The Rise Of Functional Ingredients
The use of dietary supplements has grown over the years because of increased media attention for health issues. By Shikhar Aggarwal, Senior Director—Chemicals, Materials and Nutrition, APAC, Frost & Sullivan.
Functional foods are typically classified as traditional foods that have been enriched with an ingredient (bioactive in many cases) that is able to provide additional benefits to human health. These days, a functional ingredient does not have a strict definition, however, they are broadly considered as ingredients that have the potential to influence health over and above their basic nutritional value. These ingredients can be obtained from a variety of sources such as primary produce, marine sources, microorganisms as well as inorganic raw materials. Many of these functional ingredients can also be used for the preparation of nutraceuticals which include food & beverage products as well as dietary supplements.
Nutritional and functional food ingredients can typically be classified from a source, type or health perspective. For example, from a health perspective, they can be divided into eye health, digestive health, heart health, and women’s health ingredients and so on.
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Eye health ingredients cover astaxanthin, lutein, zeaxanthin, beta carotene etc.
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Digestive health ingredients cover probiotics, prebiotics, enzymes etc.
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Heart health ingredients cover soy proteins, beta glucan, omega 3 etc.
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Women’s health ingredients include iron, calcium, vitamin D, soy isoflavones, cranberry extracts and so on
The use of dietary supplements such as vitamins, probiotics, prebiotics, minerals, carotene, calcium, polyunsaturated fatty acids, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), dietary fibre, and antioxidants has grown over the years because of increased media attention for issues such as obesity and coronary heart disease (CHD). This media attention had increased consumer awareness for health and wellness trends.
There are many trends, drivers and challenges in the industry that have been observed through the various studies conducted by our Wellness Ingredients team.
INCREASING HEALTH AWARENESS
Various studies conducted by Frost & Sullivan have highlighted the benefits of using different nutritional and functional ingredients in food and beverages, resulting in an increased awareness of these ingredients among end users.
Nutritional ingredients are generally perceived as safe, and this assumption of safety has been used for branding purposes. Because end users are aware of nutritional benefits and consider food safety important, food and beverage producers are positioning their products to reflect the health advantages that their ingredients engender. Increasing competition among nutritional and functional food ingredients participants has led to proactive marketing, which caters to the demand of both end users and food and beverage producers for ingredients with additional health benefits.
Our studies have also revealed that consumers purchase products with nutritional and functional ingredients for their preventative, rather than curative, claims. Indeed, the fortification of products through nutritional and functional ingredients is necessary to prevent some human disorders and conditions. Technological advances have helped to identify which ingredients would enhance fortification, creating further opportunities for stressing the health benefits of nutritional and functional foods.
