While January comes with month-long commitments to living a healthy, alcohol-free or vegan lifestyle, this new year also brings a host of new and expanding trends that are set to make waves across the sector for the next 12 months.
Last week, Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said that – in terms of trends for 2023 – the leading retailer is “seeing customers express sentiments of cautious optimism,” and already, supermarkets, brands and consumers are focusing on new initiatives.
From innovative products to healthy eating, reducing waste and exploring the plant-based and alcohol-free markets, Grocery Gazette explores six of the food trends set to define 2023…
Healthy eating
UK consumers are looking to prioritise their health this year, with recipe box brand Mindful Chef reported a 589% increase in new customer sign-ups last week.
Tesco is leading a renewed focus on health and ‘veg-led’ propositions to make it easy for customers to incorporate more vegetable into their diet, as the next phase of its meat-free diet begins for 2023.
In looking to help shoppers stick to their New Year’s resolutions throughout 2023, Sainsbury’s has launched 65 products as part of its healthy food range, Flourish.
Focusing on its ‘Eat Well’ campaign, M&S has also revamped its breakfast range for 2023, re-launching cereal products including High Fibre Fruit and Brand, Good for your Gut Muesli and High Protein and Oat Granola.
According to Waitrose, postbiotics will be the “new biotic on the block” as consumers become more interested in maintaining a healthy gut. The upmarket retailer also expects 2023 to bring an increased focus on ‘brain food’ such as tuna, salmon, blueberries, broccoli, kale, spinach, pimpkin seeds, dark chocolate and rocket, to improve memory and focus.
New innovations
Waitrose is also expecting the coffee business to undergo innovation this year, as it says the “next thing to have a sustainable makeover is coffee-less coffee,” following the variations of ‘milkless milk’ and ‘fishless fish’ across the grocery sector.
M&S is looking to see the coffee market boom in 2023 as it launched its Australian inspired Magic Coffee last week, claiming that it’s the “hottest new style of coffee to reach the UK since the flat white,” made with a double ristretto instead of a double espresso.
The supermarket giant is also looking to innovate and expand its breakfast offerings with its biggest ever own-label range, following research that found 75% of Brits have the same breakfast every day and 67% are looking for ways to make the start of their day more interesting this year.
Reducing food and plastic waste
Food waste led discussions at COP27’s Food Systems Pavilion last year and the UK’s leading supermarkets jumped on trends to reduce waste, including removing best before dates on a range of fresh fruit and vegetables.
While 2023 has only just begun, Big 4 grocer Asda is expanding this across a wider range of its offerings, removing ‘Use By’ dates on over half of its own-brand yoghurts, and replacing these with ‘Best Before’ dates.
As well as looking to cut food waste, leading players in the grocery sector are also reducing plastic waste.
Tesco is set to launch plant-based tea bags this year, allowing shoppers to compost these items through kerbside food waste collections.
The government is also set to ban single-use plastic items including plates, cutlery and trays in England to reduce pollution, a move environment secretary Thérèse Coffey says will help to “protect the natural environment for future generations”.
The value push
While supermarket giants including Waitrose, Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury’s have launched new year value campaigns to help shoppers cope with cost of living pressures and the Christmas aftermath, its likely these are set to continue through the year as value becomes one of the most important factors to shoppers.
Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts said in its recent trading update that it will be continuing to run its Aldi Price Match campaign throughout 2023, as it launched its biggest ever push in this month across 300 of its most popular products.
Earlier this month, Tesco announced it would be extending its price lock on over 1,000 products until Easter as its CEO Ken Murphy says suppliers are “100% behind” the campaign, putting the leading retailer “in the strongest value position that’s ever been.”
Vegan and plant-based products
Sign-ups to this year’s annual Veganuary challenge hit a record rate at one person every 2.4 seconds, indicating that a plant-based diet is only rising in popularity.
2022 saw the launch of Cathedral City’s range of vegan cheese and Waitrose thinks popularity for this type of product will only continue this year, as “vegan cheese has come on in leaps and bounds.”
The retailer also predicts that deep fake meat will take centre stage this year as “companies pursue not only taste but texture” when creating meat alternative products.
While a host of big-name, non-vegan brands have launched products specifically for Veganuary, including Heinz and Terry’s Chocolate Orange, many supermarkets are also launching partnerships with vegan brands to permanently roll out plant-based products to stores through 2023 and beyond, including Asda’s recent partnership to stock One Planet Pizza in 400 stores.
Low and no alcohol
According to new research by the Budweiser Brewing Group, 21% of people would opt for non-alcoholic beer as their drink of choice at a social event, with 19% of 25 to 44 year olds cutting back on alcohol for 2023’s Dry January.
Waitrose no and low alcohol buyer for Waitrose, Sarah Holland told Grocery Gazette that “customer demand for no and low alcohol is at an all-time high”, adding “we definitely see low and no alcoholic products as a trend that will continue all year round.”
She adds that this year Waitrose expects less people to continue drinking alcohol post Dry January, “as people realise that the quality of non-alcoholic options is on par with their alcoholic counterparts. Not only that, but as a society we’re becoming more focused on health and moderating our alcohol plays a huge role in that.”
