Trend 1: Health is the future of food
In short, the momentum of the trend towards health cannot be doubted and health – or wellness – is becoming the new standard for the food industry.
Foods and beverages with health benefits can no longer be viewed as some special separate category – every product must have some positive nutritional values.
Wellness is the key trend and every company must have a clear view of how “wellness” is going to impact its products and how it will do business in a world in which wellness is the norm.
Trend 2: Intrinsic health
All foods are fast becoming functional.
Which is the world’s most popular functional food strategy?
Which strategy has the least risk associated with it and little to no New Product Development (NPD) cost?
The answer: marketing the intrinsic healthfulness of the foods your company already produces.
Trend 3: Farewell “good diets and bad diets,” welcome to “good foods, bad foods”
The role of the food industry in improving the health of society – and specifically its role in contributing to, and helping to remedy, the epidemic of obesity and other diet-related diseases – is the subject of stormy debate.
Trend 4: GI Good carbs, bad carbs: the rise of whole-grains and low GI
Nestlé, General Mills (UK) and Sara Lee are all doing it and soon, some say, the pressure will build on all food companies to head in the same direction.
Trend 5: Personalised nutrition is here to stay
One of the least-noticed developments of 2003 was also one of the most significant pointers to the future.
The event was the announcement by BASF, one of the world’s leading ingredient companies, and Fonterra, one of the world’s biggest dairy groups, that they were to jointly fund a multi-million dollar research programme, called POSIFoods (Point Of Sale Individualised Foods) to create a system that, Fonterra says, “will allow customers to choose a snack that meets particular health needs such as low-fat for calorie management, low cholesterol for heart-health, high calcium for osteoporosis, or low in sugars for diabetics.
Consumers will be able to receive a healthy, nutritious snack with a specified nutritional benefit and the convenience of instant vending.”
Trend 6: Bars and
beverages
In recent years, the trend to individual consumption has helped drive the rapid growth of nutritional bars and beverages.
If you look at where the big growth in nutritional products has been over the last few years it’s in bars and single-serve beverages – products consumed by individuals who are on-the-go, in a hurry, and most often eating alone.
Trend 7: Daily-dose and the power of packaging innovation
When companies like Danone and Unilever take up an idea and make it central to a number of significant and innovative product launches then it’s time to sit up and pay attention.
In fact the concept these giants have seized on is one that underpins many of the world’s most interesting functional beverage innovations.
Trend 8: Out of the supplement aisle
Two years ago we highlighted that an increasing number of ingredients found hitherto only in the dietary supplement aisle were beginning to find their way into beverages – take note, only in beverages, not foods yet (see Key Trend 6) – and that this signalled a bigger trend.
As an example of ingredients migration from supplements to beverages we used the San Francisco-based company – Joint Juice Inc. – whose highly innovative “Joint Juice” beverage offers per bottle some 1,500mg of glucosamine – an ingredient scientifically established to reduce joint pain – which had prior to the debut of this brand only been available in supplements.
Trend 9: Asia for inspiration and health leadership
It’s worth reminding ourselves that the origins of many of the most successful functional brands and functional product concepts lay in Asia, and in particular Japan.
Probiotic dairy drinks, energy drinks, enhanced waters – these have all been long established in Asia.
Red Bull, for example, was on the market in Thailand for many years before an Austrian company licensed the concept.
And soy may seem like a high-growth wonder-food in the west but it has for centuries been part of the Asian diet.
Trend 10: The kids nutrition crisis will be on all company agendas
The issue of what products the food and beverage industries market to children – and how they are marketed – has risen up the agenda of industry, parents and governments alike over the past two years and there’s every sign that the debate around the subject will intensify and the pressure to produce healthier options will only increase.
* Julian Mellentin is director of The UK-based Centre for Food & Health Studies
julian.mellentin@new-nutrition.com
+44 (0) 207 533 6595