当食品产品线无法成功时，尤其是当产品具有被认为是流行的成分时，制造商想知道出了什么问题。例如，去年秋天，Chex announced it would stopmaking its gluten-free oatmeal. For Campbell Soup Co., the recentdiscontinuation of its V-8蛋白质系的奶昔和棒归因于缺乏独特性。
Manufacturers will find it takes more than adding a trendy ingredient to their products to attract consumers. Companies that are perceived by consumers as authentic and artisanal, which points to smaller and startup companies, have the momentum at the moment. "Big Food realizes they have an issue where they need to be more authentic with the consumer because they face strong competition from smaller startup companies," Jared Koerten, senior analyst,Euromonitor International，告诉食物潜水。
独立食品潮流学家卡拉·尼尔森（Kara Nielsen）告诉Food Dive：“主流公司的一部分挑战是他们采用了一些在自然渠道中流行和普遍的特征，但它们不是自然渠道品牌或公司。”
All about the brand?
Over time, consumers begin to see copycat nutrition benefits on brands that are existing legacy brands. For Campbell’s V-8 protein line, a disconnect comes because the V-8 core consumer may not be looking for a high protein benefit. "The guy that is going for a high protein alternative after his CrossFit workout or gym workout is probably not a V-8 consumer," Nielsen said. "That may be someone who may be picking up a Naked Juice protein or Odwalla juice protein."
Koerten说，采用传统品牌并制作高蛋白质变体通常不足以与在特定领域中领先的品牌竞争美国市场。
"The big story is how can our legacy brands compete in this space when a new consumer, whether a millennial or health consumer, believes these things come more authentically for new, smaller brands," Nielsen said. "Which is why you see the bigger companies buying these smaller companies."
千禧一代倾向于关注产品的新颖性，而不是成分。尼尔森说：“公司很难努力解决；总是有新的东西。”
Large manufacturers may have an advantage because they do things really well, are able to make something taste really good, and have access to quality ingredients。她补充说：“但是他们需要一个使它与众不同的钩子，因此不是，'这是另一个无麸质燕麦棒或高蛋白物品。”
Koerten提供了另一种观点。他说：“反工业食品有一个有趣的运动，许多大型制造商都以很大的劣势进入市场。”“当然，很多人仍然喜欢自己的品牌并购买他们的品牌；但是，这些新公司的强劲增长来自初创公司，这些新公司可能在特定的地方更本地化。”他提到Stubbs烧烤酱是德克萨斯州的手工产品，去年由McCormick＆Co。Inc.购买。
Life cycles and what’s up next
以最新的最大成分为时机，进入拥挤的市场领域。Koerten说，无麸质多年来一直是潮汐的上升，但不一定会成为未来的驾驶员。实际上，一些公司（例如在该领域很强的Boulder Brands Inc.）一直在挣扎。Pinnacle Foods完成了收购巨石品牌earlier this year for $975 million, according to the Denver Post.
尼尔森（Nielsen）认为，某些成分趋势开始升级，并且随着更多自然的渠道杂货店在各地涌现，市场将更具竞争力。
So, where are the growth opportunities? With certified organic ingredients, in regard to packaged foods. "Certified organic has a lot of room to grow within the packaged foods world of the broader food market," Koerten said. One reason is because consumers continue to pay more attention to ingredient labels.
Nielsen added, "At the moment we see believable nutrition as a new benefit. We are going to see more plant-based nutrition, such as pea proteins and brown rice proteins." Savvy consumers are looking at not only the source of ingredients, but also the source of energy, and the source of the protein.
