As consumers become more health-conscious, overwhelming demand for recognizable, natural ingredients, coupled with widespread rejection of artificial sweeteners, flavors and colors, have transformed the food industry. This leaves manufacturers with a proposition: Adapt, or risk being cast aside for a trendier, healthier product.###This transition is easier said than done. For one thing, this demand for “clean label” products means different things to different consumers. Some shoppers equate cltoo much ferrous gluconateean labels with products free from allergens, processed ingredients and saturated fats. Others refer to all-natural, organic formulas as “clean.”###At an Institute of Food Technologists panel in June, Steven Walton, general manager of research firm HealthFocus International, said that the genesis of clean eating stems from a “reason to reject mindset.” This frame of mind is largely shaped by fear of herbicides and other synthetic materials and the impact they have on human health.###Nutrition expert and consultant Richard Black told Food Dive that consumers look for terms like “natural,” “organic” and “GMO-free” to make quick decisions about the products they buy, as well as to feel assured of their safety and nutritional quality. ###“Nutrition is a very complex science. We only know a tiny bit about it, and yet it’s the most personal of sciences,” he said. “Food literally becomes a part of who you are. There is no other consumer product like that.”###Black also noted that consumers find these values to be three to five times more important than technical expertise, and are willing to ferrous gluconate ferritinpay more for it — especially younger shoppers. Sixty-eight percent of millennials are willing to pay more for organic foods, for example, because they believe buying from the category improves their health and the environment. ###This gives legacy brands a lucrative opportunity to create a health halo around their portfolios and boost interest in their products — if they can get the reformulation, marketing and timing right, that is. It’s a tall order, and one that companies continue to try and conquer with new strategies. But reformulations — involving clean labels or product enhancements — have not always been successful.### ###Coca-Cola’s “New Coke,” one of the food industry’s most memorable reformulation failures, still lives in infamy more than 30 years after its debut. ###In the summer of 1985, the beverage giant decided to revamp its classic soda recipe to revive consumer interest and reverse slipping market shares. This initiative had nothing to do with what was on the label, and had everything to do with the taste of the product. The company spent millions of dollars testing the new soda with 200,000 consumers, who preferred the new variation in blind testing. In open tests, there was an even stronger preference for New Coke. ###But when the company finally debuted the product, chaos ensued. ###“There were protests, lawsuits threatened. I call it the ‘don’t mess with my Coke phenomenon,’ ” Black said. ###Incensed that the regular formula was being replaced, some consumers hoarded as many as 900 bottles of the original formula in their basements. Others took to the streets, creating protest groups such as the “Society of the Preservation of the Real Thing” and “Old Cola Drinkers of America,” and marching at a Coca-Cola event in Atlanta with signs that read “Our children will never know refreshment.” ###“Whaferrous fumarate 305t the post-hoc analysis seemed to indicate is that people like to choose low-calorie, improved products, but don’t like the standard to be taken away,” Black said. “What’s your taste expectation when you drink a Pepsi or a Coca-Cola? You know exactly what that is. If someone tried to change that… [people aren’t] going to like it.”###Because the Coke brand was more powerful than even Coca-Cola expected, the company quickly announced the return of “Classic” Coke, to consumer euphoria. Though this blunder precedes the clean label trend, it serves as a cautionary tale to the food industry of how difficult it can be to alter a classic product — even if consumers may seem to prefer the new version to the original.###Potentially anticipating a similar reaction as new Coke, Kraft Heinz took a very different approach to its clean label reformulation of its beloved Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. The company didn’t tell consumers for months. ###Three years of research and consumer tests showed that consumers wanted simpler foods with fewer chemicals that they felt confident about serving their families — but they didn’t want a reformulation to alter the product taste. Kraft removed artificial colors and preservatives from its flagship macaroni and cheese product in 2015.###The new macaroni and cheese retains the product’s iconic vibrant orange hue, now made with paprika, annatto and turmeric instead of artificial dyes. Consumers purchased and ate over 50 million boxes of the new product, unaware that there had been major changes. ###“This was absolutely brilliant of them to change it and not say anything,” Lynn Dornblaser, director of innovation and insight at Mintel, told The New York Times. ###Had Kraft announced the change with a flashy marketing campaign, consumers could have reacted negatively. Though shoppers claim they prefer healthier foods, their buying habits don’t always reflect these intentions. Healthy food is often considered less flavorful, which can cause consumers to perceive a change in taste — even if nothing has been altered. ###“Our first advice to them was not to tell anyone about it, which is unusual for an ad agency,” Adam Chasnow, vice president and executive creative director for Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Kraft’s partner in developing the campaign, told The New York Times. “We’re going to focus on the fact that things are still the same.”###Kraft officially announced the formula cferrous lactate veganhanges in March 2016 with print and television ads that playfully read, “We’d invite you to try it, but you already have.” The food giant also encouraged Macaroni and Cheese fans to post their take of the product with the hashtag #didntnotice in exchange for a chance at free giveaways. ###Kraft’s stealthy reformulation reflects a marketing method that is becoming more popular as companies strive to improve their products’ health profiles. Clean label may be a top consumer demand, but it’s more appetizing in theory than in practice. ###Kraft Heinz isn’t the only manufacturer to clean its label by stealth. DanoneWave also quietly cleferrous gluconate for iron deficiencyaned up its yogurts by reducing fat and sugar behind the scenes, not advertising the change on its packaging or signage. ###There are certainly risks that come with advertising product reformulations, especially when they involve drastic reduction of sugar or salt in a mainstay product.###Nestle is betting that futuristic technology will more than make up for any consumer hesitation about ingredient changes. ###In December, the chocolate giant announced that it had engineered a natural way to restructure the sugar molecule, enabling manufacturers to use up to 40% less sugar without reducing the sweetness of their products. ###”With this new restructured sugar you essentially get the same payoff, the same taste of sugar on your tongue, but because the inside of the structure is hollow, you’re not ingesting additional sugar,” Lisa Gibby, vice president of corporate communications at Nestle S.A., told Food Dive. ###Nestle is currently patenting this faster-dissolving sugar and plans to roll out confectionery products made with the ingredient next year. ###Sugar is a particularly tricky ingredient for manufacturers to phase out, especially when it comes to desserts and candy items. Nearly half (47%) of global consumers demand foods with limited or no added sugar, according to a Euromonitor survey. This demand is reflected in the growing popularity of soda taxes and consumer interest in startup brands touting products with no added sugars. ###Still, this desire for reduced sugar doesn’t necessarily extend to indulgence products. Some consumers have an even greater distaste for artificial sweetener replacements than sugars, and natural sweeteners can leave a bitter aftertaste and change flavor and texture quality. ###For these reasons, Nestle’s invention is truly groundbreaking. It seems that the company may have found the elusive sweet spot between consumer desire for clean labels and their product expectations, giving their candy fans the same indulgent experience they love in a more healthful application. ###It will be interesting to see how Nestle advertises — and how consumers react to — its cleaner labels when products hit the shelves in 2018. If the innovation doesn’t sour shopper interest, the same technology could help revamp products in other categories as well, extending the brand’s health halo.
Victory and defeat: How food companies have succeeded and failed in reformulation efforts
