Oatside has launched a matcha oat latte designed to boost mental wellness – with flavour to match
The Singaporean beverage brand is known for its oat milk series in Asia.
The firm believes matcha’s deep cultural roots and mental wellness benefits will appeal to increasingly health-aware Asian consumers.
With Asia ranking among the most stressed regions globally, functional wellness products are gaining traction.
Ultra-processing is often cited as a key factor hindering alternative protein acceptance in Asia – but perhaps better communication is all that is need to solve this quandary
The alternative protein industry has suffered a multitude of setbacks in Asia over the past two years after peaking in 2018 and through the pandemic.
Plant-based protein in particular has been put through the wringer in terms of pricing, taste, formats and so on – but one of the newest and most-debated arguments against its adoption has been its ‘ultra-processed’ status.
High-protein chocolates look set to lead the next wave of innovation in the functional snacks category
The increasing popularity of functional snacks in markets all over the world has been no secret – but while chocolate-flavoured protein products have been common, the idea of a chocolate snack that is high in protein has been less so.
This may be about to change with Singapore-based COA & Co (COA) Chocolates, which burst onto the scene recently with its high-protein chocolate snacks enriched with fermented soy.
“The mention of protein and chocolate tends to immediately be linked to chocolate protein bars, but we are not doing that – we have designed our product to be a real, premium chocolate that is high in protein,” COA Founder and CEO Eduardo Burg told us.
Protein is popping up in everything. Which ingredients promise to further propel this powerful trend?
The high-protein food and drink trend is booming. Once the domain of bodybuilders and gym-goers, protein-packed products have now hit the mainstream.
The movement shows no signs of slowing. Today, it’s easy to find bars, breakfast cereals, and even bottled water products making the high-protein claim.
According to analyst firm Technavio, the high-protein product market will grow $50.2bn (€44.2bn) between 2023 and 2028.
Stratified nutrition is Asia’s next step towards scalable, personalised diet solutions that bridge innovation, accessibility, and public health
The topic of next-generation nutrition is often linked to a future where diet and nutrition is personalised to each consumer, bringing individualisation to the next level.
However, experts believe that personalised nutrition is still a long way down the road in terms of feasibility, especially in a price-sensitive region such as Asia.
