PR99097

GENEVA, December, 5, 2022 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/--

Firmenich, the world's largest privately-owned fragrance and taste company, is

excited to announce its 2023 Flavor of the Year, dragon fruit, celebrating

consumers' desire for exciting new ingredients and bold, adventurous flavor

creation.

"This marks our 11th Flavor of the Year, which is something our customers have

come to look forward to each year. Dragon fruit's bold vibrancy is a perfect

choice as we embark an exciting year of change," said Maurizio Clementi, ad

interim President, Firmenich's Taste & Beyond division. "Our in-depth Human

Insights have identified the strong shift towards wellbeing and sustainability

in people's food and beverage choices, as well as newly-emerging elevated

expectations in terms of taste. As everything we do is rooted in nature and

deep consumer understanding, this inspired us to choose a Flavor of the Year

which captures both."

Drawing Inspiration from Color & Trenz

This is the second consecutive year of a sensory partnership between Firmenich

and PantoneA(R). The global color authority has just launched its 2023 Color of

the Year, PantoneA(R) 18-1750 Viva Magentaa, which it describes as a "brave and

fearless, a pulsating color whose exuberance promotes optimism and joy."  Mikel

Cirkus, Global Creative Director for Taste & Beyond said: "In the same way that

Pantone's Color of the Year captures the emerging themes seen in the world

around us, our choice for Flavor of the Year does so by translating new signals

into positive sensory experiences. Our 2023 choice of dragon fruit reflects the

global consumer's increasingly adventurous palate and desire for the new or

exotic when it comes to ingredients and taste."

Jeff Schmoyer, Firmenich Global Head of Human Insights, said: "Dragon fruit's

subtle flavor creates a wonderful opportunity to bring the exceptional

creativity and expertise of Firmenich's Flavorists to the fore, providing the

perfect canvas for them to dare to imagine bold, exciting and delicious new

taste combinations."

A Fruit by Any Other Name

Native to Central America, where it is known as Pitahaya, and thriving in

tropical and subtropical climates across the world, dragon fruit's flesh is

rich in antioxidants and high in calcium. Dragon Fruit grows from a climbing

cactus, making it a drought-resistant and naturally low water-use crop,

requiring only a quarter of the water to grow compared to that of an avocado.

Much like the mystical creature that inspired its name, dragon fruit is fierce

in appearance, with a scale-like skin in bold hues ranging from fiery yellow to

bold magenta. However, its delicate flavor belies its imposing armor. With

several different types varying in both color and taste, dragon fruit ranges in

flavor from milder melon and kiwi-like to slightly sweeter berry profiles with

notes of beetroot.

Enter the Dragon Fruit

Part of its industry-leading Human Insights capability, Firmenich's Trenza

forecasting team spotted a post-Covid rise in dragon fruit across almost every

major city in the world. While always popular within niche segments, the exotic

fruit began showing up more universally across diverse markets and food service

venues, as well as product applications, from the more intuitive juices and

smoothies to less traditional formats like tea and cooked savory dishes.

According to Mikel Cirkus, this is all part of a decade-long trend for boldness

and discovery in food and drink. The pandemic increased the pace of this trend,

with huge spikes in consumers broadening their palates for new seasoning.

Notably, expenditures on spices & seasonings at home grew 27% CAGR[1], Trenza

found. New product innovation has followed, with on-pack claims such as "bold"

and "exotic" up by 38% since 2017, and the use of three- and four-way flavor

combinations in products now cresting over 25% of all Food & Beverage launches.

Firmenich's renowned Emotions360 consumer research offered a second clue. This

proprietary in-depth study of natural ingredients identified that people are

very excited about dragon fruit. In fact, Emotions360's latest wave, which

surveyed 18,670 consumers across eight countries around the world, indicated

that 88% of consumers have heard of dragon fruit, and 56% have tasted it. In

terms of consumer perceptions, dragon fruit triggers associations with

adjectives like bold, exotic, exciting, impressive and fun. Given this positive

association, it's not surprising that the same consumers ranked dragon fruit in

the 90% percentile among all ingredients with a high likelihood to rise in

popularity in the future.

A Fiery Future

As much as dragon fruit is on fire in juice bars, markets, and street vendors

around the world, the packaged Food & Beverage world was initially slow to

innovate around this trend. However, this trend is changing, with product

launches containing dragon fruit callouts now accelerating in all regions. In

fact, dragon fruit use in CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) is growing more quickly

in foods than beverages, where innovations typically appear first.

Jeff Schmoyer, Firmenich Global Head of Human Insights, commented: "Dragon

fruit may be still a 'rare' fruit flavor for CPG food & beverage brands, but it

is no longer rare to consumers. And in fact, this has translated to one of the

fastest growth rates of any ingredient we've tracked in recent years.  Given

the small base and fast growth, it is certainly our boldest Flavor of the Year

choice yet from a predictive foresights perspective. It's possible that the

initial lag in new product innovation is in part related to the challenge of

realizing the flavor of dragon fruit. Our consumer research shows that the

fruit can sometimes surprise people by not having the strong flavor to match

its visual appearance. Instead, the taste is light, refreshing, sweet, and

delicious."

"For this reason, Firmenich believes that its flavor creativity will play a key

role in amplifying the taste and celebrating combinations of dragon fruit with

other flavors," Schmoyer concluded.

About Firmenich

Firmenich, the world's largest privately-owned fragrance and taste company, was

founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1895, and has been family-owned for 127

years. Firmenich is a leading business-to-business company specialized in the

research, creation, manufacture and sale of perfumes, flavors and ingredients.

Renowned for its world-class research and creativity, as well as its leadership

in sustainability, Firmenich offers its customers superior innovation in

formulation, a broad and high-quality palette of ingredients, and proprietary

technologies including biotechnology, encapsulation, olfactory science and

taste modulation. Firmenich had an annual turnover of 4.7 billion Swiss Francs

at end June 2022. More information about Firmenich is available at

www.firmenich.com.

About Pantone

Pantone provides the universal language of color that enables color-critical

decisions through every stage of the workflow for brands and manufacturers.

More than 10 million designers and producers around the world rely on Pantone

products and services to help define, communicate, and control color from

inspiration to realization – leveraging advanced X-Rite technology to achieve

color consistency across various materials and finishes for graphics, fashion,

and product design. Pantone Standards feature digital and physical color

specification and workflow tools. The Pantone Color Institutea provides

customized color standards, brand identity, and product color consulting as

well as trend forecasting inclusive of Pantone Color of the Year, Fashion

Runway Color Trend Reports, color psychology, and more. Pantone B2B Licensing

incorporates the Pantone Color System into different products and services,

enabling licensees to communicate and reproduce certified Pantone values and

improve efficiencies for their users. Pantone Lifestyle brings color and design

together across apparel, home, and accessories. Learn more at www.pantone.com

and connect with Pantone on Instagram,Facebook,Pinterest,and LinkedIn.

[1] Compound Annual Growth Rate (Source : Global Data LLC and Firmenich

analytics)

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Source: Firmenich