Unhealthy food goes healthy

A new report on the US nutraceutical industry claims that the sector has become so popular that soon so-called "unhealthy" foods will have added health benefits.

According to "The US Market for Nutraceutical Foods and Beverages" report, published by Packaged Facts, marketers have largely overcome the challenge of maintaining the flavour and taste of a food with added nutraceuticals by using new technologies and ingredient implementing techniques.

Thanks to these improvements, virtually every product now has the potential to be reformulated as a nutraceutical food - even alcoholic beverages, sweets and desserts.

"It seems that the development of nutraceutical products is poised to explode,"​ said Don Montuori, Acquisition Editor for Packaged Facts. "We have already seen meats with cholesterol-lowering properties, such as stanol ester, and the market innovation does not look like it will stop there. Many experts predict that candies with medicinal properties will become very popular in coming years, giving parents an easy method of getting vitamins and nutrients into their children's diets."​

In the last year several new products in the meat, water, and confectionery categories have been introduced with nutraceutical positioning. And while regulatory complications may hinder the rapid development of some new products, sales of nutraceuticals reached $17.2 billion in 2001, up from $16.5 billion in 2000, and are expected to exceed $22 billion by 2006.

The "US Market for Nutraceutical Foods and Beverages", found at MarketResearch.com​, provides detailed information about consumer demographics, as well as distribution and marketing trends, product development, and emerging promotional campaigns. The report also includes historical sales data, as well as market projections through the year 2006.