2021 New Trends in Baking
Baked goods are convenience foods that are typically baked by a series of technological means with flour, yeast, salt, sugar and water as the basic raw materials, adding fat, dairy, eggs, additives, etc., mainly divided into bread, cakes, and pastries. In China, baked goods is classified as a snack food category. In 2018, the scale of the Chinese snack food market exceeded one trillion yuan, and baked goods is the largest category in this trillion yuan market. According to Innova data, the global new baked goods market increased by 7% year-on-year in 2019 compared with 2018. As Wu Xiaobo once said, the bakery industry will be the bridgehead for the transformation of catering brands in the upgrading of consumption. How do you upgrade? You have to start with consumers.
1. Consumers Don’t Like High-Oil and High-Sugar Foods, but They Love Healthy Foods
Many traditional baked goods are high in sugar, oil, and fat. Although they are satisfying, they are not healthy. Now, with general health and wellness trending, people’s standards for the healthiness of baked goods are increasing. There is also a wider variety of products, from low-fat and low-sugar, to zero trans fatty acids. In addition, from the perspective of baking ingredients, more detailed requirements are also emerging. For example, for consumers who are allergic to wheat bran or have a ketogenic diet, some flour manufacturers are trying to replace wheat flour with almonds, coconuts and other nuts. Secondly, quinoa, chia seeds and chickpea flour are also popular flour raw materials.
2. Taste Always Comes First
Baked goods are a recurring consumer product, typically not just one-time transactions. Therefore, the taste and sensory experience is the main reason why consumers come back. Delicacy is always a tool to capture consumers. This is especially true for baked goods, and there is more room for innovation. It can be seen from two directions: taste and flavor.
Taste tends to capture a broader sensory experience than flavor. In terms of taste, different types of baking have different keywords. For example, toast is “soft”, French stick is “hard and crisp”, and cake is “soft”. In addition, you can also create a multi-layered taste, such as Hollyland’s iceberg lava cake, the outer chocolate skin is more crispy after refrigeration, the cake is also chewy, and the chocolate melts after heating, and it tastes silky and delicate.
In terms of flavor, milk flavor will often be the first impression most consumers have on baking. In recent years, many novel and bold flavors have appeared in the baking market, such as durian flavor, matcha flavor, cheese flavor, salted egg yolk flavor and sea salt cheese flavor. These flavors are also sought after by consumers.
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