New application trend of curcumin in food and beverage markets

In recent years, with the improvement of people's living standards worldwide, the concept of health has been redefined. This dimension is no longer limited to preventing illness, but rather to pursuing a higher level of health - the high resistance of the immune system. In addition, people's understanding of health regulation is no longer limited to medicine and health products, but extends to functional foods and beverages.

Due to the impact of the epidemic in 2020, consumers' demand for immunity has been increasing, and immune management products worldwide have also begun to use a large amount of natural herbal formulation.

A striking clinical case was published in BMJ Case Reports in 2018 of Dieneke Ferguson, 67, who beat her deadly blood cancer when she started taking a daily dose of curcumin. Doctors said that, despite having no further treatment, her condition had remained stable for the last five years. The news instantly made curcumin a global hit with dietary supplements, functional foods, beverages and even cosmetics industries introducing curcumin into their products. Today, curcumin holds a dominating presence in the market worldwide.

Curcumin’s research background stems prior to the 1990’s. Curcumin’s main component, turmeric, is thought to be a potential component of its health-promoting properties. With a testing history of more than 120 clinical trials, curcumin also has a long history of use in traditional medicines of China and India including treatment of inflammatory, skin, and hepatic diseases. Nowadays, more medical research has shown that curcumin has additional beneficial properties including antioxidant and chemotherapeutic activity.

The application trend of curcumin as a natural nutrient is particularly obvious. As of May 2021, there are approximately 542 kind of curcumin products that are announced to be on the market by function and nutrition, and it seems like they will increase year by year. However, in today's society, only multi-sensory products with emotional appeal will help food and beverage brands stand out among functional foods.

Low Sugar is the Key

Low sugar has been the hottest topic in the beverage industry in the past two years, and more young consumers are particularly concerned about sugar content and calories. 53% of consumers aged 18-24 (vs. 41% of consumers aged 40-49) check their calorie content before making a purchase decision, while 51% check their sugar content (vs. 44% of consumers aged 40-49). The main focus on energy intake is women aged 25-29; 18% of them will first check their calorie content.

Products targeting young consumers will benefit from claims of low/no/reduced sugar or calories. From the top 10 export varieties of plant extracts from 2014 to 2019, it can be seen that stevia glycosides have consistently ranked first.

With its natural, high sweetness, low calorie, and healthy advantages, Stevia glycosides have become the most commonly used sweetener in new food and beverage products. Therefore, if stevia glycosides are used as natural sweeteners in turmeric beverages, the market potential will be enormous.

Importance of taste selection

With the strong growth in sports and energy beverage consumption in recent years, consumers are beginning to feel constrained by the homogenization of choices in the current market. 45% of consumers agree that the taste choices for functional beverages on the market are limited.

Influenced by the modern concept of having a healthy diet, more and more consumers hope to return to the taste of natural food itself, and the application of juice can bring rich taste and nutrition to beverages.

2021 is a year of innovation in concentrated fruit juice and beverages. According to retail sales, the size of China's juice beverage market in 2019 was 143.5 billion yuan. It is expected that the market size of fruit juice beverages will reach 149.9 billion RMB in 2021. Adding low concentration fruit juice to turmeric beverages not only captivates the natural fruity aroma, but also increases the added value of nutritional benefits. 

The trend of tilting the application of turmeric from the pharmaceutical industry to the food and beverage industry is already obvious. The trend of rapid digestion of turmeric beverages will not be too far, and the sensory and word-of-mouth of the general public as the key to testing the quality of turmeric beverages has put forward higher product requirements for major turmeric beverage brands.