Trending ingredients to watch: Pea

Pea fiber not only adds fiber to products, it also helps improve moisturization. Pea protein is considered to be a complete plant protein because it contains all nine amino acids. This is in contrast to many other common plant proteins, such as almonds and rice, which contain all nine amino acids but are too low in lysine to be complete proteins.

Among the new launches in Mintel Global New Product Database (GNPD), globally, the penetration of pea fiber as an ingredient in new food and beverage products has nearly doubled in the last five years. Main categories of pea-related ingredients are: meat substitutes, nutritional and meal replacement beverages, snack bars/cereal bars/energy bars.

Pea ingredient products with vegan/no animal ingredients, high/added protein,, plant-based and environmentally-friendly packaging are rapidly growing in their positioning claims.

Main Claims

Globally, from the positioning claims of peas, low/no/reduced allergen and gluten-free are the mainstream claims, while vegan/no animal ingredients, High/Added Protein, plant-based and Environmentally-friendlypackaging claims are growing rapidly.

GNPD New Products Overview

Beyond Meat uses primarily pea protein in its plant-based burgers (Contains 16%).

(Greece)

Daiya Chocolate Plant-Based Cheezecake contains creamy coconut, coconut oil, pea protein, etc.

(Hong Kong, China)

Bounce Keto Choc Berry Low Carb Bar claims to be low carb and contains all natural ingredients such as almonds (20%), pea protein (5%) and coconut oil (1%).

(Australia)

Calbee Original Salted Baked Pea Crisps – This baked not fried product is made with whole green peas. Healthier than regular potato chips: have less sodium, less fat, and more fiber content.

(Australia)

Bourbon Wingram Protein Charge Lemon Flavoured Pea Snack is high in protein and plant-based: providing 10g of plant-based protein. It contains pea flour, pea protein powder.

(Japan)