Claire Phoenix is FoodBev Media managing editor – magazines. This is a personal blog and views expressed are her own.
It’s been a frantic first day at Vitafoods with some new categories emerging, and categories that last year seemed to have potential now cementing their position in the functional foods market.
My first meeting of the day was with Sophia Mendonca of Lisbon-based Allma, which produces chlorella powder from algae. I was pleasantly surprised by the chef-inspired little green healthy snack biscuits incorporating rosemary, piri piri, chlorella and rice flour – very stylish with a low-calorie gin and tonic. Other chlorella blends include ginger and lemon, plus raspberry and carrot to blend in to dairy products and cereals.
Another trend in growth is that of functional confectionery – The Tasting Bar had collagen-enriched beauty gums from F Hunziker, omega-3 chocolate coins from Carmit and peanut butter toffees made with worms (delicious) by SAS SlimPack.
After a full house for our FoodBev presentation on sports nutrition, which focused on whey protein, new flavours and categories blurring, I visited the DSM Stand.
Here I heard about DSM’s latest global research into omega-3, covering 11,000 people in ten countries: a new study into perceptions of natural, the results indicating that 88% of people in Turkey would pay more for a natural healthy product. They also had a fun carotenoid machine that measures your monthly intake of fruit and vegetables in terms of beta-carotene by a sensor. Mine was a rather low four – I blame last night’s lasagne but obviously need to eat more vegetables. We’ll send our FoodBev vegetarian Jess along tomorrow and let you know how she fares!
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