New products rise 12%, a 32-year record

Prepared Foods, Feb, 1996 by Lynn Dornblaser, Martin Friedman

Nutritional enhancement produced such specialty beverages as Royal Mistic Energy Booster Drink, Esteem Calcium Rich Drink Crystals, Femme Vitale Juice Mix for Women, Select Herb Tea Aromatheratea, and Procter & Gamble's Sunny Delight Solar Surge Enriched Fruit Refresher.

Another active nutritional beverage sub-category was canned drinks designed to enhance general health. Boost, Ensure and other drinks were not necessarily aimed at aging Boomers or those with severe illnesses, but rather at consumers looking for an easy way to get complete nutrition from a single product.

One final beverage note. Considering their marketing and distribution resources, isn't it amazing that once again there was no major new beverage introduction from either Coca-Cola or Pepsico?

CANDY/GUM/SNACKS: Not even the snack area escaped the nutritional kibitzers. 1995's salty snack listings were replete with new products that promised the crispiness and flavor of full-fat snacks without guilt (the fat and the calories). A selection of almost-good-for-you entries might include Nabisco's Planters Reduced Fat Honey Roasted Peanuts, Delicious Cookie's Fat-Free Potato Crisps, Borden's Fat-Free Cracker Jack, Splurge Snack Mixes, El Paco Foods' Trans-Fat-Free Tortilla Chips, and Fat-Free Fiddle Faddle.

Sweet snacks proliferated, but with few truly unique items. Hershey had a major introduction (Cookies `n Cream candy bar) while Nestle continued to tie in its products with current movies such as Pocohantas and Toy Story. Nabisco featured new LifeSavers Delites and Ice Breakers Gum, both sugar free. Amurol had its usual assortment of imaginative candy novelties including a few interactive toy packages.

However, the products that produced the most reaction were Toxic Waste candy and Pickle Puss pickle-flavored bubble gum.

CONDIMENTS: Condiments are the leading NPN food category every year and 1995 was no exception, thanks to the 1,000 or so new condiments from gourmet food suppliers each year. This product classification continues to appeal to the growing sophistication of the American consumer's palate with an unbelievable variety of new flavors, but with very few truly new products.

Among the more unusual newcomers in 1995 were Domino's Flavored Confectioners Sugars, Crisco's Savory Seasonings Flavored Oils, Garden Herbs (and others) with fresh or freeze-dried herbs, Hunt-Wesson's Peter Pan Plus peanut butter (vitamin fortified), Kraft Sandwich Creations Spreads, plus a line of vinegars, oils, and cooking wines under Nabisco's Grey Poupon label.

DAIRY PRODUCTS: 1995 was the "year of the yogurt" with the once-exotic curdled dairy food emerging in scores of new formats and flavors.

Dessert-flavored regular and low-fat/low-sugar yogurts were introduced by virtually every yogurt producer. Dozens of new dips appeared as both big and small dairies tried to capture this growing sub-category. Kraft's Philly Cream Cheese for Toast was a promising newcomer.

Flavored milk drinks attempted to pick up some of the declining New Age beverage business. Pepsico is testing Smooth Moos Smoothies, Wendt's Dairy has Moo-licious Milk, West Lynn Creamery has Smilk, and McCain Citrus has Eeny Meeny Miney Moo Chocolate Beverage. Flavored non-dairy crearners in rich varieties such as Irish Creme were introduced by Rich Products, Carnation Ccoffeemate), Presto Food Products, and Hershey (Great American Cafe Creamers).