The on-trend sweetener is 70 percent as sweet as sugar and helps manufacturers reduce sucrose in their recipes and develop reduced-calorie food and beverages to meet growing consumer demand, the companies say.

So, what will 2019 hold for the beverage industry? Several market research firms and experts revealed their upcoming top trends and predictions.

No matter what their reasons might be, it seems as though a growing number of consumers will be employing eCommerce for their grocery services. Retailers now are tasked with ensuring they are meeting consumers’ expectations in this evolving market.

PepsiCo Inc., Purchase, N.Y., announced the launch of its Nutrition Greenhouse accelerator program in North America, an innovation initiative designed to discover and support emerging brands in the food and beverage sector. The North American program follows the launch of PepsiCo's Nutrition Greenhouse in Europe, now in its second year.

Consumer confidence is holding steady with 53 percent of U.S. households feeling they are in good financial health in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared with the same figure in the fourth quarter of 2016.

As the new year begins, it seems to be the right time to highlight what food and beverage trends are expected to resonate, particularly as several research firms have released predictions of what will shape the industry.

Mintel announced five trends that likely will impact the global food and beverage market in the next year.

Whole Foods Market, a division of Seattle-based Amazon, announced the most anticipated food trends for the year ahead. Floral flavors, functional mushrooms and root-to-stem recipes are just a few of the picks expected to take off in 2018. 

When the Netherlands-based Innova Market Insights announced its Top Ten Trends list for 2017, clean label was highlighted as the No. 1 trend of the year. “Interest in naturalness and clean label continues to feature strongly,” Lu Ann Williams, director of innovation at Innova Market Insights, said in a statement.

The National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) hosted its 2016 NACS tradeshow Oct. 19-21 at Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center. With a tradeshow floor encompassing approximately 410,000 square feet, the event featured more than 1,200 exhibiting companies showcasing thousands of new products.