AICR
Each day, an average of 11 new beverage products made their way into retail stores last year, making it one of the fastest growing diet categories, according to data released by the USDA.
In 2016, food and beverage companies overall introduced 21,435 new products in the US. New products include existing ones that introduced new flavors and package sizes.
New beverages accounted for 18.5 percent of these products, with beer and wine accounting for 21 percent (or about one in five) of the 3,975 beverages introduced in 2016.
Because even small amounts of alcohol consumed regularly increases risk of some cancers, AICR recommends not drinking alcohol for cancer prevention. If you do drink alcohol, limit your intake to no more than two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women.
Snacks was the second largest growing area of food/drink products with a 15 percent share. That growing snack selection could reflect more Americans grazing during the day rather than eating full meals. There were 3,172 snack products introduced in 2016—820 more than in 2011. The increase in new snack products was led by snack/cereal/energy bars, wheat and other grain-based snacks, vegetable snacks, and meat snacks.
The data was pulled from Mintel’s Global New Products Database. An earlier report – by the same group this came from – finds that nearly all Americans (94 percent) snack at least once a day with half of adults snacking two to three times daily.
Source: US Economic Research Service: Beverages and snacks accounted for a third of 2016’s new food products. Processing and Marketing.
