Category: Industry news

Authentic Fruit Puree Natural Flavours

Posted on by itsflavours

The fruitiest range of natural flavours have just got tastier.

Consumers are increasingly asking for natural flavour profiles and moving away from the sweeter confectionery styles. We love a foam banana as much as the next guy, but sometimes you just need that authentic taste. Make sure your flavours taste just like the real thing.

Fruit Puree Natural Flavours with Authentic Fruit Flavour

We’ve created a range of natural flavours that replicate the intense and powerful fruit flavour profiles of puree. The flavours give food and drink developers an authentic range of fruit flavoured ingredients. 

Following the success of our first batch of natural fruit puree flavours we released last year, we were challenged to keep the range growing. That’s why our development team has been working hard to extend the range. 

Natural Flavours That Just Keeping Giving.

We’ve analysed the data and picked out some more tasty fruits to add to the range. Check out what we’ve got below:

  • Pear Puree – Natural Flavour
  • Apple Puree – Natural Flavours
  • Blueberry Puree – Natural Flavour
  • Pineapple Puree – Natural Flavour
  • Guava Puree – Natural Flavour

Get in touch to request a sample to see what all the hype is about. 

Sometimes It’s About More Than Just Flavour – Flavours That Help Save on Costs.

We know, we know – it’s about all about flavour. Taste is everything after all. But we live in the real world and understand it needs to make sense financially.

That’s why our natural puree fruit flavours can help save on costs by reducing or removing the use of fruit purees. These flavours work perfectly alongside, or to replace completely. 

The Original Fruit Puree Natural Flavour Range.

Missed out on our first release of flavours? Don’t worry – check out the below list and request a sample:

  • Strawberry Puree – Natural Flavour
  • Raspberry Puree- Natural Flavour
  • Mango Puree – Natural Flavour
  • Cherry Puree – Natural Flavour
  • Peach Puree – Natural Flavour
  • Peach Puree – Natural Flavour
  • Apricot Puree – Natural Flavour
  • Blackberry Puree – Natural Flavour
  • Blackcurrant Puree – Natural Flavour

Want to know more? Need a flavour sample to try? Get in touch with the team and we’d be happy to help. 


REQUEST A FLAVOUR SAMPLE

Bravest Flavour Trends for Food and Drink 2024

Posted on by itsflavours

FLAVOUR TREND FORECAST FOR 2024

Take a journey into the future of flavour. Our team of natural flavour experts have connected the dots to pull together the bravest flavour trends for the year ahead.

We’ve tracked down countless online research platforms, trawled the supermarkets, not to mention eating and drinking our way through countless cafes, bars and restaurants across the globe. 

Explore our top flavour tips below:

NEWFOUND NOSTALGIA

Consumers love a trip down memory lane. Make sure you revisit popular flavours from the past, but with an added newfound twist. Nostalgic dessert flavours are big, but now it’s time to get braver with a new spin. Bring old flavours into 2024.

Put your own spin on: Marzipan, Custard, Sherbet, Gingerbread & Candy Floss.

Request a sample.

FOREVER FLORAL

Floral has officially hit the mainstream. Floral and botanicals have been around for a while, but mainly in the premium sectors. It’s now being seen with much wider distribution. These floral flavours can be a little different, so make sure you pair with something fruity. 

Start blossoming with: Elderflower, Rose, Orange Blossom, Hibiscus & Geranium.

Request a sample.

CREATIVE CARAMEL

Salted caramel, and now caramelised biscuit. There is simply no stopping the popularity of caramel based flavours. Anything with caramel seems to be going down a storm. Make sure you are being creative with caramel.

Sweeten up with: Salted Caramel Latte, Caramelised Apple, Blonde Chocolate, Caramelised Biscuit & Dulce De Leche.

Request a sample.

creative caramel flavour trend

BARBIE WORLD

Hear us out on this one. This isn’t just about Barbie. It’s about joining in with pop culture and mainstream trends. Create a flavour to join in with the conversation – just make sure it’s the right one. Timing is everything with this trend. 

Start creating your own with: Smokey Caramel, Neopolitan, Toasted Popcorn, Jalapeno & Spiced Apple.

Request a sample.

FOR REAL FRUITS

Consumers are increasingly looking for natural flavour profiles and moving away from the sweeter confectionery styles. Authenticity is a big deal in food and drink in 2024. Make sure your flavours taste just like the real thing.

Keep it real with: Pineapple Puree, Blueberry Puree, Passion Fruit Puree, Raspberry Puree & Apricot Puree. 

Request a sample.

peach flavour trend

A BRAVER FLAVOUR

Our favourite trend and one that is relevant every year. There is never a time when it’s ok to be boring. Make sure you are keeping things fresh. A top tip is to pair a braver flavour with a more established flavour profile to make sure your product has maximum appeal. 

Dare to be different with: Katsu Curry, Mangosteen, Smokey Strawberry, Tigers Blood & Manao.

Request a sample.

Not enough for you? In need of some more detail? A stickler for facts and figures? Get in touch to request our full Flavour Trends 2024 report to take a deep dive into the world of flavour. 


DOWNLOAD FLAVOUR REPORT

What’s Hot this Christmas in UK Supermarkets

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Food and Drink Trends this Christmas.

Now the dust has settled and supermarkets are stuffed to capacity with glitz and glamour, we jumped head first into the sparkliest aisle in the supermarket. 

Discover what’s hot this Christmas with food and drink in UK supermarkets.

Mince Pies, but not as we know them.

Finally! Mince Pies are getting a little more exciting. We’ve got nothing against a good old mince pie, it’s just that we felt they could do with a facelift. 

Luckily, our prayers were answered. Taking inspiration from the Hot Cross Bun category we’ve started to see a rise in premium flavoured mince pies.

A special shout out to the chocolate and cherry mince pies at Asda. 

i.t.s. flavour trends chocolate and cherry mince pies

Chocolate, any way you want it. 

If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. Chocolate isn’t going anywhere. 

But, in true braver flavour spirit – it’s chocolate ramped up. Mint chocolate, salted chocolate, blonde chocolate, orange chocolate. Make sure you are doing something interesting with it.  

Our special shout-out goes to Tesco with their White Forest flavoured ice cream – yum. 

I.T.S. flavour trends white forest flavour ice cream

Berries, with a little bit of Christmas spice.

We’ve been tracking this one for a while. We first spotted it launched in Harrods when we indulged in their mulled berry-filled doughnuts. 

Since then we’ve been singing its praises to anyone that will listen – hoping it will catch on this Christmas. And, guess what – it’s here. 

Our shout-out goes to Aldi’s Mixed Berry Cider which even has the excitement of glitter – and who doesn’t love a little shimmer at Christmas? 

I.T.S. flavour trends mulled berry

Caramel, you can’t escape it, but why would you want to?

We set you the challenge of trying to avoid caramel this Christmas. Impossible. Everywhere you look another flavour pairing boasts the caramel label.

Leading the way is Caramelised Biscuit. We are pretty sure almost every brand has its own offering at the moment. 

Special shout-out? We couldn’t choose just one. Just get out there and fill your basket with this indulgent flavour. 

 

I.T.S. christmas trends caramelised biscuit

Christmas, the perfect time for flavour. 

There are so many other exciting flavours we’ve seen rising in popularity this Christmas.

Flavours like spiced apple, brown butter, candy cane, marmalade, spiced rum, and almond are some of the tasty flavours to make sure you try this Christmas. 

Don’t forget – if you’re looking ahead to next year, get in touch to request some natural flavour samples to get your development started early.  

I.T.S. christmas flavour trends

REQUEST CHRISTMAS FLAVOUR SAMPLES

A Day in the Life of Natural Flavour Manufacturing

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Understanding Natural Flavours.

In September 2023, leading food and drink publisher, Food Manufacture, came to visit I.T.S. HQ for a quick tour of what life is like in the world of flavour making. 

A day in the life of I.T.S and natural flavour manufacturing.

We love it when friends come to visit at I.T.S. – that is why our door is always open to customers and suppliers to pop by and say hello whenever they are in town. Our good friends from Food Manufacture (Bethan Grylls, Editor, and William Dodds Deputy Editor) approached us to ask if they could come and shoot a short video highlighting what goes on in the day of a natural flavour manufacturer.  Never one to pass up an opportunity, we obliged and welcomed the team on-site. 

Natural flavours don’t have to be so secretive

Why is it that most natural flavour companies are so secretive about their work? We love sharing how we do things and are happy to shout it from the rooftops. 

That’s why we gave a special tour to Food Manufacture to show them all about what we do. We gave a complete tour of our facilities- test bakery, flavour library, flavour production facility, and beverage development suite – even our very own bar! 

Step inside I.T.S. flavours

Click here to watch the video and find out more about what Food Manufacture had to say about their day exploring I.T.S. 

Bakery Flavours of The Future

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Bakery flavour trends to keep an eye on in 2024.

The baking industry has never been more progressive and forward-thinking. Artisan and craft bakeries are inspiring change and driving new trends. 

The mixture of social media and customer demand for exciting new flavours has kept the baking industry on its toes. Read our Bakery Flavour Trends report to get the lowdown. 

We’ve analysed product launch data to highlight the fastest-growing flavours across all categories in bakery. 

Fastest growing bakery flavours across the UK and USA.

We’ve looked at data across key markets that influence trends like the USA and UK. We’ve studied data across all sectors like baked snacking, cakes, muffins, doughnuts, pastries – you name it, we looked. 

Milk chocolate will always be the most popular flavour in the baking industry.

An obvious choice for top spot for bakery flavours in 2022 and one we don’t think will be toppled anytime soon. Milk chocolate is pretty much the first flavour on any bakeries product list.

Now the challenge is how to do you keep it interesting?

Pear, the traditional flavour is beginning to come back into fashion.

A classic flavour that is making waves in grown-up and premium baked products. From up-market pastries, to fancy biscuits – pear launches are really stepping up the game.

Pear is also a great flavour to pair with other tasty flavours.

Do you want to know more about flavours are trending in bakery? Make sure you check out our Bakery Flavour Trends report. 


BAKERY FLAVOUR TRENDS REPORT

Braver Beverage Flavour Trends for 2024

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Beverage flavours to get your taste buds bubbling with excitement.

Are you on the look out for the next big flavour in the beverage sector? Or maybe you just want to discover the most popular flavours in drinks?

The I.T.S. team have crunched the numbers and put together a flavour trend snapshot for the beverage sector. We’ve been tracking product launches from every corner of the beverage category – even products from across the pond in the USA. 

Why are beverage flavour trends so important?

It’s not hard to figure out why keeping tabs on the beverage flavour launches is so important. If there is one sector that constantly pushes things forward it would be beverage. Whatever area of food and drink you might be interested in – you need to keep an eye on what the latest smoothie or energy drinks flavours are. 

You’ve been living under a rock if you haven’t seen weird and wonderful drink brand flavours taking over the bakery and dairy category. 

Orange is the most popular flavour in beverages.

Our data tracking product launches showed that orange was the most popular flavour across all areas of beverage. Driven by the high consumer confidence, health connotations and new exciting variations e.g. blood orange. 

If you’re looking for a flavour for a new beverage range, or evaluating your core range of products, you simply cannot lose with orange. 

Prickly pear is the fastest-growing flavour in new drink product launches.

Here is one for those of you looking for a braver flavour. Prickly pear shows huge growth across the beverage category over the last 5 years. It doesn’t sound like much, but it sure does pack a punch of flavour. 

Do you want to learn more about prickly pear flavour? Or maybe you want to know just exactly how popular orange is? Click here to read our full flavour trend snapshot of the beverage category.

The flavour trend report gives you heaps more flavours that you need to be on the lookout for – make sure you don’t miss out. 


DOWNLOAD BEVERAGE FLAVOUR TREND SNAPSHOT

Hottest Flavour Trends in Dairy & Dairy Alternatives 2023

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Moo-ve over boring flavours in dairy and dairy alternatives.

It’s time for boring flavours in the dairy and dairy category to moo-ve over. We have put in the hard work of looking at the category to outline the biggest and fastest growing flavours emerging.

Our new report outlines the flavours you need to be working with in a whole range of dairy categories. Ice cream flavours, yoghurt flavours and of course flavoured milk – we’ve looked at it all.

Your one stop shop for all your flavour trend needs in the dairy and dairy alternative category. There has never been a more exciting time for the category as the growing dairy alternative space is pushing innovation with new and exciting flavours. 

Click here to download the report and get started with braver flavours.

UHT Proof Natural Flavours for Dairy and Dairy Alternatives

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Natural Flavours Ready for UHT Production

UHT-Proof Natural Flavours for Dairy and Dairy Alternatives

Struggling to get flavour to deliver after UHT processing? Flavouring UHT milk can be tricky. UHT treatment by definition presents barriers for flavour delivery. The ultra-heat treatment involved in the process can dramatically impact on flavour characteristics and profiles. That’s why it is important to run trials and test flavour ingredients to make sure your flavour is really delivering.

In-House UHT Pilot Plant

Tired of running flavoured milk through UHT processing only to find the flavour has changed, or completely disappeared? Sick of the wastage and wasting time? Well, we are here to help. If we were seriously going to make a range of flavours that were made specifically for UHT process, we were going to need to do some testing.

To make sure our testing was spot on, we only went and installed our very own UHT pilot plant. Yes, that’s right, a flavour house has its own UHT pilot plant on-site. But we aren’t just any old flavour house, remember.

With our new state of the art UHT equipment, we were able to run trials with various dairy and dairy alternatives products. This made sure we could check the flavour delivery really came through and that all flavours are fully UHT proofed. Our Flavourists worked closely with our team on the UHT facility to make sure everything was still tasting just as delicious after the UHT treatment.

Our Flavourists could then adapt and make subtle changes to flavour profiles to ensure they could withstand the intense heat of the milk processing.

Natural Flavour Range Tried and Tested for UHT

We’ve now got a tasty little range of unique natural flavours that are ready for your UHT production. We’ve tested and worked these flavours on both dairy and various dairy alternatives milk. So, whatever your preference, we have the flavour.

Take a look at some of our favourites below and request a sample to give it a go.

Banana Natural Flavour (UHT Proof) – Request a sample

Strawberry Natural Flavour (UHT Proof) – Request a sample

Toffee Fudge Natural Flavour (UHT Proof) – Request a sample

Caramel Natural Flavour (UHT Proof) – Request a sample

Vanilla Natural Flavour (UHT Proof) – Request a sample

Milk Chocolate Natural Flavour (UHT Proof) – Request a sample

Dark Chocolate Natural Flavour (UHT Proof) – Request a sample

Ginger Natural Flavour (UHT Proof) – Request a sample

Raspberry Ripple Natural Flavour (UHT Proof) – Request a sample

Black Cherry Natural Flavour (UHT Proof) – Request a sample

Banoffee Natural Flavour (UHT Proof) – Request a sample

Coffee Crème Natural Flavour (UHT Proof) – Request a sample

Gingerbread Natural Flavour (UHT Proof) – Request a sample

Cookies & Cream Natural Flavour (UHT Proof) – Request a sample

Honeycomb Natural Flavour (UHT Proof) – Request a sample

Easter Trends 2023

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The biggest trends and flavours this Easter.

Make sure you are hip to what is happening in the food and drink sector this Easter. Discover the emerging and classic flavour trends that will be turning heads.

White chocolate flavour takes Easter by storm.

White is officially the new brown this Easter.

White chocolate is very much in vogue at the moment. Take a browse down any supermarket Easter aisle and you’ll see a whole host of white chocolate delights.

Everyone is getting in on the party – Cadbury, Lindt, and KitKat have all been heavily pushing the sweet white stuff.

Maltesers have really been smashing it – “68% of shoppers only buying white bunnies, according to Kantar data for the 16 weeks ending 17 April 2022” says a Mars spokesperson.

Make sure you request a sample of our natural white chocolate flavour.

Easter is for sweet snacking.

The on-the-go and snacking format has been growing in recent years for Easter.

We have seen a growing number of brands develop NPD that comes in new smaller formats. This could be anything from mini selection boxes, mini filled eggs or weird and wonderful chocolate characters.

Easter is most certainly not just for a traditional hollow egg in 2023.

Indulgence takes the spotlight.

Sometimes, bigger is always better. When it comes to Easter, this very much the case.

Health has taken a back seat this year, with the focus clearly being on sweet and sugary flavours. We have also noticed a rise in giant sized eggs, offering all sorts of sweet goodies included.

But, there is a sticking point. We’ve noticed some chocolate eggs drastically reducing in size…we see you.

Get a creme-egg or go home.

This one is our favourite – we can’t get enough of all the delicious new creme eggs available. It seems pretty much every chocolate brand now has their own version of the Cadbury Creme Egg.

Keep em’ coming guys!

Fruit Puree Natural Flavours

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Say hello to natural tasting fruit flavours: fruit puree natural flavours.

Do you find that some fruit flavours are far too similar to sweets and confectionery, they just don’t have that natural fruit taste? We have the solution for you. Our puree natural flavours deliver an intense flavour profile with that real natural fruit flavour.

If you’re looking for that extra special flavour, or maybe looking to save costs by reducing the use of real fruit puree, you can’t go wrong with the I.T.S. natural puree flavours.

Save on costs with natural puree flavours.

If you work with fruit purees, you will have noticed the skyrocketing prices recently. Naming no names, but the cost of raspberry puree is becoming a little out of hand. Natural puree flavours offer a more cost-effective and cost-stable approach to getting that natural tasting flavour into food and drink.

Not only do they help save on costs, natural flavours can also be much more straightforward to work with. Add a few drops of flavour and away you go – no issues with cloudiness or having to worry about the stability of the product, all of which can happen with fruit purees. Your production team can thank us later.

It’s all about great tasting flavours.

Our Flavourists at I.T.S. have been busy developing a mouth-watering range of impactful fruit puree flavours that really deliver. Our puree flavour range offers a much more intense and sweet flavour, as if you have just crushed the real fruit itself – whilst also offering complicated ‘cooked’ notes to the tasting profile.

These powerful little flavours work perfectly on their own to deliver an impactful flavour, but can also work alongside actual fruit puree nicely – just so you can cut down the amount used and reduce the overall cost in use.

How to use natural fruit puree flavours.

The I.T.S. natural fruit puree range is open to all – we’ve seen great results used in beverages, dairy products and baked treats. So, whether you’re a keen brewer looking for your next fruity beer, or work in the dairy industry in need of the next big ice cream or yoghurt flavour – we might just have just the trick.

Oh, and not just dairy – did we mention these flavours are completely plant-based and allergen-free?

We’ve also been having a lot of fun in our Test Bakery pumping doughnuts full of jam packed with our puree flavours – delicious!

Don’t just take our word for it.

Get in touch to request a sample from our natural flavour puree range to give it a try yourself.

Strawberry Puree Natural Flavour – Request a sample

Raspberry Puree Natural Flavour – Request a sample

Passionfruit Puree Natural Flavour – Request a sample

Peach Puree Natural Flavour – Request a sample

Apricot Puree Natural Flavour – Request a sample

Banana Puree Natural Flavour – Request a sample

Blackberry Puree Natural Flavour – Request a sample

Mango Puree Natural Flavour – Request a sample

Need more information? Drop us a line to speak to a member of our team and find out more.