Today’s consumers associate colour in products with the hues of vegetables and fruits in fresh markets and produce sections. It is no surprise that brands are leveraging fresh profiles like ‘Red Fruits' and 'Green Mango' in products outside of the produce section.
But it is interesting to note that colour hues and descriptors are specifically being called out in the product names of some recent launches, according to Michael Geraghty, President, Sensient Colors.
“According to multiple consumer research studies by Sensient, consumers worldwide prefer bold and vivid colour in food and drink products. Instinctively, as humans, consumers gravitate towards colour because of our ancestral cravings for nutrient-rich foods.
“Dating back to our days as foragers and hunters, colour in nature, whether red meat or purple wild berries, helped us identify foods that would supply our bodies with the most amount of energy. In the days of self-reliance where grocery stores and markets did not exist, food selection was a matter of survival, but those primitive truths about colour still hold true today. We still eat with our eyes first!"
Retailers have been capitalising on these deep-rooted tendencies for quite some time by locating their fresh products near the entry of the store. In many cases, the produce section is what consumers first see upon store entry. “This placement is not coincidental,” says Geraghty.
According to Sensient’s own research, a poll of US consumers online in 2022 revealed 79% of respondents believe that wellness is important in search of wellbeing.
With their new ‘pandemic lens’, consumers are shopping more proactively and taking a nutrition-forward approach. The meaning of ‘nutrition’ can be very subjective and 41% of consumers define the action of “being more nutritious” with buying more fresh food from the produce section, according to research by Sensient.