Hot Natural Food and Supplement Trends for 2010 - Let's Dust Off Our Crystal Ball

It is December, which can mean only one thing… time for everyone to start predicting what will happen next year. While we wish someone could predict the winning lottery numbers for us, for now there seems to be more interest in predicting what people will eat and buy.

New Trends for 2010

Mintel, a market research firm, has released their new report – 2010 Global Consumer Packaged Goods Predictions. What incredible new things do they predict? The same things we saw in 2009, but with a twist. Right, that doesn’t make much sense to us either – here is the explanation from their press release…

“Post-recession, we don’t expect manufacturers to reinvent the wheel. Instead, we predict 2010’s new products will give shoppers something familiar paired with something new to better satisfy their needs,” states David Jago, Director of Trends and Innovation at Mintel. “On retail store shelves, we expect today’s familiar megatrends – health and wellness, convenience, sustainability – to get a fresh, new makeover for 2010.”

That clears it up – right???

Seven Core Trends That Will Impact All New Products

Mintel is predicting that the following 7 core trends will have an impact on all new products in 2010….

1. Symbol Overload: Labels are confusing and consumers want cleaner and less cluttered labels for 2010

2. Sodium Reduction: Look for lots of “New and Improved – Now with Less Salt”

3. Local Gets Stretched: Local used to mean from your town or the town next door. That is so 2009 now. Local will expand in 2010, for example buying from a few states away – local – buying from Mars – not local.

4. Simple Made Special: Buying your bottle of OJ getting a little boring? Fear not, in 2010 new exciting packaging will make buying the simple things in life into a “special” moment you will cherish forever.

5. Color Coding for Convenience: Trouble finding your cereal on the supermarket shelf – don’t worry color coding is coming!

6. Iconic Budget Brands: Private Label brands will be big in 2010. Looks like a worldwide recession has a way of making people care a little less about buying brand names.

7. Gen Y Cleans Up: Gen Y likes to get things done quick and easy. Cleaning up? Give a Gen Y’er something to get it done quick and easy. New products will highlight simplicity of use and quick, easy results to appeal to younger shoppers.

Good Luck inVegas

You can now head out to Vegas and place a bet on how many new products in 2010 will say “Low Sodium”. Good luck, and when you strike it rich, remember you heard it here first!