New Products

The brisk pace of new product activity realized in 2010 tapered off during the first six months of 2011, according to Mintel’s Global New Product Database. A total of 8,752 new food and drink products were tracked (7,119 food and 1,633 drinks) by the firm during the January through June 2011 period-down from 9,785 products for the comparable period in 2010. While new food products fell short of the 8,813 entries recorded for the first six months of 2010, this category still represents, by far, the bulk of the activity. Notably, the drink category-up from 1,472 in the first half of 2010-was the only category to post an increase by mid 2011. Beverage manufacturers were busy rolling out a wide assortment of products to quench consumers’ thirsts and satisfy demands such as low calorie, zero calories and all natural. Energy drink rollouts particularly spurred the growth of the drink category.