Vitafoods Europe is the global nutraceutical event, well known across the food and beverage supply chain as the place where market participants go to create business relationships, maintain existing relationships and or get an overview of market trends.
This year, the event showcased a considerable number of new ingredients and products which emphasizes the continuous growth of the health and wellness trend. Furthermore, it is evident that stakeholders continue to innovate in line with the ever evolving trends within the industry. The most common trends supported by the products on display were:
- Convenient health and wellbeing: Health and wellness remained at the core of the event; however, manufacturers of nutraceuticals continually want to ensure that consumers achieve their healthy eating goals conveniently. Thus, a lot of fortified gummy bears, chocolates, on-the go drinks and fudges were showcased.
- Sports nutrition is still seen to be a growing area and products such as energy gels (liquid supplements), protein mixes and shakes were on display. Also, the event had a dedicated sports nutrition zone, which highlights the growth opportunity expected in this market.
- Clean label: As expected, clean label remains a vital trend in this market and most new ingredients were highlighted as natural plant extracts.
- Other popular trends were beauty from within and smart packaging.
The main categories of ingredients and products on display were: Healthy aging, Weight management, Sport & Energy nutrition, Immunity, Heart Health, Digestive Health, and Infant Nutrition. These categories are traditionally high growth areas within the nutraceutical industry and continuous innovation suggests that demand remains strong in these sectors and consequently, a high level of growth opportunities.
Digestive health came out as one of the top categories, as Vitafoods Europe 2017 introduced a dedicated knowledge hub on probiotics, providing visitors with a wide range of information. There has been a lot of interest in probiotics across the food and beverage industry and this is expected to continue as the research increases. Gut health is very important to consumers and they will continue to demand products that claim to provide the right amount of supplement for this purpose. Thus, digestive health will remain a top growth area within the nutraceutical industry, in the near future.
Outlook
Personalised nutrition and nutrigenomics are being talked about and have been identified as trends for the future with a lot of research already going into these areas. Time will tell if these will become mainstream trends in the mid to long term.
Going forward, it is important that market participants across the food and beverage industry continue to stay ahead of market trends, in order to take advantage of growth opportunities offered. Position your company today to address the challenges of feeding the world tomorrow. From farm to fork, Frost & Sullivan’s Agriculture & Nutrition Research program monitors a wide array of individual markets, companies, and technologies along the entire food and agriculture value chain.
For more information on Vitafoods Europe visit: https://www.vitafoods.eu.com
