Pack a health punch

In recent years, many North American consumers have shown growing interest in health-and-wellness-related efforts. Those efforts might include stepped-up exercise programs and/or the addition of vitamins or supplements to the diet to help address or prevent certain diseases and conditions. And increasingly those efforts also include a new approach to grocery shopping: Many of today’s consumers are combing the aisles for food and beverages that not only taste great, but also boast some sort of health and wellness benefit.

To create own-brand products that meet the health and wellness push, retailers need to understand the product attributes that are most important to consumers, as well as the ingredients that could help them deliver those attributes.

Push the protein

When it comes to in-demand food and beverage attributes, protein and fiber are biggies.

According to Nestor Ramirez, division chef for Turlock, Calif.-based Sensient Natural Ingredients, a provider of a very broad range of shelf-stable natural ingredients, higher-protein products not only appeal to consumers’ desire to stay full longer and control weight, but also to consumers’ workout performance needs.

“If you look at some of the performance companies now, it’s not just about drinking Gatorade to replenish your electrolytes,” he says. “It’s about having something to eat after you’ve worked out to help you restore your body and for your pre-workout. A workout isn’t just going out for a run; it’s now the pre-workout, the run and the recuperation.”

Ramirez points to jerky as one food category that meshes well with the high-protein trend. And these days, manufacturers are offering all kinds of flavors for this meat snack, giving retailers an opportunity to offer items that also could meet the separate trend toward authentic regional flavors.

Plant-based non-GMO foods with high-protein claims — 10 grams or more per serving — also are winning consumer approval, notes Aram Karapetian, vice president of sales and marketing for Woodland Foods, a Waukegan, Ill.-headquartered supplier of ingredients ranging from mushrooms, truffles and chiles to herbs, spices, rice and grains, and more.

“Rice dishes are incorporating significantly more protein such as beans and other pulses,” adds Annmarie Kraszewski, research and development lab manager for St. Francis, Wis.-based Wixon Inc., a provider of seasonings, marinades, rubs, flavor systems and more for a variety of food applications.

She notes that many ingredients complement the “blank canvas” of beans and pulses, including savory profiles such as the on-trend North African and sweet-heat profiles, as well as some sweet profiles such as tea and fruit.

Ingredients such as turmeric, cinnamon, Kombucha, chia, ancient grains, Rooibos, coconut flour and more also could come into play here, adds Jamie Smith, a food scientist with Wixon.

Speaking of pulses, Ramirez says Sensient Natural Ingredients offers a pulse line that could fit well into retailers’ own-brand products. The pulses could be incorporated into a snack or meal bar, or even into a snack chip, to ramp up protein content. However, he agrees with Kraszewski in that on-trend flavors also should be a key element, noting that regional savory profiles are gaining in popularity.

“Using regionality and authentic types of ingredients like our chilies helps give the product a lot more authenticity than just saying you’ve got a curry bar,” he says. “We actually have Indian chilies or varietal chilies from Mexico that can help give that authenticity.”

Protein powders, meanwhile, can increase protein levels in seasoning blends, says Kim Cornelius, senior food scientist for Wixon.

“Whey and milk proteins are the most commonly used, but plant proteins are also very popular, with increased consumer interest in hemp, pea, rice and potato proteins,” she explains. “These plant proteins can be gritty in texture and somewhat bitter in flavor, so developers have to be creative with masking these undesirable attributes in their products.”

Second only to the protein push is continued consumer interest in fiber-rich foods, Cornelius notes.

Consumers want “food to be their medicine” and are gravitating toward “fiber-filled, nutrient-dense ingredients to improve their health naturally,” Karapetian adds, noting that whole plant-based food ingredients are constituting a larger part of the consumer’s diet.

Ingredients that fit in well with the protein trend and/or fiber trend include whole grains, seeds, nuts, vegetables and ancient and heirloom plant-based ingredients, he says.

Jeff Troiola, Woodland Foods’ corporate chef/research and development, adds sprouting/sprouted grains — as well as the aforementioned pulses — to the list. And he points to alternative pulse proteins such as pigeon peas, cranberry beans, Chana dal and urad dal, “paired with unique and delicious ingredients,” as other options.

Make it functional

The demand for functional food and beverages also is on the rise, notes Mike Bush, senior vice president with Mayfield Heights, Ohio-based Ganeden (which offers the patented GanedenBC probiotic strain) and executive board president of the International Probiotics Association.

“The beauty of healthy functional foods is that consumers are able to get the desired health benefits from the foods and beverages that they already enjoy without taking another pill,” he says.

Bush says, for example, that Ganeden continues to see interest in probiotics-enhanced food and beverages elevate.

“Overall, the global market of probiotic ingredients, supplements and foods is expected to reach $36.7 billion in 2018, according to Wellesley, Mass.-based technology market research firm BCC Research,” he says. “Our recent consumer survey found that 40–54 percent of consumers said they would be willing to pay more for a food or beverage product containing probiotics.”

Mel Mann, director of innovation for Wixon, notes that naturally functional ingredients are very popular among consumers, too. For example, consumers are beginning to understand the benefits of compounds found in extracts.

“Antioxidants from polyphenols, chlorogenic acids, proanthocyanidins and other compounds are readily available from botanical extracts of coffee, tea, guayusa and turmeric,” he says. “In addition, antioxidants are found in whole fruits like blueberries, blackberries, mangosteen, acai and goji berry, and from nuts like walnuts and peanuts.”

Clean up the label

When it comes to ingredients that support consumers’ health and wellness efforts, there’s also a huge push toward “real” ingredients/cleaner labels, notes Jean Shieh, marketing manager for Sensient Natural Ingredients. Artificial sugar substitutes, for example, are losing ground.

In fact, Thom King, president of Portland, Ore.-headquartered Steviva Ingredients — a supplier of stevia, monk fruit, erythritol and other natural ingredients — calls “clean-label sugar reduction” the most significant trend in edible consumer goods products.

“Stevia is seeing continual upward growth, with newcomer monk fruit following not too far behind,” he notes. “By utilizing any of our all-natural high-intensity sweeteners or any of our natural sweetening systems, consumer goods manufacturers — and, specifically, beverage manufacturers — can enjoy a 95 percent clean-label sugar reduction. These reductions can be achieved without sacrificing flavor profile or mouthfeel in most cases.”

John Harper Crandall, vice president of sales and marketing for Johns Creek, Ga.-based Amelia Bay, a provider of commercial-scale brewed teas, agrees that clean label is of high interest on the beverage side.

“Consumers read labels today and are savvy when it comes to ingredients,” he explains. “Clean label, all natural, organic, fair trade — these are the biggest overall tends in the beverage industry today.”

Crandall notes that Amelia Bay’s brewed liquid extracts can easily replace instant tea powders or concentrates on ingredient statements, with the label citing “brewed black tea,” for example.

“The change directly affects the product label and the ‘real’ and healthy perceptions the product carries,” he maintains.

Among the ingredients that mesh well with the clean-label beverage trend are brewed tea, juices, real sugar and natural non-nutritive sweeteners, he adds.

And in line with the high interest in clean label is the fact that sales of organic food and beverage products — and the number of such products offered — continue to expand at an impressive rate. These products not only contain “real” ingredients, but also lack other attributes consumers view as negatives.

“Consumers don’t want anything that has pesticides, herbicides,” Shieh says. “And they don’t want GMOs in their food. Consumers believe in the USDA seal.”

Think ahead

To succeed on the health and wellness front, retailers also should be aware of rapidly changing consumer needs and expectations. For one thing, consumers’ desire to use food and beverages to enhance overall well-being continues to rise, according to Sandi Balco, vice president of research & development and marketing for Wixon.

“Instead of drugs to fix ailments or specific foods to tackle a given health issue, consumers want foods that will help them maintain a healthy lifestyle,” Balco says. “From weight management to heart and gut health, or lowering cholesterol and preventing cancer, consumers want their diets to contribute to warding off these health issues. They are seeking foods that are nutrient-dense, so retailers should expect to see more demand for superfruits and superfoods and products that contain them.”

Another emerging trend is that toward the combination of protein and probiotics, Bush says. He points to a link between certain probiotic strains (including GanedenBC) and enhanced protein utilization — a link that has been researched and now can be claimed on product packaging.

“Protein is generally consumed for assistance with workout recovery and optimized nutrition, so it makes perfect sense to combine it with a probiotic that has been shown to enhance the utilization of that protein,” he says. “Also, within the sports/fitness industry, it is known that there are GI and immune challenges, so a probiotic like GanedenBC that also supports the digestive and immune system without any side effects is very beneficial.”

Prebiotics such as inulin and Fructooligosaccharides (FOS), too, are emerging on-trend ingredients as consumers learn more about the “importance of healthy gut flora and how diet can work within that system,” King says, noting that his company’s FibRefine multi-chain FOS is organic and derived naturally from chicory root.

Also on the horizon are the addition of “traditionally medicinal ingredients” into foods, the combination of complementary ingredients that maximize nutritional value — for example, turmeric and black pepper — and “esoteric traditional flavor blends from around the world that are equally distinctive as some of their more well-known counterparts,” Karapetian says.

And for his part, Trolioa points to increased interest in authentic and “old world” healthful flavor profiles, ranging from heirloom varieties of standbys to regionally specific ingredients such as Calabrian peppers, Hatch chilies, LaVera paprika and more.

Energy is a growing consumer focal point, too.

“The use of superfruits and superfoods as a source of energy is growing, as is [the use of] ginseng, ribose, specific amino acids such as cysteine and leucine, and proteins in general,” Mann notes.