Simply say it

As the old song goes: ‘You’ve got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative - don’t mess with Mr in-between.’ And so it is with healthy food and drink. After all, people want to eat food because it tastes good - not for fear that if they don’t, they’re going to drop down dead. If the food happens to be good for them too, that’s a bonus.

Increasing numbers of us are latching on to ‘preventative care’ and becoming more aware about the relationship between what we stuff in our mouths and our health. But, despite growing interest, there are still relatively few successful ‘functional’ or ‘wellness’ foods on the market in the west, says David Jago, director of GNPD Consulting, Mintel.

Jago, who spoke at Food Manufacture’s recent Healthy NPD conference, lists a range of new products - sometimes containing beneficial ingredients and sometimes designed with portion control in mind - developed to address specific health issues. Jago stresses: “It’s not about fortification, it’s about giving the right thing in a convenient way.” As for portion control, that’s becoming increasingly important in the US and interest is growing here too.

Most shoppers, it appears, don’t want a heavy-handed sell about healthy foods. And they don’t want science thrust down their throats - although it must underpin any claims made for products, say the experts. It may just mean conveying a healthy, “natural” message through simple branding, says Jago.

“If you target a product at a disease state, you have no chance - it’s dead marketing,” says The Solae Company’s project manager Denis Pawlett. You have to get across it’s a product the consumer will enjoy eating, adding the message: ‘… And by the way, it’s good for you’, she says.

==Future growth==Jago supports this view using the example of low glycaemic Index (GI) foods which, although originally developed for diabetics, are now becoming more mainstream in the UK. It is crucial to stop bamboozling shoppers with science, says Jago. He suggests low GI should rather be advertised as providing ‘longer lasting energy’

“The problem is in the healthy category there is an absolute glut of choice,” adds packaging design specialist Andy Knowles. “The design must project the brand first and not clutter itself with detail.”

Jago predicts future growth in foods offering balanced nutrition; ones free-from allergens; and other enhanced functional foods. In the functional arena, blood pressure control, omega-3s and anti-ageing foods are rapidly emerging. Jago describes foods containing long chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids as “a great big growth area”

Leatherhead Food International’s Susie Johnson currently values the UK market for functional food at around £1.1bn. But different interpretations of what actually is meant by a functional food, tends to complicate matters. “It is growing, but it will always remain a small proportion of the market,” says Johnson. The biggest sectors currently are dairy, followed by yellow fats, bakery, soya products, soft drinks and eggs. Food and drink are mainly being developed to provide benefits in terms of gut health, immunity from disease, as well as promoting heart and bone health.

Those closest to shoppers - the retailers - clearly recognise that health is a big issue. Kerry Davis, senior product technologist for convenience foods at Sainsbury says: “Health is a cornerstone of our business.” She admits it is a “challenge for developers”, but adds: “It is a massive area and area where we very much need to focus.”

The challenge for its suppliers is that Sainsbury is currently reviewing the ingredients content and nutritional profile of all is ranges, specifically focusing on fat, salt and calorie content.

“We want to expand our focus on health and challenge suppliers,” says Davis. But Sainsbury is not alone. The Co-op also plans to reformulate most of its products over the next 10 years to make them healthier. And the others are retailers are inevitably doing the same.

Where healthy options are just part of a product range, Davis admits that take-up by shoppers initially tends to be low. But there are examples where healthy options outsell the mainstream offer, “especially where there is price parity”, she says.

The Co-op’s Christine Clarke, for example, believes there is “too much emphasise on taking things out”. Consequently the Co-op is making a virtue of promoting more healthy fresh produce at the expense of processed foods.

“It’s amazing how many of our customers do not trust us, because they do not know what’s in our products,” she claims. “They are too processed. How do you get people to eat more fresh? - that should be our starting point … we want to ensure fruit and vegetables is a value offer.”

She also believes there are opportunities for more development in the frozen category, where healthy nutrients are locked into produce soon after it is picked. However, the efforts of big frozen players such as Unilever to do this in the past have not met with unbridled success. Alas, most consumers are wedded to the mistaken belief that frozen is an inferior product.

But Clarke also accepts the need for better processed foods and reports growing demand for healthier ready meals.

==Risk and reward==Then there is the question of who pays for healthy new product development? Who takes the risk? And who profits from increased margins that may be achieved?

While more successful own-label manufacturers talk of the need to create good partnerships with their retail clients, it isn’t necessarily a partnership of equals - as witnessed recently by some high profile contract terminations.

“You’ve got to bring in innovation,” says Peter Cleghorn, technical director of Grampian Country Pork. “Margins are always under pressure: the way to deal with that is to be innovating all the time.” He admits it carries a cost, but adds: “If you are genuinely working in partnership, the chances are your success rates are high if you’ve done your work properly.”

Cleghorn adds: “Retailers would say they are not risk averse and want to be the first to market. We as own-label manufacturers can exploit that. Clearly there is some risk associated with that, but we have to do our homework in partnership.”

On the branded side, Richard Ross, director for legislation and procedural affairs at Glaxo SmithKline, which has reformulated the Ribena Really Light product from its earlier Ribena Toothkind and Ribena Light products, says: “If you can build the value into a product, people will buy it.” However, although premiums may be possible, validating claims can be a very expensive process.

==Portion control==The Co-op’s Christine Clarke questions some of the approaches being used to encourage people to adopt healthier diets, however: “Let’s stop taking fat out of fatty products,” she argues. “Let’s start looking at portion control.”

Such thinking also strikes a chord with Lucy Smith, product development manager with Greencore Pizza, who is presented with the challenge of producing higher quality products, but at lower prices, which also meet low salt and fat requirements. The problem, says Smith, is exacerbated when products need to be authentic, since this is where higher levels of fat and salt have a big influence.

To some extent, Eileen Steinbock, head of health and nutrition at Brakes, agrees. She claims that if you take out all the fat and salt from mayonnaise “you’ve got a totally different product”. So it is necessary to provide more choice: with healthier alternative dressings rather than just reformulating mayonnaise, she argues.

Although it is less of an issue in the cost sensitive foodservice sectors, such as schools, hospitals and prisons, portion control is unlikely to find favour within other foodservice sectors. In many pubs and restaurants “indulgence” is the watchword and it is the norm to supply portions that are far bigger than most people could possibly consume.

As far as schools are concerned, Steinbock says: “Price points make it very difficult to make a healthy product for that market place.” And for prisons, it’s all about supplying food that inmates will eat without rioting - and that means burgers and chips, she adds. Steinbock concedes: “Foodservice is 10 years behind retail in terms of healthy eating.”

Healthy vendingOne channel that is about to undergo a revolution is vending - particularly in educational establishments where young people predominate. In many ways the challenges in this sector - traditionally associated with carbonated fizzy drinks, crisps and chocolate - are even greater.

The sector, which in the UK is worth £1.3bn a year, with just under 850 operators servicing 500,000 assorted machines, is facing major upheaval as a result of the changes being demanded by education secretary Ruth Kelly. Educational outlets account for between one-quarter and one-third of all vending sales, claims Trevor Snaith, commercial director of Vending Nutritionals.

Although more healthy vending product suppliers are emerging, says Snaith, he points to a “severe shortage of healthy savoury snacks” (see p??, NPD Supplement with this issue). There is also the issue big issue of older children who can vote with their feet: “Apples are not seen as cool,” says Snaith.

Perhaps new delivery mechanisms currently being developed for ‘interactive’ vending machines could provide the solution. While still some way off commercialisation, talking machines could help to get a healthier message across to young people with more ‘street cred’ than the oft heard and widely derided parental encouragement: ‘It’s good for you - you’ll like it’. But if they don’t hit the spot and are seen to be naff, such machines will be ignominiously left to gather cobwebs.