Report
Tracking the strong growth in functional dairy drinks
On the back of consumers taking a proactive approach to health, the functional dairy product market has been seeing strong growth.
In 2009 alone, the Functionaldrinks newsletter (produced by Zenith International) tracked 23 new product launches without taking into account other functional drinks that incorporate dairy derived ingredients.
As the functional dairy category has grown, the scope of benefits they offer has expanded to cover a wide variety of health benefits as well as a wide variety of consumer groups and age ranges.
These days, dairy products can support and enhance health through all life stages. For example, in the past year, Functionaldrinks tracked new product launches including a milk targeted at women who are or want to get pregnant, enriched follow-on milk for babies, drinkable yogurts and milk drinks for children.
For adults, there’s an even wider range of options, such as protein shakes designed for weight management, post-workout recovery or simply to supplement protein consumption. Other new products include enriched milk designed to address the typical nutritional requirements of men and women.
Increasingly targeted
One of the implications from the widening functionality of dairy is that dairy products are increasingly targeted at specific age groups. In the US, this has translated in companies offering dairy products targeted at the ‘Baby Boomer’ generation, characterised by consumers with a higher purchasing power who are also health aware and are more likely to search for ways in which to improve their health.
Another reason for targeting this specific group has been that Baby Boomers, as they age, are more prone to suffer from typical ‘Western lifestyle’ diseases such as high cholesterol, blood pressure or joint health problems.
A further development in the category has been the migration of ingredient applications, once a niche, to applications with a broader positioning – the star example of this phenomenon being whey protein.
Whey was initially used for products intended for bodybuilders and almost always added to powders, as the technology didn’t exist to produce better filtered whey that wouldn’t affect the taste of beverages and was cost-effective.
One can now find dairy and non-dairy drinks with added whey protein for post-workout recovery, satiety and even to aid healthy ageing.
The natural progression of the functional dairy category has meant that, as certain markets are reaching maturity, companies have started to look to other countries where they can make inroads. Not long ago, Cooperativa Colanta, a Colombian dairy cooperative, introduced to the country the first yogurt drink to feature Raisio’s successful Benecol ingredient.
Product development is no longer restricted to western Europe. Countries that historically had little or no history of consuming dairy products are increasingly doing so, and at the same time being educated about the inherent health benefits this can bring.
It certainly seems that there’s still plenty of scope for innovation in maturing and emerging markets, so watch this space for future developments.
Cecilia Martinez is a Zenith International market analyst.
For more information on Zenith’s reports on Global RTD Protein Beverages, Global Functional Dairy Insights and Functionaldrinks newsletter, contact Zenith International.
See also
Latest news
| |