Health has never been as high on the agenda of the food industry as it is today, and it seems that all influencing factors that shape the trends in food and drink are pointing towards an increased focus on healthy eating.
Consider the global downturn. This had led to consumers going ‘back to basics’ and in many cases cooking from scratch, which has focused attention on what ingredients really go into food products and whether they’re contributing positively to health. What’s more, for the increasing number of consumers who look for healthier food, it’s a lifestyle choice that doesn’t diminish when times are hard.
A sense of nostalgia has also prevailed, with a yearning for simpler times and simpler food products and in many cases a focus on the intrinsic health benefits of foods. Witness the continued interest in ‘super fruits’ as naturally healthy ingredients and the neverending list of new varieties such as the Boabab fruit, Cupuaçu and Maqui berry that are coming onto the market ‘out-super-fruiting’ the now ubiquitous pomegranate, acai and goji berries.
Couple this with the negative publicity that artificial colours, flavours and preservatives have received and you have the perfect powder keg for what’s turning out to be a natural ingredients explosion. All-natural or clean-label foods are becoming the minimum standard in many categories, especially for children’s foods, but also in categories such as soft drinks where purity is a more visible part of the product offering.
Witness the likes of Pepsi Raw, Zico natural coconut water and Hansen’s Natural Soda in the US. The ageing of the population is the biggest demographic shift occurring globally. There were around 750m people aged 60 or over in the world in 2008 (11% of the total population) according to United Nations estimates. By 2050, the over-60 population is predicted to be just over 2bn (22% of the total population).
A doubling in the population that experience the most health issues is going to focus the minds of food and drink manufacturers that have so far largely shied away from directly targeting the rather unfashionable ‘grey’ market.
Enhancing and prolonging cognitive ability is thus an area of ongoing interest. With an ageing population, conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer’s will affect more people. To date, there has been a lot of activity in mental performance in products aimed at children, yet comparatively little for the over-60s, a situation that’s likely to change.
One of the biggest health issues the world faces is the continued rise in obesity levels. The World Health Organisation expects the number of overweight adults to grow from 1.6bn in 2005 to 2.3bn in 2015, and the number of obese adults to grow from at least 400m to 700m.
The problem is potentially more devastating among children, with 10% of the global child population already either overweight or obese – a figure that rises to as high as 32% in the US. Once more of a problem only in high-income countries, ‘overweight’ and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in fast-developing economies such as India and China.
Given the focus on weight issues, it’s no surprise that weight management is one of the key growth areas within the functional food sector and within this category, most development recently has focused on foods that suppress appetite or induce satiety. High fibre, high protein ingredients, such as oats and whey protein, have been used. For example, Kellogg’s Special K Actief weight control breakfast cereal was launched in the Netherlands in 2008. It contains a special combination of protein and fibres to promote a longer period of satiety. Within this category, and in other successful functional food areas such as digestive health and energy products in particular, consumers being able to quickly feel the benefits are key to ensuring ‘buy in’.
Another area of continued interest will be in general immunity boosting products, which will continue to prove popular especially if conditions such as swine flu rear their head again, as well as high fibre ingredients.
Most consumers still don’t meet their recommended intakes of dietary fibre. So, pre- and probiotics, antioxidants and vitamins, and whole grain and high-fibre ingredients will continue to permeate across more food categories.
So, what impact will the changing regulatory landscape have on these global health trends? It’s now apparent that the European health claims approval process may allow some categories to flourish more than others. Some of the winners of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) review process to date are in the heart health benefit foods sector such as cholesterol lowering products (plant stanols and sterols) and oat products (beta glucans for healthy blood cholesterol)
Heart health is already a relatively well-developed health category, but one which can be expected to continue to advance. Leatherhead Food Research expects the market for heart benefit foods to grow strongly over the next five years, although overall growth rates will depend on various factors, not least legislative.
Assuming that the claims situation doesn’t undergo radical change resulting in the repositioning of certain products away from cardiovascular health (particularly in the US), overall sales in the sector look set to rise by at least 40% between 2009 and 2014.
However, not all health sectors will pass through the regulatory hurdles as smoothly as the heart health sector. Immune health, for example. The blanket rejection last October of a series of probiotic health claims by EFSA caused a lot of unrest in the probiotic sector. A similar blow hit the antioxidant sector with the release of a second batch of health claim scientific opinions from EFSA at the end of February this year; all but a few antioxidant claims relating to vitamins and minerals received negative opinions.
Several health claims relating to cognitive function in the elderly are currently undergoing review. These relate to ingredients such as phosphatidylserine, creatine and DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid). We await with anticipation the outcome of the review process and what impact this may have on the food and beverage market for the elderly.
High fibre and high protein claims are generally subject to a less stringent regulatory hurdle because they relate to what a food contains (nutrition claims) rather than its effect on health.
There are minimum threshold levels of these nutrients which products must contain in order to bear these nutrient content claims. For a high fibre claim, there must be at least 6g/100g of fibre in the product. For a high protein claim, a product must contain at least 20% of its calories from protein. Although claims relating to satiety didn’t get the thumbs up from EFSA, the criteria for substantiating satiety claims is now a lot clearer: robust satiety studies that record subsequent calorie intakes (ie all food eaten following consumption of any satiety ingredient or product) are required for the continued success of satiety claims in Europe at least.
‘Super foods’ and natural trends are not subject to regulatory restrictions to the same extent as their health claim counterparts. Apart from its use in relation to flavouring substances, the term ‘natural’ isn’t currently regulated at European level. The same applies to the use of super foods, although national bodies, such as the UK’s Food Standards Agency, have developed guidance for use in this regard.
While global health food trends are affected by several factors, Leatherhead Food Research expects that legislative factors will play a much bigger role than ever before.
Chris Brockman (market intelligence manager) and Mary Gilsenan (head of regulatory services) represent Leatherhead Food Research.
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