June 25, 2025 – The Latin American consumer approach toward ingredients encompasses consumer perceptions, attitudes, and actions. Looking at ingredients also involves looking at the benefits of the ingredients, including benefits around mental health, gut health and physical health overall, and functionalities from ingredients. Innova Market Insights conducts several annual consumer trends research, including in Latin America, that look at the main health goals of consumers, their concerns about health, and how they are using diet strategies to achieve their goals. This collection of insights supports opportunities for innovation.
Latin American Consumers Get Information From Packaging
In Latin America, packaging communicates information to consumers. In fact, about half of Latin American consumers participating in consumer trends research conducted by Innova say that packaging is their main communication source for information on ingredients. Latin American consumers also turn to other information sources. In Brazil, a higher percentage of consumers rely on information from doctors or dietitians than in Mexico. Brazilian consumers are less inclined to seek advice from family and friends than Mexican consumers.
Other sources of information used by Latin American consumers for evaluating health are the nutrition label and ingredient list. A solid proportion of consumers say that an ingredient is beneficial if consumers understand the purpose of the ingredients on the list.
Latin American consumers also value clean label features. They want information that is honest, claims that are not misleading, and label language that is clear and understandable.
Quality is Price and More
Latin American consumers participating in Innova Market Insights consumer trends research name price as the top feature connoting quality. After price, Latin American research participants say that shelf life is a vital quality feature. Generations differ in their willingness to pay more for different product features, with Generation X being the most likely to pay more for physical health and mental health benefits.
Acceptance of Well-Known Versus Novel Ingredients
Consumer trends show that there’s a difference between younger Latin American consumers and older Latin American consumers related to how they view ingredients. Older generations such as Latin American Boomers say in consumer trends research that they would swap a well-known ingredient for a novel ingredient if the novel ingredient is healthier. Millennials say that natural ingredients are appealing. With a focus on sustainability, Gen Z consumers are okay with unfamiliar ingredients that are sustainable.
Avoiding Sugar
Latin American consumer trends research participants report that they avoid sugar. For Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X consumers, sugar is the #1 ingredient that they avoid. Traditional sugar ingredients are not widely used or consumed, but consumers in Latin America accept them. Sugar reduction strategies can be adjusted for specific consumers and their preferred strategies. Over half of consumers say they prefer cutting back on sweetness over using artificial sweeteners. A sizable proportion, although less than half, would use sweeteners for something that is sweet but with less calories.
Latin American Relationship to Health and Food
Latin American consumers tend to consider their personal nutrition needs when having regular food and beverage products. They consider healthy foods to be fresh and natural. In looking for fresh foods, Latin Consumer trends show that American consumers want foods that are freshly cooked and have ingredients that are safe and high in quality. Other approaches that are popular are to eat less food that is not healthy and to cut back on portion sizes.
Consumers in Latin America are interested in products tailored to their lifestyle and performance levels. Their purchasing of products for lifestyle and performance lags behind their interest, so this presents an opportunity for company to offer more tailored products. Another opportunity is to provide snack products in Latin America with fiber ingredients because Latin American consumers are highly interested in snacks with fiber.
The ingredient list provides Latin American consumers with information about ultra-processed foods. Latin American consumer trends research participants have ultra-processed foods because they are easy to prepare. A couple of strategies to overcome negatives about ultra-processed foods are to highlight key ingredients and to describe the benefits of processing.
Physical, Mental, and Gut Health in Latin America
Several aspects of health in Latin America offer opportunities. Regarding their physical health, Latin American consumers show great interest in healthy aging and heart health. Ingredients of interest for physical appearance include vitamin C and collagen. Mental health aspects that most concern Latin American consumers are stress and anxiety but only a small proportion of Latin American consumers purchase products for these benefits. This offers an opportunity to offer functional products to relieve anxiety and stress. For mental health, many Latin American consumers turn to food and beverage products with multivitamins. These could be segmented into children and adults. Mexican and Brazilian consumers identify digestive health as the primary factor influencing their purchases of functional foods and beverages. Top ingredients for gut health are fiber, probiotics, prebiotics, and vitamin D.
What’s Next for Ingredients in Latin America?
Several areas of interest exist for ingredients in Latin America. These include treat foods and reward foods to improve mood, combining gut health with other functional health benefits, providing ingredient information on packaging, personalizing mental health benefits for various consumer groups, including ingredient information that is honest and easy to understand, and putting limits on sugar.
This article is based on Innova’s Latin American Consumer Attitudes Toward Ingredients report. This report is available to purchase or with an Innova Reports subscription. Reach out to find out more
