Hot to trot
Meanwhile, one in four consumers in the Kalsec survey claimed to be eating spicy foods more often than they did a year ago, while the same number said they were also eating hotter foods than they did a year ago.
The most population combinations for spicy were: spicy and sweet, followed by spicy and tangy, and spicy and citrus.
According to Kalsec's 'heatsync' index using data from Innova Market Insights, cayenne, jalapeno and habanero are some of the most popular pepper flavors in new product launches, but ghost pepper, arbol and piquillo are also gaining ground.