A cognitive health innovation panel hosted at the Positive Nutrition summit last week (March 30th), discussed key consumer demands in a crowded market, legislation challenges, and the future potential for the space.
By Dr. Karensa Broersen, Project Leader Advanced Analytics at NIZO
As consumer demand for functional food and drink continues to grow, Dr. Karensa Broersen, Adjunct Professor at University of Twente and Project Leader Advanced Analytics at NIZO, explains why careful product design from an early stage is key to developing...
A group of South Korean researchers is proposing the intake of sword bean and burdock to improve the immune system after yielding evidence from an eight-week RCT.
New Zealand’s High-Value Nutrition (HVN) National Science Challenge and industry partners are seeking to establish two new ‘highly functional natural foods’ – Karengo, a type of edible seaweed, and Mamaku, a type of tree fern.
The market for functional foods containing omega-3 is ripe for innovation in Asia and the Middle East, with one start-up claiming it can provide 250mg of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in 30g of chocolate.
Components of the Mediterranean diet could provide a multi-component model for functional foods to combat type 2 diabetes, according to a recent review.
Mushrooms should be used more extensively in functional foods, suggests a new review in Trends in Food Science & Technology, which examines the bioactive potential of fungus.
Spanish consumers tend to focus more on natural foods and consuming a balanced diet, than the consumption of fortified or functional foods, a new report finds.
Functional foods could have a key role to play in combating the global rise of the phenomenon of sarcopenic obesity, according to a published report of the proceedings of a recent scientific convention.
The demands on brands and suppliers to fulfil consumer’s desire to eat healthy foods has never been higher with switched-on millennials becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of functional foods through social media.
Functional foods and drinks are becoming more widely accepted as a part of every day life – but how do we actually define the category, what drives consumer engagement, and where is the next big growth coming from?
Products such as probiotic pizza, probiotic snack bars, high-fibre chicken or fish-oil fortified yoghurt may seem bizarre, says market expert Julian Mellentin in this guest article, but since 1990 thousands of products like this have been launched – and...
Polyphenols and antioxidants from olives are to be transformed into functional foods used to fight Alzheimer’s and brain ageing as part of a three-year German research project.
There has been huge growth in functional and fortified food and drinks in recent years, but experts suggest that the next few years could see industry take a ‘naturally healthy’ approach to formulation.
With sales of $176.7 billion this year functional foods are a hot growth sector. But which ingredients, sectors and countries are the best bets for product launches?
Is pill fatigue just a marketing ploy? No, say many experts in the field. It’s a real phenomenon and it’s driving both dosage form innovation and the movement of bioactives into functional foods.
To understand Functional Foods you must see it as a strategy to add value to processed foods, says the president and founder of the HealthyMarketingTeam, Peter Wennstrom, in this guest article.
If functional food products are to be successful, they need to be designed for a very specific age group and address the particular circumstances of their target audience, according to SternVitamin, the German manufacturer of vitamin and mineral premixes.
The growing popularity of fortified and functional foods – in preference to nutritional supplements – was identified as the top of 10 US functional food trends, according to the Chicago-based Institute of Food Technologists (IFT).
Swiss-Israeli flavours and ingredients house Frutarom wants a greater slice of the global functional foods and drinks market with new investment and initiatives to tap markets like the Americas and Asia and the “sensitive” European market.
A new non-invasive method to test the effects of functional foods and nutrients on the gut flora promises to help industry build solid evidence for health claims substantiation, says NIZO Food Research.
While EFSA’s health claims dossier may pave the way towards tighter regulations on what can and cannot be said about a food's potential benefit, the way that consumers understand and interact with functional foods seems to remain mainly unchanged....
The UK food supplements market has shed 3 million users since 2008, a result of the economic slowdown and more savvy consumers choosing functional and healthier foods, according to Mintel.
UK solvent extraction specialist, Genevac, is touting centrifugal evaporators as a means to accurately determine constituent parts of functional foods, especially those seeking to make health claims.
The birthplace of functional foods, Japan, continues to be the world’s most robust with 38.4% of a global functional food market of $24.22bn (€16.75bn), according to a Leatherhead report utilising tight functional food definitions.
Bakery and cereals account for almost 23 per cent of the global functional foods market with sales worth $5.5bn between 2006 and 2010, claims Leatherhead Food Research; And heart health is the leading claim in the sector.
Consumers with a positive view of functional foods are likely to have an exaggerated understanding of the health claims such products carry, according to new research.
More research is necessary to examine perceptions of the benefits of functional foods for older consumers, according to a new report from the ILC-UK (International Longevity Centre UK).
In the first part of this Asia-focused special edition, we look to the innovation hotbed that is Japan. Japan is well known as the world’s functional foods birthplace when Yakult kicked into life there in the 1950s with its little bottles of immune boosting,...
In the second part of a series on the European market for health and wellness foods and drinks, NutraIngredients.com tales a look at consumer behaviour in Finland, Norway, Russia, the UK and Ireland.
Dairy, bakery and beverages account for 72.9 percent of functional foods in the world’s biggest markets with energy/mood enhancement, gut health and heart health the dominant claims, according to a Leatherhead Food International report.
The UK functional foods and drinks market will grow at between 4.5 per cent to 6.5 per cent per year over the next five years but EU legislation is likely to restrict new product development, according to the latest report from research group Key Note.
A perceived fit between an ingredient and its carrier product is instrumental in consumers’ decision to buy functional foods, indicates a new study – and they are more comfortable with combinations that have been on the market for some time.
Andalusian public policies for research in the functional foods sector have achieved significant results, with many scientific groups of international renown being attracted to the region, according to a journal review.
The intrinsic health benefits of foods are likely to become a key focus of functional food growth in Europe as industry prepares for a major shift in the coming year. As part of a special NutraIngredients series canvassing analyst insight, Mintel tells...
Eighty per cent of functional food product launches fail within 18 months, according to a new report that draws lessons from 15 high-profile failures from the likes of Danone, Emmi, Pepsico, Coca-Cola, Nestlé and Unilever.
UK clean-label ingredients specialist, Ulrick & Short, is targeting functional foods in a new Yorkshire-based, multi-party initiative that will deliver its first product by year’s end.
Scepticism toward functional foods is widespread, especially among men and younger people, but the level of wariness varies greatly between countries, according to a report produced on behalf of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the UK.
Stressing plants to induce their natural defences could lead to a new range of functional foods enriched with a plant's natural defensive compounds, phytoalexins.
The global functional foods market will be worth about €175 billion by 2012 – a 25 per cent jump over 2007 levels of €120bn, according to Euromonitor International data.
One quarter of Spain’s foods are functional, making it one of Europe’s most dynamic and successful market, according to a report presented recently to the EU-funded European Functional Foods Net.
The functional foods industry in France is booming, according to a
report from Invest In France that claims the sector attracted 7 per
cent of all new foreign investment projects in the country between
2002 and 2007.
Israeli supplier Enzymotec has entered into an agreement with
Danish raw materials and ingredients supplier, Alsiano Pharma, to
distribute its lipid-based ingredients throughout Scandinavia.
A panel of independent experts has deemed Neptune Krill Oil (NKO)
safe for human consumption, opening up the route for its
manufacturer to commercialize it for functional foods.
Gadot Biochemical Industries is formalizing its strategy to enter
the US functional
foods market by consolidating management of its ingredient business
on-site in North America.
Functional foods from Japan are a source of inspiration for large
companies building the market in Europe, but there are some caveats
over the kinds of products consumers are likely to accept and the
need for scientific backing.