What to expect at Vitafoods Europe 2023

The annual exhibition will see the return of the: New Ingredients Centre, Tasting Centre, New Products Zone, Omega-3 Resource Centre, Startup Pavilion, and innovation tours.

A new addition for 2023 visitors will be the Sustainability Resource Centre, which Andy Mather, Brand Director at Vitafoods Europe, Informa Markets, explains is in response to the fact 25% of consumers specifically seek products that are certified as sustainable (Mintel, Sustainability Barometer, 2022).

"There’s therefore a huge opportunity for brands to invest in sustainability and build their credentials in this area. Showcasing real-life innovations, the Vitafoods Europe Sustainability Resource Centre is designed to inspire transformational change and empower the industry to provide sustainable nutrition for future generations."

This year will also see the debut of the Startup Innovation Challenge – an opportunity to discover cutting-edge nutraceutical startups as they pitch their ideas live at the Vitafoods Insights Theatre.

"We’re really excited about these new features and the potential they have to inspire the next generation of innovations that will shape the industry’s future," adds Mather.

Within the exhibition, a two-day Vitafoods Europe Conference will offer a programme focused on tackling current challenges and identifying immediate opportunities for the nutraceutical industry. 

Through a mix of expert presentations and panel discussions the conference will provide in-depth insights into challenges affecting the industry and examples of applications of the latest research. During the conference experts from across the field will present data-driven, evidence-based solutions, latest research, ingredient insights, innovations and formulation strategies within the following four themes: Sports and Active Nutrition, Cognitive and Emotional Health, Metabolic and Immune health, Life Stages and Healthy ageing.

Discussing the key trends in the nutrition industry, Kinga Wojcicka-Swiderska, head of content at Vitafoods Europe, Informa Markets, says: "​If there’s one word that sums up consumer attitudes towards health in 2023, it’s proactivity. And consumers are not just taking initiative in one area – many now think of their health holistically, viewing physical and mental wellbeing with equal importance.

"This shift in mindset is one of the major trends driving NPD, and it’s one formulators can’t ignore if they want to succeed. With growing interest in products positioned to support a range of health areas – from sports performance, immunity, emotional wellbeing and healthy ageing – there’s an opportunity for brands to create products that tap into multiple health needs at once. But at the same time, many consumers are also turning away from a ‘one-product-fits-all’ approach.

"They want solutions that are specific to their individual needs, creating a unique opportunity for innovation. For example, the boom in consumers using wearable technology could enable personalisation on an unprecedented scale, as forward-thinking brands seek partnerships to leverage data to provide increasingly individualised nutrition support."

Meanwhile, The Future of Nutrition Summit will take place at at the Marriott Hotel Geneva on May 8. The specialised event for the F&B ingredients industry, which has previously run at Food ingredients Europe​, is this year being brought to the Vitafoods audience with a nutraceutical focus. 

The one-day in-person summit takes place a day before the Vitafoods show opens and offers a snapshot of the health and nutrition industry in 5+ years’ time. Discussions will focus on the future of precision nutrition, digitalisation of health, new technologies for health management and future sustainable solutions across the value chain. 

Mather adds.: "Cutting-edge technology and new scientific research are helping deliver deeper personalisation and better health outcomes for consumers. When it comes to personalisation, it’s not just wearables that are providing unprecedented insight into consumer health. Advances in microbiome sequencing are also helping us gain a multifaceted understanding of personalisation. This is not just being used for digestive health, but also areas like women’s reproductive health, which is a key emerging application.

"Elsewhere, the use cases for cutting-edge technologies like precision fermentation are ever-broadening. This technology is most commonly associated with creating alternative meat and dairy products, but innovative companies are now also using it to create foods with specific nutritional profiles for cancer care, or to create breast milk outside of the human body. It’s a really exciting time for nutrition technology, that’s for certain."