Global instant curry leader House Foods says food innovation needs to eschew passing fads if firms want to build a lasting legacy.
The rapid evolution of food and beverage trends in the Asia Pacific region has resulted in a lot of new innovation at an accelerated pace, making for a vibrant food ecosystem - but the reality is that many new, trendy products often do not last after the sheen of novelty has worn off.
According to Japan-based House Foods, which is also the international market leader in the instant RTC and RTE curry category, any food brand that wants to stick around for the long terms needs to prioritise reaching a mainstream audience to actually survive.
"Within the food and beverage industry, it is all too often that we see products appearing, making waves for one or two years with everyone talking about them, but then just disappearing and never heard of again," House Foods China President Hiroyuki Miyato said at the recent Food and Beverage Innovation Forum (FBIF) 2025 in Shanghai.
"The reason for this is that many of these new items may be trendy and adopted by many first adopters that are keen to embrace and try out new things, but never make it beyond that stage and are just washed out by the market.
"According to Roger's Diffusion of Innovations theory, there is a very wide gap between these early adopters of a new innovation and the mainstream audience, and it is only when products manage to bridge this gap and enter the mainstream that they have a sustainable business model and can survive."
The firm's own Vermont Curry (known as 百梦多in China) started over 100 years ago as a niche product in Japan targeted at male-oriented diners keen on spicy foods, but over the years has evolved to become a staple dish in the country.
"Curry rice in Japan is not just a staple but considered a national dish - our data shows that on average, each consumer eats curry rice over 80 times a year which equates to more than once a week," he added.
"This is partially due to the many formats we offer this in - for home cooking we have ready-to-cook curry paste cubes, for instant eating or convenience store purchases we have the ready-to-eat microwaveable versions, for dining out we have established foodservice outlets and B2B options, and importantly we are also a common item found on school lunch menus.
"School lunches were an important route for us to reach mainstream consumers as they essentially grew up with curry rice as a result - What we needed to do was revamp the recipe to be less spicy and more child-oriented, as well as present the curry as a energy-dense, nutritionally-balanced, easy-to-prepare option."
At present, House Foods products make up 74.7% of the global instant curry market.
The firm is optimistic about its growth in many markets but especially China, where it has already established local production to keep up with market demand.
"The first thing to note about establishing a presence in China is that localisation is very important, not just in terms of production but also flavour, colour, cooking and more," he said.
"We had been growing slowly in this market since 2012, but really hit our stride in 2018 after building our third local production facility here as well as in 2022 when demand rose sharply due to COVID-19 causing a rise in home cooking.
"Curry as a dish did not originate in Japan but in India, brought to Japan via the English colonisation, but we have successfully made a version that became a national dish - moving forward, we strive to also make Japanese curry accessible for all Chinese consumers and eventually a national dish in China too."