Texture vies with taste for consumer attention

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Texture vies with taste for consumer attention

23 Apr 2024

Maggie Glisan

Maggie Glisan covers consumer trends and emerging markets for the Commercial Baking media group. She spent the bulk of her 15-year career as the senior food editor at Better Homes and Gardens, where she was responsible for producing, writing and editing stories and developing recipes for the monthly magazine and special interest publications. Prior to that she worked as graphic designer and assistant art director in the Food Group at Better Homes and Gardens, where she took on an increasing role in content creation and editorial development.

KANSAS CITY, MO — Any expert knows taste is king. The density of a cake, the flakiness of a crust, and the crumb structure of a loaf of bread may not fall into the category of flavor, but all play a big factor in the overall eating experience of a baked good, and consumers are setting an increasingly high bar when it comes to what they expect from texture.

Betsy Kelly, consumer insights associate for the bakery channel at Minneapolis-based General Mills Foodservice, said that for consumers, texture is critical.

“First and foremost, a product must live up to its expected texture,” she said. “We expect a mousse to be smooth and not grainy. We expect a croissant to be flaky with a honeycomb interior and ever so slightly crisp exterior, not squishy as if someone accidentally hit the steam inject in the oven.”

Texture contributes to consumer perceptions of quality — freshness being chief among them — and is impacted by many factors, including ingredient quality, environmental factors and moisture content.

“The texture of a baked product is one of the key attributes of a consumer’s perception of freshness,” said Jesse Stinson, director of research, development and applications at Corbion. “As baked products age, they go through a process of starch retrogradation (staling), which leads to products with a firm, dry and stale texture. Enzyme technology has advanced over the years, enabling consumers to have a baked product that remains soft and fresh. In addition to the eating experience, the mouthfeel of a product is often a consumer’s first indicator of a product’s freshness.”

Kelly shared that it’s important for bakers to understand how product textures relate to time, whether it’s time in production, the product delivery timeframe, how long the product is in a pastry case, or the time it’s on a plate.

“With time and texture, we are constantly asking will and how the texture could change or become compromised if timing is off in one of these stages,” she said.

Nailing that just-from-the-oven freshness can be a challenge, especially for commercial bakers producing at scale, noted Richard Charpentier, CMB, CEO of consulting company Baking Innovation. But when it comes to premium baked goods, consumers have higher quality standards, with texture being one of the top factors. Charpentier spoke in detail on taste and texture in Season 7 Episode 4 of the Troubleshooting Innovation podcast.

Consumers are also savvier than ever and have an ever-expanding global curiosity when it comes to food. They take croissant-making classes at their local bake shops, troubleshoot sourdough bread baking questions in Facebook groups and watch The Great British Baking Show with rapt attention. They expect authenticity — especially when it comes to regional foods — and if texture is subpar, they notice.

“The smartphone really exposed everyone to foods of the world,” Charpentier noted, sharing examples like the fluffy Japanese cheesecake, which went viral around 2017, as the kind of global dish that creates major buzz online and has consumers clamoring for more new-to-them discoveries.

“Throughout 2023, we saw a major focus on texture because it was a way to provide reassuring, familiar classics with an unexpected, intriguing twist.”
Isabel Ghysbrecht | international category manager, patisserie | Vandemoortele USA

Bakers who are paying attention, he said, can act quickly and tap into that demand.

“The advantage is that the US is a really fast-moving market, and bakers can see something on social media and say, ‘I’m going to offer that to my customers,’” Charpentier added.

Unexpected twists on nostalgic and familiar foods also appeal to consumers looking for unique eating experiences, which is of particular interest to younger generations.

“Throughout 2023, we saw a major focus on texture because it was a way to provide reassuring, familiar classics with an unexpected, intriguing twist,” said Isabel Ghysbrecht, international category manager of patisserie at New York City-based Vandemoortele USA.

Per Vandemoortele’s research, 64% of consumers like to try food with different textures, and Ghysbrecht said the company expects that number to rise.

Perhaps that’s why bakers are experimenting more with combination textures and finding success with multi-layered baked goods. Products with contrasting textures — blending a crispy or crunchy component with a soft, fluffy crumb, for example — are popping up in a variety of forms and becoming more popular across categories.

For example, Vandemoortele USA tapped into the trend recently with two new multitextured desserts: Maple Pecan Cake and Cookies ‘N Cream Pie. The Maple Pecan Cake is a soft cake with a creamy maple center and crunchy buttery pecans; Cookies ‘N Cream Pie features a crumbly cocoa shortbread crust with a smooth, dense chocolate and vanilla cream filling, all topped with a crisp sprinkle of cookie crumbles.

“Experimenting with texture allows for more variety in what we offer, which, ultimately, allows us to reach more consumers and satisfy their desire for delicious and multi-faceted pastries,” Ghysbrecht said.

From a sweet treat lens, Kelly said, General Mills is seeing multiple textures in large particulate inclusions and as a variety of fillings as popular trends.

“Contrasting textures can take a basic product to a premium product,” she shared. “From a filling perspective, chocolate-flavored filling remains a crowd-pleasing classic option, but we’re also seeing seasonal-flavored fillings gain traction. For instance, an autumn-inspired apple pie filling may include apple chunks and pie crust pieces or maybe it’s a silky-smooth apple puree with warm, brown baking spices. Whether it’s an added creamy filling, a crunchy layer of praline or cookie crumbles, there are countless ways to add textural contrast to baked goods.”

This story has been adapted from the February | Q1 2024 issue of Commercial Baking. Read the full story in the digital edition here.

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