Functional foods — i.e.
those that claim to have other health benefits in addition to their nutritional value — tend to be promoted mainly as being able to help prevent heart disease, digestive problems and certain bone conditions.
As these particular ailments are often age-related, the ageing profile of the UK population will continue to support and promote sales of such products.
Furthermore, functional foods largely represent healthier versions of mainstream foods and drinks, and are sold through major grocery outlets.
Thus they allow consumers to eat and drink more healthily without radically changing their diet.One of the principal food types in this market are functional breakfast cereals.
These are fortified with extra fibre (and often vitamins and minerals) to aid digestion and improve bone health.
In addition, the wheat and other grains they tend to contain also have properties beneficial to the heart.
Other major functional products in the market are yoghurt drinks and yoghurts with probiotic bacteria.
These improve digestion, with some now also containing plant stanols or sterols, which lower cholesterol levels and are `good for the heart'.
Cholesterol-lowering margarines are also an important functional food sector, as are soya milks.
The latter improve heart and bone health, and are claimed to reduce the risk of some cancers.Smaller product sectors within the functional foods market include functional cereal bars and breads, Columbus eggs, and functional fruit juices.
The health-giving ingredients of all these, including vitamins, minerals and supplements, continue to be added to other foods.
Notably, omega-3 fatty acids were added to a range of products in 2005 and 2006.The functional foods market grew by 14.9% by retail sales value in the 12 months to September 2006.
However, growth in value terms varied widely between the different sectors over this period: there were strong increases in sales of yoghurts and bread (although the latter was still only a relatively small product sector); a rise of around 10% was registered in each of the breakfast cereals, yoghurt drinks and soya milk sectors; and there was lower growth in sales of margarines and cereal bars.
These trends identify some possible maturity in the formerly more rapidly growing sectors of cholesterol-lowering margarines, probiotic yoghurt drinks and soya milk.Combined, functional breakfast cereals and probiotic yoghurt drinks and yoghurts accounted for more than three-quarters of the functional foods market by value in 2005/2006, with cholesterol-lowering margarines, soya milk and cereal bars representing much of the balance.According to Nielsen Media Research (NMR), main media advertising expenditure on functional foods (excluding functional breakfast cereals and cereal bars) fell by 8.9% in the year ending June 2006, although it had risen by nearly 50% in the year to June 2005.
Two-thirds of expenditure in 2005/2006 was on advertising of probiotic yoghurts and yoghurt drinks, and much of the balance was spent on promotion of cholesterol-lowering margarines and soya milk.Major food manufacturers involved in the market for functional foods are: Kellogg, Nestlé, Weetabix and Quaker in the functional breakfast cereals and cereal bars sectors; Danone, Müller, Yakult Honsha, Yeo Valley and Onken in the probiotic yoghurts and yoghurt drinks sectors; Unilever and McNeil Nutritionals in the cholesterol-lowering margarines sector (and now also in the yoghurts and yoghurt drinks sectors); Alpro and So Good in the soya milk sector; Noble Foods in the Columbus eggs sector; Allied Bakeries in the functional bread sector; and Tropicana in the functional fruit juices sector.Growth in the functional foods market is forecast to slow over the next 5 years (to 2010/2011), with the rate of increase becoming more similar to that for traditional food products.
The market for functional versions will mature over this period, as most of the potential consumers for these types of products become purchasers of them.