Taste is crucial when buying bread, patisserie and chocolate

Taste Tomorrow: a foodstep into the future 

Taste Tomorrow is the world’s largest bakery, patisserie and chocolate consumer survey. It’s conducted by Puratos every three years in 40 countries, to gather data from over 17,000 consumers. The results? Fresh insights about health, taste, convenience, experience, digital trends and more, to stimulate innovation in the bakery, patisserie and chocolate sectors. The study was first conducted in 2011 and now, eight years later, the results of this third edition reveal nine key worldwide trends, with ‘taste’ being the most important.

Global key trend: taste as a crucial factor 

In the survey, we asked consumers: ‘What is most important when buying bread, patisserie or chocolate?’ Consumers could choose between different factors. In 2015, consumers said freshness was the most important for bread and patisserie, and taste was the most important for chocolate. Today, taste has gained in importance. Where freshness is still key for most bread-buying Europeans, for many other consumers across the globe it’s taste that has turned into the number one criterion when buying bread, patisserie and chocolate, followed by freshness and price. This means you cannot compromise on taste; it’s crucial in the decision-making process when buying these products.

Both traditional and exotic tastes appeal

 In our 2015 survey, we saw that consumers liked to innovate, but not too much. It was crucial to stay close to the classics and what they knew already. This explained the success of hybrids like the cronut - an innovation that stayed close to the well-known croissant and donut.

This attitude has evolved. Today, consumers still like traditional tastes, but they increasingly (and now, almost as much) expect to be surprised. They look for unusual and exotic tastes from other parts of the world. So consumers seem to be a bit more open to discovery nowadays.

Texture 

When it comes to taste, there’s another important shift compared to previous Taste Tomorrow surveys. For consumers today, taste is more than just flavour—texture is now a key component too. Consumers pay as much attention to a special, delicious, appealing texture as to flavour. It enhances the eating experience, also because different textures are visually interesting as well. Because while taste is extremely important for the majority, consumers want to be wowed by all their senses. A feast for the eye, multi-layered textures and flavours are essential to create a sensorial delight.

To summarize this first trend we’d like to share these key takeaways with you:

• Never sacrifice on taste, as it is the number one buying criteria for consumers.
• Texture has become a key component for consumers.
• And they like traditional as well as unusual/exotic tastes.