.0 era: "flavor" takes "health" and sports can break the circle

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has always been the main ice product for delicious enjoyment, and now it is also blowing a healthy wind. What new products can stand out this year?

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Text: EVA fan

Source: foodaily daily food (ID: foodaily)

Summer is in sight, and the ice market is gradually warming up.

Recently, Zhong Xuegao, a dark horse in the ice industry, joined hands with the National Olympic Sports Center to launch a new “Youth” series of ice cream, focusing on professional positioning such as low fat, low sugar and higher protein; The newly designed package is full of youthful vitality by adding the image of Sports Youth. In this new product, we capture the three high-profile consumption concepts of “health”, “nutrition” and “Sports”.

In the current market, health has become one of the most important innovation directions. In various fields such as beverages, ice products, dairy products and Tangqiao, products focusing on plant-based, low-fat and low sugar, nutrition strengthening concepts and sports elements are constantly emerging. The food market in 2022 will set off a health wave different from the past.

After the baptism of the new consumption wave, the ice industry is accelerating the pace of evolution and iteration, from seasonal consumption to “all year round”; From a variety of patterns, highlighting the concept of enjoyment, to the pursuit of natural health, integrate more elements of the times. Under the new market environment, how should ice brands jump out of the traditional development idea of focusing on taste and grasp the balance between delicacy and health?

The wave of health is sweeping,

Unlock the new air outlet
in the food industry

At present, the national health awareness has been strengthened unprecedentedly, and the healthy economy with sports and fitness and scientific diet as the core continues to be hot. From the simple pursuit of reducing salt and sugar to low calorie light food and Chinese tonic, people have led the dietary fashion one after another, and healthy diet has become the mainstream concept of life.

According to the in-depth research and development trend analysis report of China’s ice cream industry in 2022, the continuous improvement of China’s consumption level will further expand the capacity of the ice cream market, and the market direction will be nutritious, healthy, interesting and high-end. According to the survey results released by the giant calculation & 36 krypton Institute in 2022, among the factors that consumers pay attention to when purchasing food and beverage, the first one is “pay attention to the information of low fat, low sugar, low sodium and low calorie in the ingredient list”, accounting for 57.4%, and three of the first four influencing factors are related to health.

Photo source: 2021 China’s cutting-edge brand development research – Food and beverage industry report, huge calculation & 36 krypton Research Institute

According to the public report, China’s ice market reached 165 billion yuan in 2021, ranking first in the world. According to the online ice consumption trend report (version 2021) jointly released by tmall little black box and Ali’s mother, the sales of low-fat products in the domestic online ice cream market increased by 131% year-on-year and sugar free products increased by 128%. Domestic and foreign brands are setting off a healthy trend.

The NOPA smoothie launched by Mengniu not long ago takes “high fiber and low calorie 0 sucrose” as the selling point and adds CLA glyceride imported from Germany to help regulate lipid metabolism; The sugar controlled charcoal roasted milk tea of Hankou No. 2 factory is added with molasses extract phentrine to control the sugar rising index (GI value) below 55 and bring a longer sense of satiety; The oatmeal ice cream jointly signed by KFC and oatly takes imported oatmeal pulp as the core component and focuses on health labels such as “plant-based”, “low-fat cocoa powder”, “no trans fat”; On Saturday, we cooperated with akoko to launch plant meat snowflake crisp, creatively combine plant meat with snowflake crisp, and integrate the light truck load reduction attribute of plant meat into traditional snacks.

Photo source: Official Website
of Mengniu, oatly, Hankou No.2 factory and other brands

All natural, imported raw materials, no addition (or less addition), “rich in…”, functional ingredients, plant-based, these dazzling claims and concepts have become the most common way for the food industry to deal with the general health trend.

The addition and subtraction of nutrients is certainly an important step in the health of the food industry, but insiders also pointed out that the concept of health is indispensable, but as the fundamental attribute of food, the performance of taste should not be lost. Health based on formula alone may not be able to satisfy consumers for a long time.

Behind a large number of products, the internal dispute over “health value” has been clearly visible. When the R & D balance obviously tends to be healthy and the flavor is more “beautiful”, how can we ensure that consumers get a good taste experience? Sugar and fat should be “cleared”, and protein and probiotic parameters should be added to the limit. Can this really win the long-term favor of the public?

Taste first and health enjoyment:

How to develop ice products into the 2.0 era

The pursuit of delicious food is human instinct. Adding healthy elements to delicious food, namely “indulgence under health blessing”, is a new strategy to make delicious food sustainable. Obviously, the balance between delicious and healthy is not easy to do well. For some products focusing on the concept of health value, there are also many consumer voices pointing out problems such as poor taste.

Wang Gang, deputy director of the scientific training service department of the National Olympic Sports Center, said: “health + delicacy has become an important development direction of the whole ice cream industry, but the balance between low sugar, low fat and taste is a difficult problem in the research and development of nutrition products. The biggest pain in achieving low fat and low sugar is that once the milk fat content and sweetness are reduced, the ice cream will not taste good.”

Source: fit thequint

Taking low sugar products with sweeteners as an example, many products still have differences in sweetness performance from those using sucrose alone. “Sweetness imbalance”, “sweetness difficult to hang tongue”, “afterbitterness” and so on make increasingly picky consumers unsatisfied. In low-fat products, it is difficult to completely reproduce the fullness and mellowness of natural fat instead of fat. These flavor challenges are not only the questions that must be answered by food brands pursuing the concept of health, but also the key to whether the products can stand out.

From the 1.0 era of “taste first” to the 2.0 era of “health enjoyment”, how should the ice industry complete this step?

“Different from foreign consumers who prefer sweet ice cream, domestic consumers do not like sweet and greasy taste, but prefer innovative, beautiful and high-quality products, especially the trend driven by sports and fitness and healthy diet, which makes the healthy ice cream in the direction of low-fat, low sugar and high protein popular in the market and becoming a new growth point of the industry.” Shen Jiani, head of research and development of Zhong Xuegao, said.

According to foodaily, Zhong Xuegao’s “Youth” series of ice cream launched this time takes the three nutritional directions of “higher protein, low sugar and low fat” as the starting point. The whole series includes five flavors: low sugar · small grain coffee, low sugar · velvet cocoa, low fat · guava coconut, meili milk with high protein content and sea salt coconut. It advocates that consumers can enjoy a variety of flavors while eating healthily and without burden, It is an upgraded combination of “output health” and “carving flavor”.

Source: Zhong Xuegao

In the ice industry, it is not difficult to simply make delicious or healthy and nutritious food, but how to maintain good flavor and taste on the basis of low sugar and low fat is the difficulty of research and development. According to Zhong Xuegao’s team, the research and development of the youth series is a joint in-depth study with the National Olympic Sports Center. After establishing a consistent research and development concept and comprehensively considering the dimensions of flavor, technology and materials, the two sides locked the key on the raw materials. After dozens of raw materials were continuously arranged and combined, hundreds of experiments and blind taste tests, the five flavors of ice cream were finally launched.

Taking the low-fat guava coconut ice cream as an example, each ice cream contains only 84 kcal calories, and the fat content is 3.0g/100g, which is reduced by more than 80% compared with the conventional ice cream. The R & D team selected the combination of guava and coconut. The guava flavor comes from the original pulp made of guava pulp, which can perfectly restore the original thick fruit aroma and maintain the rich and dense taste. Moreover, guava itself is also a fruit with low fat content (0.4g / 100g), and then adjusted the appropriate proportion with low-fat raw materials, which can not only ensure the fragrant and silky flavor and taste, but also achieve low-fat and no burden.

Source: Zhong Xuegao

Meili milk ice cream is another distinctive product in the “Youth” series. It has a relatively high protein content – 7.0g/100g, which is about equivalent to a cup of 150ml pure milk, exceeding the protein content requirement of 0.4% in the national standard of ice cream, and fully meeting the current consumer preference for a more nutritious diet. In forging “delicacy”, Zhong Xuegao uses fresh litchi juice with fragrant rose stuffing and mellow milk to create a graceful taste.

The food and beverage industry has never lacked capital stories about delicious grass planting and Zero sugar and low calorie. However, to achieve the balance between flavor and health value, it is inseparable from the insight and grasp of consumers’ subtle psychology and demands. How to think in an integrated way is an examination of a brand’s R & D and development concept.

Zhong Xuegao’s unremitting pursuit of delicacy + health makes it win the lasting love of the public. There are many examples outside the ice industry of this development concept that makes delicious and healthy “continuously” impress new people. For example, “daily Heiqiao” adds inulin rich in dietary fiber to the formula to make the product achieve zero sucrose but leave a 7-minute sweet taste at the same time; Maintain 48% cocoa solids content in its best-selling single product milk Heiqiao, and cater to the plant-based boom. Timely launch oatmeal Heiqiao, quinoa Heiqiao and other products to refresh consumers’ inherent cognition of chocolate.

Source: daily Heiqiao

The new generation of young consumers have a unique concept of “punk health preservation”, which not only attaches importance to physical and mental health, but also is unwilling to give up the indulgent moments in life. The brand focuses on the concept of health, which should be based on meeting the basic consumption desire. The reason why Zhong Xuegao’s “Youth” series emphasizes the balance between delicacy and health is to adhere to the delicious nature of food, so as to form a sustainable consumption power and bring sustainable value experience to consumers.

“Movement” empowers, “Youth” breaks the circle

In Zhong Xuegao’s “Youth” series of new products, we see a strong sports element. The combination of food and sports elements has become more and more fierce in the industry in recent years. Not only traditional food enterprises, but also new consumer brands, such as Yuanqi forest, Ruixing coffee and keep, signed Olympic champions to win traffic for the brand by taking advantage of Chinese Olympic enthusiasm; The daily Heiqiao hand in hand with Wang Yibo, the most popular of the new generation, to promote the brand spirit of “no breaking, no standing”, which has been widely recognized by the public.

Why do new consumer brands love sports elements so much? In foodaily’s view, the brand hopes to bring consumers a good experience through product innovation. This experience is not only the satisfaction and pleasure brought by delicacy and health, but also the advocacy and encouragement from a positive lifestyle. The young and enterprising spirit is the positive and enterprising spirit of young consumers.

Source: Zhong Xuegao

In the eyes of Zhong Xuegao’s team, Chinese teenagers represent “hard work, unyielding defeat, frankness and free and easy”. The youth’s “firm as a rock and enthusiastic Pentium” is highly in line with the theme of the current era. Therefore, the professional upgrading products developed in cooperation with the official of the National Olympic Sports Center, in the name of “Youth” and combined with “Sports” elements, strengthen the external image of the brand to constantly break through itself, and also take the products as the link to resonate with the spirit of consumers in the new era and convey the concept of healthy life in the new era.

Simple freehand brushwork in ink and wash. With the help of Li Bai’s two poems “silver saddle shines on white horses, rustling like meteors”, Zhong Xuegao makes the spirited young man in fresh clothes jump onto the paper – with a long tassel in his hand, he is heroic and vigorous. Looking at the sports field, the new generation of athletes who “dare to win and fear not to lose” can also be regarded as a model of the times.

New brands are advocating a positive concept of life through renewal, showing more product innovation space and development potential to the whole industry. At the Beijing Winter Olympic Games two months ago, Yuanqi forest joined hands with Gu ailing, Su Yiming and Xu Mengtao, three new idol champions of Chinese youth, which is also a victory resonating with consumers’ emotions. In addition to dedication and hard work, the characteristics of the new generation of athletes, such as loving life, enjoying sports, daring to express themselves and breaking through limits, are the spirit of the times pursued by Chinese people.

Source: Yuanqi forest

Healthy food and sports style are a new lifestyle advocacy triggered by new consumption, and also provide a problem-solving idea for the upgrading of the industry. The fierce market competition also brings consumers more experience space and market choices than in the past.

Summary

The new consumption wave is surging, and the ice industry is moving towards the 2.0 era. Eating healthy in traditional indulgence products and experiencing a positive attitude towards life is another attempt for the ice industry to shape a new brand image and broaden consumption penetration. In Zhong Xuegao’s “Youth Series”, fresh clothes teenagers who are not afraid of danger and wantonly pursue the wind have a spiritual resonance with consumers in the new era. The ice industry represented by Zhong Xuegao is also completing product innovation and upgrading to convey the concept of healthy life in the new era.

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Ice 2.0 era: “flavor” takes “health” and sports can break the circle

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