April 3, 2009 – Do you find that there are a lot of products in the grocery store that have one or more health benefits? The trend is not about to stop. North America – and particularly Canada – is moreover the only place in the world where the health aspect is the main driver of food innovation.
This is what emerges from an international study, carried out by the firm XTC, which offers a global panorama of trends in food innovation. Clearly, this study lists the main axes around which the food industry relies to meet consumer demand and thus better sell its new products.
The study establishes five main areas of food innovation: pleasure, health, fitness, product convenience and ethics.
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The axes of innovation
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Health before pleasure
Why does North America stand out from the rest of the world by offering products that primarily benefit health?
“Due to the deterioration in the state of health that is observed within the population,” says Isabelle Marquis of the firm Enzyme, specializing in food marketing, which presented the results of the XTC study during a conference at the International Food Fair (SIAL), which recently took place in Montreal1.
However, for the past two years, new products have combined health and pleasure more effectively, according to Isabelle Marquis, who is also a nutritionist. “For example, vegetables are increasingly associated with pleasure and no longer with a healthy alibi,” she says.
But health is not sold the same way in the United States as in Canada.
“In the United States, it is naturalness that prevails, that is to say products that are more and more natural and less and less processed, while in Canada, we focus first on the medical benefit. or therapeutic of the product, ”adds Isabelle Marquis.
Among the new products offered in Canada, one in five (18%) offers added health-oriented value, such as the addition of omega-3s, antioxidants or probiotics.
In this regard, digestive and immune health represents a strong trend observed by the authors of the XTC study. Hence the flood of products displaying different strains of probiotics or more fiber.
“These products are popular because the benefit they promise can be felt by consumers in a short time,” explains Isabelle Marquis.
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Health promises that remain to be demonstrated
In a market where the population is aging, new health niches are opening up for the agri-food industry.
Thus, still according to the XTC study, we will see more and more products sometimes promoting mental or cognitive health (addition of omega-3 of marine origin), sometimes joint health (addition of calcium, glucosamine or chondroitin).
However, to date, no study has yet demonstrated any effect of omega-3 on mental health. And the results of studies on the benefits of glucosamine or chondroitin on the joints are controversial.
In addition, slimming products remain in vogue, but the food industry has understood that consumers believe less and less in miracle products. This is why the packaging of such products increasingly offers support strategies for those who wish to lose weight.
These consumers will also be able to count on products with a low glycemic index, or on other products that reduce appetite or achieve a state of satiety more quickly.
To cook? Yes, but with a little help
Another significant trend across the country: Canadians are more and more eager to cook, but they are looking for products that will save them time.
“Thus, there is an explosion in the number of frozen products or meal solutions: these require a little handling and allow people to assemble the food themselves”, specifies Isabelle Marquis.
Ethics, new added value
If the naturalness of a product is reaching a growing number of consumers, respect for a certain ethic is also gaining popularity.
“People want their food choices to be respectful of their values, including fair trade, local purchasing or even environmental impact,” says the nutritionist.
In Europe, we see products appearing with a CO index.2 (carbon dioxide) which, thanks to a scale, informs the buyer of the quantity of greenhouse gases produced by the production of the food.
And at the other end of the spectrum, the food industry has an incentive to show more credibility and consistency to break into the market. “The consumer is critical and demanding and he is particularly wary of anything that gives the impression of being a” marketing trap “: he refuses false benefits”, warns Xavier Terlet, president of XTC.
Martin LaSalle – PasseportSanté.net
1. The International Food Fair (SIAL) took place in Montreal from 1er as of April 3, 2009.
