Degradable plastic bags, exotic fruit drinks and meat-flavoured vodka are just a few of the trends that have been revealed in a survey aimed at product marketers.

Datamonitor’s Product Launch Analytics, which tracks new product launches in food and drinks around the world, has uncovered a number of new trends in consumer packaged goods that will be hitting supermarket shelves in 2010.

According to the survey, new product marketers can look forward to a number of new trends in the coming decade, from more humane meat and poultry products and plastic packaging that won’t last forever to skincare products you can wear.

Trends that emerged in the survey include:

• A more humane world: Animal rights have emerged as a growing worldwide concern as consumers want to know more about how the foods they eat were raised and prepared – i.e. ‘free range’ product claims.

• Growth in meat-flavoured products market: A flurry of meat flavoured product launches in the USA over the last few months has combined with innovations from the UK. The products launched in the USA included Das Lolli Man Bait (meat flavoured lollipops), Mo’s Dark Bacon Bar and Backon (bacon flavoured Vodka).

• Plastics back in from the cold: New types of degradable packaging enable plastic to biodegrade in years, not centuries.

• Skincare you wear: Innovations like skin-enhancing bedding from US-based company London Luxury, and sun activated clothing from Toronto brand SunSoul, show that wearable skincare could be a breakout hit in 2010 and beyond.  

• More muscular functional drinks: As Red Bull took the soft drink market by storm, creating a new niche for energy drinks – this story could potentially repeat itself with brands like Muscle Milk and Cytosport.

• Superfruits get more exotic: Some of these include Baobab (a tart African fruit high in antioxidants), Borojo (a natural energizer from the jungles of South and Central America), Maqui (a berry native to South America said to have eight times the antioxidants of blueberries) and Yumberry (technically ‘yang-mi’ fruit, a super-high antioxidant tree fruit from China).

•  Ingredients: the fewer, the better.

• Bamboo cleans up: Thanks to its outrageously-fast growth rate (it can grow as much as 24 inches in a single day), bamboo has become the ingredient of choice for companies that want to bolster their sustainability credentials. Appearing in everything from dish-cleaning sponges and paper plates to baby wipes and cosmetics packaging.

• From energy shots to relaxation shots: Almost single-handedly, ‘shots’ have elevated the energy drink market to new heights. The latest shot trend is the polar opposite of energy drinks – new relaxation shots that offer a non-alcoholic way to reduce stress, with many arriving from the US.

• A gluten-free world: With the incidence of food-related allergies on the rise, things look good for sufferers of celiac disease seeking products they can enjoy.