Quest taps global demand for fruit flavours
flavour originally designed for the Asian market.
The company said that Applesense, initially formulated as a response to market interest in the Asia-Pacific region, would be rolled out in Europe and North America.
It claimed that the new range could be used in beverages and a number of other applications.
We have identified a palette of six flavour segments which we are confident can be used anywhere in the world," said Antonella Scarabelli, a member of the Quest research team who helped develop Applesense.
"The original impetus for the project came from China, where there is a very significant market for apple flavours. However, the project was soon broadened out to include apple flavours from all over the globe, and we believe this has led to the creation of a unique flavour palette, which can be used in a large variety of applications."
The market for flavours has, historically, been dominated by suppliers from the US, Japan and Western Europe - in particular, France, the UK, Germany and Switzerland. However these traditional flavour production areas could begin to lose market share to developing areas of the world as the product range and demand expands.
According to a recent report from Freedonia, China leads the way in spurring growth in Asia Pacific, a region slated to advance at about 7.3 per cent, year on year, until 2008. This compares to Western Europe and the US with 3.7 and 3.3 per cent growth respectively.
But fruit flavours have continued to prove to be highly successful in numerous applications across the globe. A recent Business Insights report found that the most popular fruit flavours for products launched between 2004 and 2006 were strawberry, lemon and apple.
The Germany-based DohlerGroup for example recently launched a snack drink flavoured with apple, banana and rosehip with oat'.
Quest said that Applesense is the result of three years of work in measuring consumer trends in apple-flavoured beverages. The company profiled 116 apple-based beverages from all over the world using a descriptive sensory panel.
Mapping techniques then helped to segment the global apple market into a palette of six apple flavour types: cider-apple, candy-apple, fruity-apple, green apple, cooked apple and lactony-apple (a sweet and ripe apple flesh taste with a creamy note).
"If you want to succeed in supplying flavours, then you have to understand what is successful on the market," said Scarabelli.
"We mapped the global apple beverage market to get an understanding of which apple profiles were successful. We then developed our Applesense palette in response."
The company claimed that Applesense flavours have already proved to be successful in the Asia-Pacific region.
