Top Editors ... Functional foods: the next phase

Title: Functional foods: the next phase
Date: 01/03/2007
Autor: By Stephanie French

Functional foods have already established their place in the mainstream, but what does the future hold?
Stephanie French* an independent nutrition strategy consultant to the food industry explores the hottest potential areas for development
There have been dramatic changes in the market for functional foods over the past five years, with probiotics becoming an increasingly accepted part of the daily diet of millions of consumere across Europe and awareness of other functional ingredients such as Omega-3s and plant stanol ester increasing dramatically. But what about the next five years? What changes might we expect to see and what strategy should food manufacturers have to take advantage of these upcoming trends?
First and foremost any nutrition strategy must continue to be led by consumer pull and not science push. The current key health drivers for dietary modification are problems we suffer from on a daily basis such as lack of energy or stress or excess weight, not longer term health concerns such as cancer and heart disease - and there is unlikely to be significant change in this situation over the next two to three years at least. People's primary concern will remain everyday wellness, not the possibility of longer term illness that may never happen to them in any case (and indeed many believe that it won't). Focusing on disease immediately limits your market. Yakult is the classic example of a nutraceutical product creating a market driven by wellness. According to a recent Datamonítor report the number of Europeans who regularly consume functional foods related to gut health (or more likely functional drinks given the boom in this particular market) is around two and a half times the total number of those diagnosed with gut illnesses. Many consumers are therefore purchasing these products without any apparent medical need but rather are either self-diagnosing a gut health issue, or even simply purchasing these functionai foods in order to ensure their continued avoidance of problems in that area.
One up-and-coming area with good potential in the well-being sector is likely to be products associated with stress and relaxation. Danone attempted to tap into this 4 market as far back as 2004 when it launched its Zen fermented milk drink high in magnesium onto the Belgian market. The product was marketed as a means to facilitate relaxation at the end of the day due to magnesium's role in combating stress and muscle tension. Although initially well received, Zen has since been withdrawn, despite a planned European roll-outout. Nevertheless, there continues to be an unfulfilled consumer need for products associated with stress management.
'Natural nutrition' and 'positive nutrition' are two of the key trends currently running through the heart of consumer demand for food and beverages. One has only to look at the growth of companies such as Innocent Drinks and Organix baby & toddler food in the UK to see the appeal of a return to natural foods. Along similar lines, leading UK retailer Tesco recently completed the reformulation of all of its ready meals to include only ingredients which would be found in a kitchen cupboard.
In the case of 'positive nutrition', the day is likely to come when all food will be expected to offer something positive, even indulgent and treat products. A growing discussion about the declining nutrient levels in fresh produce could provide one opportunity for positive nutrition by using fortification to replace those nutrients said by some to be 'lost' as a result of modern intensive farming practices - and this dovetails very neatly with current consumer interest in natural nutrition.

Setenium
A good example of an up-and-coming opportunity in this respect is selenium, an essential trace mineral which plays a role in a wide range of aspects of human health including immune function, heart health, cancer and fertility. Selenium enters the food chain through plants, which absorb it from the soil. This process is dependent upon the soil selenium content as well as its pH value. The availabilily of selenium therefore varies significantly in different geographical regions, and is generally low in Europe.
Evidence is accumulating that European intakes of selenium are actually falling. This fall is partly attributed to the reduction in imports of high-protein, high-selenium North American wheat, a trend accelerated as changes in bread-making technology have increasingly allowed the use of low-protein, low-selenium EU varieties. There has also been a fall in consumption of bread.
Finland, one country with low soil selenium, has been adding sodium selenate to its fertilisers since 1984 to good effect but unless and until this practice becomes more widespread there are good opportunities for selenium enriched functional foods as consumer awareness of the benefit of this mineral increases.
Improving scientific knowledge is also highlighting new opportunities for food manufacturers. For example, work on vitamin D has shown that it may have a calcium sparing effect such that, as long as vitamin D status is ensured, calcium intake levels of more than SOOmg per day may be unnecessary for maintaining calcium metabolism. Although further work is required on the recommended daily intake for vitamin D there is already sufficient evidence to suggest a growing need for this vitamin. Whilst the RDA in most European countries for vitamin D is 5-10 micrograms, it has been estimated that around 90% of Europeans have intakes below this level. Increasing avoidance of the sun may be contributing to a deficiency. This area provides opportunities both for fortification of mass-market producís and also for some very sector-specific foods.

Similarly, enhanced scientific understanding is causing homocysteine lo be put forward as the 'new choleslerol' in some circles. Homocysteine is thought to be a risk factor in heart disease, stroke and dementia in later life and levels can be reduced by folic acid. Folic acid is already a mandalory addition to flour in the USA and Canada, whilst the UK and Australia are currently considering fortification. Nevertheless, there are opportunities for functional foods containing folic acid to be largeted at specific sectors of the population.

Personlised solutions
Across the consumer spectrum as a whole we are seeing an ever increasing trend towards more personalised solutions and the area of food and health is no exception to this. The next stage of development for probiotics, already established under a general well-being banner, may well be related to more specific health complaints and hence personalised products. There is increasing evidence thal probiotics can help combat respiratory illnesses and bacterial infections as well as improve the immune response. Probiotic chewing gum for dental health from BioGaia is already on the market in Scandinavia. Future probiotic focus is therefore likely to be on specific strain selection.
Innovative packaging can play a key role in the development of personalised functional foods. Concepts such as BioGaia's drinking straw or Emmi's Lacto Tab work by delivering the added benefits at the point of consumption. Not only does this help to overcome shelflife issues by protecting the nutrients from oxygen and light for example, but it also offers fthe opportunity for consumer-specific nutrient packages to be offered in conjunction with a core mass-market product.
This trend to personalised products could well be repealed in other areas, with ever increasing segmentation of t he consumer by health drivers. However, despite this, functional foods have to be seen as part of a much wider picture. Whilst they are important, they are not a substitute for providing a healthy balanced meal: that is the overriding trend the industry has to follow. Nevertheless, increasingly consumers are going to be looking to maximise the nutrient valut of everything they eat, which creates a bright future for the development of nutraceuticals in mainstream food.


Stephanie Frenen draws on 17years of experíence as a strategy consultant to the foodindustry, www.har1equinplus.com. Ful1 details of the trends mentioned in this article are available from stephanie.french@harlequinplus.com.

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Food & Beverage International Dicember 2006