Kerry Taste Chart and KerryNow: Data-Driven Recipe Co-Creation

📌 Background

In January 2026, Kerry released the 2026 Global Taste Chart in Singapore. Built on insights from over 1,200 scientists, hundreds of flavor experts, and cross-regional consumer research, it provides data-driven flavor trend guidance for the food and beverage industry. Powered by Kerry's end-to-end digital platform KerryNow, customers can instantly order samples, explore flavor combinations, and access application and regulatory support, accelerating the innovation process from concept to market. Amid surging demand for clean labels, sugar and salt reduction, and emotional flavor profiles in 2026, data-driven customer co-creation has become a core weapon for B2B ingredient suppliers competing for brand innovation budgets.

👤 Target Customers

R&D and innovation departments of global beverage, food, and pharmaceutical manufacturers; the actual payers are brand enterprises paying for high-value-added flavor and nutrition formulations rather than end consumers.

💰 Revenue Streams

Rather than charging for reports or software, insights are converted into incremental sales of customized flavor and nutritional formulations; ingredient premiums are charged to customers around high-margin technologies (such as the Tastesense sugar and salt reduction system); recurring purchases and exclusive formulation lock-ins driven by joint development form long-term sticky revenue, with the beverage business accounting for approximately 27% of total revenue in 2025.

🧮 Cost Structure

R&D labor investment of over 1,200 scientists and hundreds of flavor experts; production costs for cross-regional consumer research and trend charts covering the globe; construction and maintenance of the KerryNow digital platform, alongside operational expenditures for sample logistics, application, and regulatory support teams.

🛡️ Moat

Combining scientific R&D scale (biotechnology, fermentation, enzymatic hydrolysis, natural extraction) with data insights to build a systematic global flavor trend chart that is rare in the industry; the end-to-end digital platform connects insights, samples, compliance, and mass production into a closed loop, shortening customer innovation cycles and making it difficult to replicate on a single point basis.

🔑 Keys to Success

• Marketing penetration to deliver the taste chart to customer decision-makers
• Rapid feedback mechanism from sample request to mass production delivery
• Deployment of localized application and regulatory support teams in major markets

⚠️ Risks

• Misjudgment of trends leading to sunk costs in massive R&D investments
• Data platform being viewed by customers as a freemium service, making independent revenue-cost balance challenging
• Global supply chain disruptions affecting sample and mass production delivery timelines

🏢 Cases

• Released the 2026 Global Taste Chart and distributed it to the industry in January 2026
• KerryNow platform supporting customers in instantly ordering samples and exploring flavor combinations
• Kerry providing formulation and ingredient support for end products such as infant formula

📊 SWOT Analysis