Three Trends Spotted in Food/Flavor Industries
As of October 10, 2025, the US flavor industry has seen three trends: growing regulatory pressure on certain food additives, consumer demand for healthier or "clean-label" flavor products, and flavor innovations that make use of international, botanical, and good old profiles.
Key regulatory changes
U.S. regulators are forcing flavor houses and food companies to reformulate their food and flavor products to remove or replace certain ingredients that are considered unhealthy or potentially harmful to consumers. Certain artificial colorants are on the list of banned ingredients.
- California bans ultra-processed foods: Effective in October 2025, California has enforced the nation's first law defining and banning certain types of "ultra-processed foods" from being used as school meals and other state-regulated food outlets. This act came as the federal government is advocating its "Make America Healthy Again" agenda, part of which aims to change the federal dietary guidelines to limit ultra-processed food consumption.
- BVO prohibition: US FDA rescinded the prior regulation allowing use of brominated vegetable oil (BVO), a flavor stabilizer. As of August 2, 2025, flavor houses must have complied with the agency's revocation of the prior law and must provide BVO-free formulations.
- Tobacco flavor bans: A voter referendum in Denver, USA is underway on October 10, 2025, to determine whether or not to uphold or repeal a ban on flavored tobacco products, including cigars, menthol cigarettes, flavored vaporizers.
Consumer-driven health trends
Health and wellness industries continue to drive innovation to meet consumer demand for natural, functional, and transparently labeled food products.
- Demand for natural and clean labels: Consumers continue their demand for food and beverages that feature recognized natural ingredients. This means that they prefer products with natural flavor enhancers based on yeast extracts and or botanical extracts while artificial additives are excluded.
- Rise of functional flavors: More and more functional beverages use ingredients with potential health or nutritional benefits, like adaptogens (ashwagandha, mushrooms) and nootropics. Flavors including yuzu, golden mango, and elder flower are now used to create complex flavor profiles in this category of beverages.
- Growth in non-alcoholic drinks: The demand for sophisticated, adult-targeted soft drinks or non-alcoholic beverages and mocktails is expanding. Getting more and more popular are beverages with refined and well-rounded flavors that appeal to consumers who are trying to limit or avoid their intake of alcohol.
Product research, development, and innovation
Flavor houses are striving to create new experiences by enlisting old fashioned or nostalgic profiles to design modern tastes that could have a global reach.
- "Newstalgia" flavors: Old fashioned favorites are being re-visited for modern palates. They include natural-cereal-flavored snacks, enhanced peanut butter and jelly combo, and new yet same old sodas.
- Global and exotic flavors: Natural ingredients such as Korean gochujang, Japanese yuzu, and African harissa continue to find their way into the mainstream foods now that consumers are seeking authentic, global taste experiences. More and more exotic fruits and spices such as yuzu, goji berry, and cardamom have also found applications.
- Layered and complex profiles: Flavorists (flavor chemists or scientists) are innovating with more innovative compounding techniques including "swicy" (sweet + spicy) pairings , e.g, honey sriracha and mango chili, and savory flavors in drinks and snacks etc.
- AI-assisted flavor creation: Some flavor houses have already started this type of venture. Artificial intelligence assistance can make it possible to analyze a large database of consumer and market information and accelerate the creating of the very targeted flavors most wanted by food consumers.
Recent product launches and events
- Bolthouse Fresh Foods: The company is showcasing new carrot-based innovations at the Global Produce & Floral Show, continuing its efforts to bring new energy and creativity to the produce aisle.
- Steel Oak Coffee: The specialty coffee roaster launched an interactive Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel that directs consumers to products based on their flavor preferences.
- Flavor Essence: This flavor concentrate manufacturer offers a variety of natural and unsweetened flavorings for beverages, including new tropical and fruit collections.
- Wixon: The flavor and ingredient company highlighted its "Storied Flavors" concept in September 2025, which focuses on creating emotionally meaningful flavors based on nostalgic recipes.
(created by AI)