Neohedonism: IFF pursues the pursuit of pleasure to shape food & beverage
At the Food Tech Summit & Expo 2024 in Mexico City, IFF presented concepts to showcase how new and appealing textures and flavors can help meet Mexican consumers’ desire for indulgent sensory experiences.
“Neohedonism”, a movement centered on lifestyles that prioritize pleasure, is becoming a key trend in today's way of living. Consumers are increasingly seeking happiness and enjoyment when purchasing food and beverages—looking for products that provide affordable delights and guilt-free indulgences.
Recently, NielsenIQ reported that Mexican consumers spend an average of $3,155MXN per capita annually—9.1% of their food expenditures—on indulgent foods. Three-quarters of these items fall into the “instant gratification” category, which includes cookies, snacks, peanuts, and chocolates.
Furthermore, 23% of indulgent purchases are for home consumption, including sweet breads, spreads, jellies, desserts, popcorn, bars, and cereals. Meanwhile, “healthy indulgent” products, such as Greek yogurts, bars, and natural popcorn, make up just 1.5% of indulgent purchases, though this reflects a 16.4% growth compared to 2020.
The data points to a simple message for food and beverage manufacturers: developing products with new and appealing textures and flavors can help meet Mexican consumers’ desire for indulgent sensory experiences.
IFF’s use of the Panoptic Framework
IFF is one of the companies that is directing R&D efforts to support product innovations to meet the neo-hedonism trend and presented some concepts that respond to the neohedonism movement at the recent Food Tech Summit & Expo 2024 in Mexico City.
The company has been using the Panoptic Framework, a proprietary tool to generate insights into how trends resonate with current and future consumer needs and aspirations. By understanding the underlying causes behind trend adoption, IFF can make more creative and relevant choices in product design, marketing and strategy. This intelligence can be put into action for clients and has inspired the creation of product concepts aligned with the new demands of the end consumer.
“What brings indulgence and satisfaction in food varies from consumer to consumer, and increasingly there's an expectation for health and wellness. These are the challenges for F&B industries navigating neohedonism,” said Daniel Fernández Quevedo, Sub Regional Leader at IFF Nourish for Mexico and Central America.
Among the concepts presented in Mexico City were a “Super-Cereal Bar” formulated with functional ingredients like Neuravena (green oat extract), Sharp-PS (phosphatidylserine), and a cocoa replacer, said Fernández. Other examples were a savory sandwich containing 50% pork and 50% plant-based meat, and a 2-in-1 yogurt – one with a fruit flavor and the other with a cheese flavor.
“These options aim to take products beyond traditional consumption moments, offering a memorable sensory experience with pleasure that goes beyond nutrition,” he said.
Neohedonism was one of the four key pillars focused on by IFF at the event held in Mexico, alongside "simple frugality", "better well-being" and "consciousness/gastrophysics". These inclinations reveal efforts to deeply understand consumers and the market, as well as a commitment to supporting brands' innovations with great precision.
"In the current scenario of fierce competition in FMCG, companies need effective solutions for extraordinary products,” said Fernández.