World Market for Health and Wellness

Delivery

This report comes in PPT.

Key Findings

Hacking your health through what you eat and drink

Dieting in 2024 looks very different to the lingering consumer behaviour a decade ago, consisting in short-lived sacrifices with better for youproducts that lack umami or indulgence with the sole aim to lose weight. Encouraged by social media influence, shoppers now want their food and drinks to effectively hack not just weight management but their overall health, whilst remaining delicious. Keto claims, which suggest low-carb but high-fat foods to trigger ketosis in the body, reap the benefits of this trend, but future foods need to focus on a holistic health proposition.

Plant-based foods on a health journey

Despite undeniable setbacks for plant-based food, related labels have consistently featured among the most dynamic claims of the 2019-2023 period. Vegan and plant-based remain particularly compelling to consumers on both health and sustainability fronts. High protein should help plant-based products compete more closely with animal-based variants on nutritional credentials – and can help them truly rise to the wider challenge of global food security.

Quest for gut health becomes universal

The explosion in interest in gut health as of 2024 is just the tip of the iceberg. Increasing research findings on the benefits of a healthy microbiome and the so-called “gut-organ axis” are further pushing sales of digestive health, as well as immune support and high fibre (both have a high average SKU overlap with digestive health) propositions. Exciting potential and investments in fermentation will enable gut health to venture well outside of a few traditional sour-tasting products such as kefir (sour milk), pickled (processed) vegetables and kombucha (RTD tea).

Sugar avoidance moves backstage

Avoiding sugar content will, to 2028, remain a crucial crusade in soft drinks, but also important across food and hot beverages. Legislation will increasingly influence the success of various sugar avoidance claims; whilst no added sugar will help brand owners convey a natural character. Focus should increasingly be on a product’s ‘net health impact’, which sugar (and increasingly, salt and fat) avoidance should be an integral part of.

Feeding the brain

With rising awareness of and interest in how to maintain brain function and mental health, consumers are increasingly turning to food and drinks as an alternative to the use of vitamins and dietary supplements or to the potential need for therapy. Innovation and positioning will become more specific to the required consumer outcomes (eg calm, focus etc), often with star ingredients delivering specific cognitive or emotional need states.