Innovation is the lifeblood of the fast-moving consumer goods industry. And The Grocer’s New Product & Packaging Awards last week was an important reminder of the incredible contribution that brands big and small provide, enriching the lives of shoppers who look to products to excite them and meet their needs, developing and picking up on new consumer trends, and providing supermarkets with category interest and growth, differentiation and invaluable back margin revenue.

The awards showcased all sorts of exciting trends and developments in areas like gut health and wellness (the three Ks: kombucha, kimchi and kefir); meat-free; protein; super-hot flavours; and the premiumisation of personal care (from incumbents and challenger brands alike).

As the name of the awards suggests, packaging innovation is also an important component of product development these days. And it was pleasing to see there was still room for innovation around life’s little luxuries, as well as innovation that is value driven and unashamedly populist. 

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But perhaps the most important area of innovation has been exciting launches that are consciously healthy in scope, with strong evidence of continued product development to create more healthy products and to reformulate existing ones to meet the new HFSS regulations. 

It’s no exaggeration that these developments represent a holy grail for the food industry. And for those who find the secret recipe that enables the development of chocolate, ice cream, biscuits, pizza and countless other categories caught up in the obesity crisis (while tasting good enough to eat), a small fortune – or a very sizeable one – awaits.

So the stakes are high. But heaven help those who overstate their case. As we reveal this week, tests involving fast-growing Little Freddie’s babyfood pouches have found several contain almost double the advertised sugar levels. As important as it is to develop healthy and natural products, it is crucial that the information is accurate. To do otherwise not only provides an unfair advantage, it betrays the public’s trust.

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