Packing a dragon crunch: Firmenich and Frito-Lay herald annual taste and texture forecasts

Cracking the pleasure code on food’s organoleptic properties is achieved by addressing mainstay appeal of certain eating experiences while innovating new discoveries. Evidencing the retained power of texture, Frito-Lay has declared 2022 as “The Year of Crunch,” just as Swiss flavor house Firmenich crowned dragon fruit as 2023’s “Flavor of the Year.”

Anticipating the tropical dragon fruit at the heart of next year’s F&B launches is evidence of consumers’ desire for exciting new ingredients and bold, adventurous flavor creation. Meanwhile, the crunch factor’s continued time in the spotlight opens further doors to elevate the eating experience, including protein crisps in health bars.

“This marks our 11th Flavor of the Year, which our customers have come to look forward to each year. Dragon fruit’s bold vibrancy is a perfect choice as we embark on an exciting year of change,” remarks Maurizio Clementi, ad interim president of Firmenich’s Taste & Beyond division.

“Our in-depth Human Insights have identified the strong shift toward well-being and sustainability in people’s food and beverage choices, as well as newly-emerging elevated expectations in terms of taste,” he continues.

“As everything we do is rooted in nature and deep consumer understanding, this inspired us to choose a Flavor of the Year which captures both.”

What’s next after Pink Sauce?

Dragon fruit is Firmenich’s Flavor of the Year.

Last June, TikTok creator @chef.pii (Pii) created a media frenzy when a video of herself dunking a chicken tender into an oddly pink, creamy sauce. Since then, TikTok videos with the hashtag #pinksauce have seen over 81 million views.

Since Pink Sauce’s release on the market, consumers quickly identified dragon fruit as the ingredient that gives the Pink Sauce its color.

Coinciding with Firmenich’s crowning of dragon fruit as 2023’s fan favorite, it is now the second consecutive year of a sensory partnership between Firmenich and Pantone. The global color authority has just launched its 2023 Color of the Year, Pantone 18-1750 Viva Magenta, which it describes as a “brave and fearless, a pulsating color whose exuberance promotes optimism and joy.”

“In the same way that Pantone’s Color of the Year captures the emerging themes seen in the world around us, our choice for Flavor of the Year does so by translating new signals into positive sensory experiences,” says Mikel Cirkus, global creative director for Taste & Beyond.

“Dragon fruit’s subtle flavor creates a wonderful opportunity to bring the exceptional creativity and expertise of Firmenich’s Flavorists to the fore, providing the perfect canvas for them to dare to imagine bold, exciting and delicious new taste combinations,” adds Jeff Schmoyer, Firmenich’s global head of human insights.

Enter the dragon fruit

Native to Central America, where it is known as Pitahaya and thriving in tropical and subtropical climates across the world, dragon fruit’s flesh is rich in antioxidants and high in calcium.

Dragon fruit grows from a climbing cactus, making it a drought-resistant and naturally low water-use crop, requiring only a quarter of the water to grow compared to an avocado.

Firmenich's Flavor of the Year is dragon fruit.

Much like the mystical creature that inspired its name, dragon fruit is fierce in appearance, with a scale-like skin in bold hues ranging from fiery yellow to bold magenta. However, its delicate flavor belies its imposing armor. With several different types varying in color and taste, dragon fruit ranges in flavor from milder melon and kiwi-like to slightly sweeter berry profiles with beetroot notes.

Part of its Human Insights capability, Firmenich’s Trenz forecasting team, spotted a post-Covid rise in dragon fruit across almost every major city in the world.

While always popular within niche segments, the exotic fruit began showing up more universally across diverse markets and food service venues, as well as product applications, from the more intuitive juices and smoothies to less traditional formats like tea and cooked savory dishes.

According to Cirkus, this is all part of a decade-long trend for boldness and discovery in food and drink. The pandemic speeded up this trend, with huge spikes in consumers broadening their palates for new seasoning. Notably, expenditures on spices and seasonings at home grew 27% CAGR, Trenz found.

New product innovation has followed, with on-pack claims such as “bold” and “exotic” up by 38% since 2017, and the use of three- and four-way flavor combinations in products now cresting over 25% of all F&B launches.

Meanwhile, Firmenich’s Emotions360 consumer research offered a second clue. This proprietary, in-depth study of natural ingredients identified that people are very excited about dragon fruit.

Emotions360’s latest wave, which surveyed 18,670 consumers worldwide, indicated that 88% of consumers have heard of dragon fruit, and 56% have tasted it.

Regarding consumer perceptions, dragon fruit triggers associations with adjectives like bold, exotic, exciting, impressive and fun. Given this positive association, it’s not surprising that the same consumers ranked dragon fruit in the 90% percentile among all ingredients, with a high likelihood of rising in popularity.

Fire and fanfare

Crunch has been identified as the most important texture element of the year.

As much as dragon fruit is on fire in juice bars, markets, and street vendors worldwide, the packaged F&B world was initially slow to innovate around this trend.

However, this trend is changing, with product launches containing dragon fruit callouts now accelerating in all regions. Dragon fruit use in Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) is growing more quickly in foods than beverages, where innovations typically appear first.

“Dragon fruit may still be a “rare” fruit flavor for CPG F&B brands, but it is no longer rare to consumers. And in fact, this has translated to one of the fastest growth rates of any ingredient we’ve tracked in recent years,” states Schmoyer.

“For this reason, Firmenich believes that its flavor creativity will play a key role in amplifying the taste and celebrating combinations of dragon fruit with other flavors,” he details.

Year of the crunch

The “crunch” factor featured strongly in the latest Frito-Lay US Trend Index as an important component in the perfect snack. Consumers were polled on their snacking preference, showing that 70% of snackers would reach for food with a crunch.

Beyond crunch, the Snack Index found that sweetness, saltiness and filling were also important factors. Almost half of those surveyed expressed that, when thinking of a perfect snack, it is also nostalgic and reminds them of a specific moment.

While Frito-Lay predicts that all adults will continue to look for crunchy snacks in 2023, generational differences and end-of-year snacking behaviors also contribute to trends to watch.