Soya beverage makers are using more subtle marketing of their key ingredient and merging with more traditional segments like juice and dairy in a bid to bring their products into the mainstream.
Soya drinks, initially marketed as an alternative to milk for people with allergies, have seen rapid growth in recent years as research into the benefits of soy attracted many new consumers such as women trying to lose weight or people hoping to lower their cholesterol.
The growth has led numerous multinational food and beverage firms, as well as private label manufacturers, to create products with soya protein, increasing competition and the need for further innovation from the category leaders.
While sales growth has slowed in some markets, new technology, such as TetraPak's FlexDos filling machine and the rise in processing methods like micro filtration, is allowing soy beverage producers to innovate more easily.
Heat and light-sensitive ingredients like omega-3 fatty acids and up and coming health additives like CLA can be added into soymilk at a later stage of the production process, bypassing the damaging UHT treatments typically used by soymilk producers to kill bacteria.
The impressive growth has seen dairies like Fonterra and Friesland Foods launch new soya products in Thailand in the last year to reap some of the rising sales.
In China, consumers attach significant value to vegetable protein and this is already being exploited by a new soy-juice combination product called V-Pro on the Hong Kong market.
Consumers still have trouble making the jump to soy-based juices - the soymilk image stays with them. But talking about vegetable protein rather than soy protein could be a good way of reaching these consumers.
A number of new products launched around the world in recent months have used other low-key messages about soy to reach new consumers, conference speakers revealed. These include Unilever's Adez, a soy-based juice recently launched in the UK, and Up & Go, a new soy and dairy breakfast drink on the Australian market.
Source:佚名