Chocolate and caramel top ice cream flavours

Chocolate and caramel are leading flavour innovation in the ice cream market – at the expense of vanilla – according to latest market figures.

For the first time in eight years, more chocolate flavoured ice cream products were launched in the UK over the past 12 months than vanilla, Mintel revealed.

New ice cream products

As many as 22% of all new ice cream products launched in the past 12 months were chocolate flavoured, compared with vanilla at 18%.

The number of new ice cream products with a caramel or caramelised flavour had increased from 6% of all UK new ice cream products in 2011/2012, to 13% in 2015/16.

The popularity of vanilla has been declining, with fewer than one-in-five (18%) new products launched with a vanilla flavour in 2015/16.