Bone broth: what's the hype?

Caddle recently surveyed its members to understand their shopping behaviours when purchasing soup broth.  An interesting finding was the interest in ready-to-drink bone broth as an innovation shoppers would be interested in purchasing.  With all the hype around bone broth, we decided to dig into the industry a bit further.

Stock, Broth, Bone Broth – what’s the difference?

Good question!  It all comes down to the ingredients and how long the product is cooked. Traditional broth is water simmered with vegetables, aromatics, and meat, and can include some bones. It is cooked for a short period of time—usually 45 minutes to 2 hours—then strained and seasoned. Stock is water simmered with vegetables, aromatics, and animal bones, sometimes roasted, and sometimes with some meat still attached. It is cooked for a medium period of time—usually 4 to 6 hours—then strained.  Bone broth is similar to stock, but with a longer simmer time – often more than 24 hours, allowing for more nutritious minerals to be extracted

So what’s the hype on bone broth?

The emerging popularity of bone broth has been synonymous with developing health trends, education around the benefits of this product and more recently, the rise of product availability. Popular food trends such as the Whole 30, Keto and AIP diets are helping to drive the increased awareness of the supposed benefits of bone broth. While medical opinions differ on the effectiveness of the ‘bone broth diet’,  some suggested benefits include:

  • Reduction of Leaky Gut syndrome – linked to acne, allergies, celiac disease, depression, eczema, migraines, rosacea.  
  • Reduction in inflammation in the body and fighting joint health – particularly arthritis.
  • Collagen – this essential nutrient is attributed to improving recovery time in sports, increasing skin elasticity for skincare benefits and reduce cellulite. 
  • Sports recovery and nutrition
  • Animal health – in addition to humans, animals can benefit from this nutrition-rich option and bone broth soup can aid in joint recovery particularly for older animals. 

Who are the current market players?

Research from Innova Market Insights looked at the top 100 sales companies in the CPG industry, particularly in food and beverage.  The results show that General Mills and McCormick are the only parent companies in this category with a bone broth product in their US portfolio – both from acquisitions rather than internal innovation.  

With year-over-year industry growth, the VC community has taken an interest, investing in smaller, privately held companies.  Kettle and Fire, an industry competitor, started by a bone broth devotee, recently secured an $8 million Series A investment. Reporting that sales have tripled each year since inception in 2015, with 2018 sales forecasted at over $20 million. The investment will primarily go towards marketing efforts and allowing for more working capital as they haven’t been able to keep up with the product demand. Another market leader in the space, Ancient Nutrition secured $103 million in 2018 with a mix of private and investment funds, lead by VMG Partners.

Bone broth - what's the hype?

What are the innovations?

While currently available bone broth is sold in powder form, insights from our research suggest that 30% of Canadians would be interested in a ready-to-drink (RTD) format.  Whole Foods recently jumped on this trend when they partnered with start-up Ossa Organic to launch a pop-up ‘bone broth bar’ in one of their UK stores; introducing consumers to what is being marketed as “the new coffee”.  

One of the biggest appeals for bone broth soup is the time-saving factor of purchasing RTD products. Caddle users indicated that one in three Canadians are interested in a RTD chicken bone broth. While ready-to-drink formats are a relatively new trend, bone broth is leading the interest in fortified food and beverage products in a ready-to-go availability. This indicates that combined products such as the like of drinkable bone broth will become the norm.  With its ease of maintaining one’s health, this is thus driving the demand for products such as these.

Bone broth - what's the hype?

Wrapping up

With consumers being so readily concerned about their health, it appears that bone broth will become an emerging trend that will see a rise in demand in the coming years. With its many health benefits and ease of consumption, this will create an enticing opportunity for industry leaders to jump on this trend — or allow new entrants to enter the market as well.

Caddle is a consumer insights platform that allows consumer packaged goods companies to link directly to their target audience via surveys.  As part of our daily survey activity, Caddle examined the decision-making process for consumers choosing their preferred brand of soup broth.

Are you launching a new product or looking to get insights before innovating?  Connect with us to find out how Caddle can help.