With a new year upon us, a few of regular attendees to our sister event Natural & Organic Products Europe shared their insights on a few key trends to watch in 2020:

“Looking at food, I think we’ll still see continuing growth in the vegan and plant-based categories. Some of that will be down to choices around personal health, but I think planetary health will become the biggest motivation to shop these categories. I think this year we’ll see climate change messaging increasingly pushing its way into the marketing of natural and organic. In particular, I expect to see organic responding to the shift in consumer behaviour from individual-centric to planet-centric decision making,” says Jim Manson, Editor-in-Chief, Natural Products Global.

“In the same way that we’ve seen high protein claims rise in food products, brain health and mental performance improvements will make their way into mainstream food and beverage categories. This has already started with a few nootropic style drinks, but I expect this to go wider in its applications and wouldn’t be surprised to see the idea of ‘eating for your brain’ labelled on all kinds of food products, from breakfast cereal to meat alternatives. Also, sustainable and environmentally friendly packaging remains an elusive goal,” says Joseph Welstead, CEO, Motion Nutrition.

“The move towards a post-Brexit Britain brings us into unchartered territory and could see natural and organic brands navigating hurdles to import ingredients and finished products. By manufacturing in the UK, Green People hopes to circumvent this and plans to continue expanding our product offering throughout 2020,” says Stephanie Matson, Marketing Manager, Green People.

Ironically, I see the greatest opportunity for 2020 as also being the greatest threat, and that is the regulatory status of CBD food supplements, and our continued ability to freely market these products. On the one hand we have a new market emerging that is quite unlike anything I have seen (some estimates say that the market for CBD supplements will before too long exceed the current entire market value for all other food supplements combined), but the real challenge comes from regulators seeking to see these products removed from the market, thereby running the risk of driving consumers to less-regulated online sources of supply,” says Graham Keen, Executive Director, HFMA.

“For 2020, consumers will prioritise their choices around the environmental impact of their shopping and eating in and out of home decisions. Soil Association is hopeful that the relevance of organic as a solution will waken shoppers from their routine habits and the majority will want to understand more about where their food comes from and how it is produced. Brands that are both organic and have other attributes such as ‘free from’, ‘vegan’ or ‘less packaging’ will have the greatest chance of success,” says Finn Cottle, Trade Consultant, Soil Association Certification.

Natural & Organic Products Europe

Natural & Organic Products Europe is Naturally Good’s sister trade event in London where visitors will find all the above trends and more from over 700 exhibitors, showcasing the best choice of eco and clean label products from around the world – across food, drink, health, beauty and eco-living.

In light of ExCeL London being converted into a temporary NHS-run field hospital, Natural & Organic Products Europe has been rescheduled to run in 2021. Click here to find out new dates and more.