FFnet March 16/05

Ten Key Trends for 2005: A tipping point for health, a turning point for functional foods
March 16, 2005
New Nutrition Business
http://www.new-nutrition.com/tenkeytrends.asp

It is already possible to look back on 2004 as a year that was a turning point in the business of food, nutrition and health. It was the year in which health and nutrition became firmly established as factors that every company must take into consideration and a year in which it at last became apparent that the term “functional foods” could no-longer be used to describe some separate category of foods with health benefits, for delivering a positive contribution to public health has become an everyday strategic necessity for any company that wants to thrive in the future. Some little-noticed but very significant moves by major corporations such as General Mills and PepsiCo signalled this shift.
At the same time it became very apparent that ten key mega-trends have asserted themselves in the global food industry and will dominate its approach to nutrition and health for the foreseeable future.
These trends are:
Trend 1: Health is the future of food.
Trend 2: Intrinsic health – all foods are fast becoming functional.
Trend 3: Farewell “good diets and bad diets”, welcome to “good foods and bad
foods”.
Trend 4: Good carbs, bad carbs: the rise of whole-grains and low GI.
Trend 5: Personalised nutrition is here to stay.
Trend 6: Bars and beverages – the future of food.
Trend 7: Daily-dose and the power of packaging innovation.
Trend 8: Out of the supplement aisle.
Trend 9: Asia for inspiration and health leadership.
Trend 10: The kids’ nutrition crisis will be on all company agendas.
Benefits
This New Nutrition Business Case Study is written – as all our case studies are - to help companies assess in practical terms how these key trends will affect their strategies. All of the trends are illustrated with Case Studies.
About the author
Julian Mellentin is one of the world’s very few global specialists in the business of food, nutrition and health.
He is director of The Centre for Food & Health Studies, a company that has provided research, analysis and forecasting of the global nutrition business since 1995. The company is based in London and has offices in the US and New Zealand.
Julian is co-author of Functional Foods Revolution, Healthy People, Healthy Profits? the first-ever book on the business of functional foods, now translated into Japanese.
He is co-author with Peter Wennström of Commercialising Innovation: The Food & Health Marketing Handbook, which will be going into a 2nd Edition in March 2005. He is also Editor of New Nutrition Business, the long-established international journal on the global nutrition business (www.new-nutrition.com ), which his company publishes.