When creating new products and flavours, Research and Development are leaning towards adding benefits to comfort foods. Comfort food is what sounds like food that provides comfort. These foods are broken down into nostalgic foods, indulgence foods, convenience foods, and physical comfort food, often consumed when stressed ( Finkelstein‑Fox et al 2020 ).
In today’s market, the consumer often turns to products with added benefits. In the dairy industry, we are seeing functional ingredients being included in products.
Probiotics – live microorganisms that have health benefits when consumed
Protein -is a nutrient needed by the human body for growth and maintenance
Fibre – is a type of carbohydrate that helps keep our digestive systems healthy.
Ice cream is a comfort food which is being loaded with a functional ingredient like protein. Adding benefits to ice cream is a huge part of our NPD in my current job , and is proving to be successful !
Adding benefit to already existing products is a topic which I really enjoy researching !
References
Finkelstein‑Fox, L., Gnall, K.E., and Park, C.L., 2020. Mindfulness moderates daily stress and comfort food snacking linkages: a multilevel examination. Journal of Behavioral Medicine.