New Digital Tool Translates Flavour Trends, Consumer Preferences, and Category Relevance into Actionable Innovation for Product Development
Naas, Ireland (April 16, 2025) – Kerry Group, a global leader in taste and nutrition solutions, announces its 2025 North America Taste Charts Smarts, an interactive quiz designed to help food and beverage brands understand evolving consumer preferences and identify the most appealing flavours for their specific category.
The quiz is built on Kerry’s proprietary Taste Trends and Taste Charts, two tools that track the evolution of flavour across 13 global regions. Kerry’s Taste Charts map flavour performance into four tiers—Mainstream, Key, Up & Coming, and Emerging—based on consumer testing and proprietary data across categories like sweet, savoury, citrus, dairy, salty snacks, and more. Combined with the 2025 Taste Trends, which reflect broader cultural and functional shifts in consumer flavour expectations, these insights provide a comprehensive view of what’s resonating and what’s next.
Taste Charts Smarts turns this data into an interactive, personalized experience. The quiz invites food and beverage innovators to test their flavour instincts and discover how closely they align with real consumer preferences. Participants receive tailored results based on their product category, including:
- The three most appealing flavours in their respective super category – such as cold, dairy, hot beverages, savoury, snack, or sweet snacks
- A detailed look at the top-performing flavour in their specific sub-category
- The most relevant 2025 Taste Trends to inspire future flavour innovation—designed to spark further ideation
For those seeking a deeper dive, the quiz also offers the opportunity to schedule a personalized demo, including a full flavour performance report and expert guidance from Kerry’s team. Built on insights from over 75 distinct product categories, the quiz delivers a highly customized experience that reflects the specific flavour dynamics of each segment. With this tailored approach, brands can confidently develop new flavours or refine existing products based on what truly resonates with their target consumers.
“Our customers aren’t just looking for a list of what’s trending, they’re looking for confidence in their product development decisions,” said Elizabeth Horvath, VP Marketing, North America. “Taste drives consumer choice. The Taste Charts Smarts quiz encourages food and beverage brands to dig deeper beyond just flavor trends, uncovering taste profiles most appealing by sub-category. Backed by real consumer data, this practical tool turns inspiration into innovation.”
Flavour Dynamics Across North America
The Taste Charts Smarts quiz reflects regional preferences across both the U.S. and Canada highlighting both shared and regionally distinct preferences.
Key insights include:
- Beverage – Dairy & Hot: Indulgent, creamy flavours like French Vanilla, Milk Chocolate, and Vanilla remain prevalent across markets. Canada leans into seasonal flavours like Pumpkin Spice, while the U.S. embraces innovative flavour trends such as Cookie Butter.
- Beverage – Water & Cold Alcohol: Fruity profiles dominate. Canadian preferences lean towards tropical and citrus like Mango, Lime, and Strawberry, while the U.S. consumers are drawn to spirited flavours like Margarita.
- Salty Snacks: Classics like Cheddar Cheese and Garlic remain popular across markets. Canada leans towards sweet-savoury pairings like Sweet & Salty, while the U.S. leans into Bacon-forward offerings.
- Sweet Applications: Both markets enjoy timeless classics like Milk Chocolate. Canada favours comforting dessert flavours like Brownie and Cookies & Cream, while the U.S. explores complex profiles such as Coffee and Coconut.
- Savoury: Smoky and cheesy notes resonate across both consumer markets. Canada highlights bold, spicy flavours like Applewood Smoke and Buffalo, whereas the U.S. leans into tangy options like Bacon Ranch.
Kerry’s Unique Approach
Kerry’s approach stands apart by grounding its flavour insights in extensive consumer research, ensuring the results are not only market-relevant but strategically actionable. Designed for innovation teams across the food and beverage space, the quiz delivers practical, data-backed guidance for both new product development and flavour reformulation. Whether exploring new territories or optimizing existing favourites, the tool brings clarity to every stage of development.
For more information about Kerry’s 2025 Taste Charts Smarts, please visit here.
About Kerry Group
Kerry is a world leader in taste and nutrition for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical markets. We innovate with our customers to create great tasting products with improved nutrition and functionality, while ensuring better impact for the planet. Our leading consumer insights, global RD&A team of 1,200+ food scientists and extensive global footprint enable us to solve our customers’ complex challenges with differentiated solutions. At Kerry, we are driven to be our customers’ most valued partner, creating a world of sustainable nutrition, and will reach over two billion consumers with sustainable nutrition solutions by 2030. For more information, visit www.kerry.com.
