Healthy appetite for sauces, as NPD hots up
New product activity is heating up in the prepared sauces market. According to Innova Market Insights, the market – which includes a range of different product types, including pasta sauces, cooking sauces, bottled and table sauces and condiments, and salad sauces and dressings – has seen an ever-increasing number of launches globally over the past five years.
This, says the market research analyst, reflects the increasing variety of meals and cuisines being discovered by consumers.
“Increasing interest in foreign cuisines has been particularly significant for the cooking sauces category, which alone accounted for half of tracked global sauces launches in 2011, well ahead of bottled table sauces with over a quarter and mayonnaise and dressings with about a fifth,” explains Lu Ann Williams, research manager at Innova Market Insights.
However, despite the strong convenience image of the sauces market, Williams says there has been ongoing interest in health in evidence. Nearly 45 per cent of 2011 global launches recorded by Innova Market Insights feature health claims of some kind, rising to over 50 per cent for salad sauces and dressings, compared with 45 per cent for cooking sauces and 38 per cent for table sauces.
The table and cooking sauces markets are both dominated by tomato-based products and are also seeing moves to spicier and more complex flavourings.
Also, the range of barbecue sauces is growing in many markets, with new variants typically introduced for the summer season, but all-year-round use also promoted. Increasing use of unusual ingredients has already been in evidence for 2012, including wasabi and tequila, following on from 2011 launches featuring flavourings such as raspberry vodka, bourbon whiskey and blackberries.
