Andreas Exarheas is an editor at FoodBev Media. This is a personal blog and views expressed are his own.
If Dubai’s Gulfood 2015 exhibition is anything to go by, it appears as if the food and beverage health trend is flourishing all over the world.
Companies from a range of different categories are relishing healthy ingredients and striving to make their products appear tailored to individual wellbeing. The Infra Foodbrands stand, from The Netherlands, was exhibiting a range of new 100% juice drinks at Gulfood 2015, which contain ‘nothing but juice’. Flavours in the new 100% range include a mix of fruits and vegetables, for example Spicy Tomato & Carrot Juice and Banana Carrot & Apple Juice, and the packaging of the products features a detailed breakdown of all ingredients, as well as the tagline ‘honestly delicious’.
Bangalore, India-based MTR foods was also at the show, displaying a Badam (almond) drink containing ‘a unique combination of the goodness of milk with real almonds and saffron’. The FoodBev team was told by MTR international business manager, Mithun Sachdeva, that the target consumers for this drink are people who are looking for a healthier snack between meals. Other healthy drink exhibitors at the event included Aguas Primitivas De La Patagonia, from Argentina, which was displaying still and sparkling versions of Patagonia, ‘the world’s purest water’, and Mi.ami, from Belgium, which has just released a 100% natural energy drink, containing jiaogulan, that is free from taurine and caffeine.
Other drinks of this nature were being showcased by Germany’s Lemonaid Beverages, which uses purely organic ingredients, and United Arab Emirates-based SK Beverage, which was promoting its new Nation Sun fruit drink. This beverage is available in pouch packs and features water and real fruit juice, as well as no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives.
Snacking and dairy
The health trend was also evident in food products at Gulfood 2015 and lots of interesting brands were keen to show off their produce. UAE-based has just launched a new range of ‘wholesome’ snacking products in 200g and 25g packs. Almonds, pistachios, cashews, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds are all featured in the brand’s new range and these products all come with their own set of healthy benefits. Sunflower seeds, for example, are an excellent source of essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals and almonds are a rich source of vitamin E, B vitamins, magnesium, copper, manganese, calcium and potassium.
London-based Alara Wholefoods has also recently released a new organic Goji & Yacon Muesli, which contains sweet and chewy yacon flakes. Yacon is full of fructo oligosaccharides, which the human body is incapable of absorbing. As a result, sweeteners of this kind could potentially contribute to reducing the obesity crisis currently being felt around the world. UAE’s Al Ain Dairy Farm has also recently launched a new range of premium ice creams with fresh camel milk. The new range offers nearly half the fat of cow’s milk, high levels of calcium, vitamins and minerals and helps reduce cholesterol. Available in Cardamom, Caramel, Chocolate, Date, Saffron and Lite Vanilla flavours, this product is suitable for people with lactose intolerance and contains natural pro-biotic properties.
Ingredients and trends featured in the aforementioned creations will undoubtedly bleed into more and more products around the world as time goes on, which can only be good news for current and future generations.
The only concern I have is how expensive items of this nature currently are, and will be in the coming years, compared to unhealthy products and if consumers will realistically be able to reap all the benefits on offer. Until there’s a radical shift in pricing for healthy food, too many people will continue miss out on all the advantages healthy eating can bring.
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