Pump the market

Heart and circulatory disease is the UK's biggest killer. Although mortality rates are in decline, there are still almost 2.6M heart and circulatory disease sufferers and someone has a heart attack every two minutes. These frightening facts have consumers' hearts racing and many are looking to improve their diets, leaving the floodgates open for food firms to benefit.

Ingredients supplier DKSH explains that the heart health food market (global value of £861M in 2005) has universal appeal, which makes it a key opportunity for manufacturers. "When people are asked what they're worried about, heart health always comes out as a priority," says business line manager for food and ingredients Kavan Ranasinghe. "There would be no point in doing an active [functional] food launch for in-growing toenails, because they don't affect everyone!"

Stephanie French, director of consultancy Nutrition Directions, agrees that the heart health market has huge potential. "When issues regarding the maintenance of health, as opposed to the alleviating of illness, are dealt with, the target market is large."

She adds that manufacturers are able to develop effective heart health products because there has already been so much groundwork in this field. "The area of heart health is one for which there is good robust scientific evidence supporting the beneficial effect of selective ingredients on heart health."

She thinks that making a product stand out among the vast selection of heart health foods, and the wide range of ingredients on which they are based, will be the biggest challenge for food manufacturers to overcome. "Unless consumers have a clearly diagnosed heart health problem they are unlikely to consume more than a single heart health product on a regular basis, and new products in the field are thereby more likely to be competing within a finite market than a growing one."

The heart health market is split up into fragments, explains Ranasinghe. "You have cholesterol-lowering products and also blood pressure-lowering products. The development of the cholesterol-lowering market is five years behind digestive health. And blood pressure-lowering products are even further back."

For cholesterol-lowering, there are two key ingredients at manufacturers' disposal, he says: beta-glucans (the soluble fibre in whole oats), which sit well with cereals and bakery; and stanol esters (from plant sterols), which are used by Flora pro.active and Benecol brands.

Meanwhile, dairy peptides are capable of lowering blood pressure. "They worked well in the 120/80 water we developed (see page 47) because we achieved solubility and neutral taste," he says. "But they may not work as well in cereals because they could be broken down in the extrusion process." He claims that dairy peptides are also ideal for beverage and cheese applications and that the company is developing a number of blood pressure-lowering products with different customers.

Caution with claims

Khaled Yafi, director of The Berry Company, is sceptical as to whether consumers will buy such specialised products. The heart health ingredients in his fruit juices come from the fruit itself, such as pomegranates and goji berries, which contain antioxidants.

Yafi doesn't use any heart health claims on front of pack because he says there is already plenty of media coverage telling consumers why berries are good for them. He thinks that making detailed heart health claims is a step too far: "I don't know if people want blood-thinning or blood pressure-lowering drinks ... Medical claims can alienate customers by pushing their insecurity button. It turns people off and it looks like you're desperate to sell, if you cover your product in claims."

Having said this, he is happy to use charity Heart Research UK's logo on his products' packaging. But Yafi doesn't view this as making a health claim. Instead, he believes it appeals to ethically conscious consumers because they know that the company supports a good cause (the firm pays a contribution to the charity based on products sold). "It's hard to gauge [how valuable the charity's logo is], but I think affluent consumers are more comfortable when the companies they buy food from are more socially responsible. When we launched at the beginning, the logo gave us a unique selling point," he says. "Holland & Barrett liked it and felt it was a good concept."

Product endorsement

Charity Heart UK is also involved in food product endorsement. Communications manager Cathy Ratcliffe explains that different charities have different criteria, because they are waiting for legislation from Europe.

"We're at an unusual place because we can use current claims, but not introduce new ones," she says. "Health legislation is becoming tighter and tighter and the Food Standards Agency is collating a list of currently approved health claims to send to the European Commission, which will come up with a definitive list by January 2010.

"In the absence of guidelines, we are writing our own rules based on scientific evidence. We're trying to be ahead of the game." The charity doesn't have the resources for lab work, so it relies on evidence provided by food manufacturers.

Another area that charities must consider is how a product's health benefits weigh up against its overall nutritional profile - something that will be enshrined in the new European Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation.

Using product endorsements or heart health claims on foods regarded as unhealthy is an issue surrounded by controversy. There is concern that health claims could mislead consumers into thinking that a product is healthy, even when it has high levels of sugar or fat. "A lot of food products already contain oats, so in theory, if these contain enough beta-glucan, firms can make heart health claims. But manufacturers have to look at the overall nutritional profile of the product," says Ranasinghe. "For example, flap jacks are made of oats, but they have a high sugar content."

He claims that processors have a moral responsibility to be honest as false claims simply dilute their credibility. "It's the responsibility of the supplier, as well as the manufacturer, to back up claims with sound science, in order to grow the market," he adds.

Another way to stimulate market growth is to increase consumer knowledge on cardiovascular health, says French. "I think the key question here is whether there is enough awareness about heart health," she says. "Understanding of the wide range of issues affecting heart health, and thus the foods or ingredients which can have a beneficial effect on selective heart health parameters, is still limited amongst consumers."

While there may be awareness that high cholesterol levels are bad for heart health, understanding of other areas is poor, she claims. "How many consumers even know what their cholesterol level is?"

Increasing awareness

Unilever is tackling the issue head on through its Love Your Heart campaign, which helps consumers differentiate between good and bad fats. While public awareness is growing, there is still work to be done, it says: "We have a huge opportunity with Flora pro.activ - 70% of people in the UK have high cholesterol, but only 30% are aware of it."

Unilever's interactive events are also helping consumers to get to grips with heart health. Unilever nutritionist Liz Reed explains: "We've just finished our Test the Nation project where we tested the blood pressure, cholesterol levels and waist measurement of 1,000 people; and at the moment we're testing staff."

The company is getting a dietician to give a heart health presentation to employees and is also exploring the option of an in-house campaign. "Factory workers are shown to have poorer health [than office workers] and don't get screenings because they're doing shift work," she adds. But the good news is that, in most cases, cardiovascular disease is preventable through simple diet and lifestyle changes, claims the firm.

Ranasinghe agrees that a healthy diet can go a long way. "We do a lot of university lectures and we always start off telling people that they don't need to eat fortified foods - they just need to eat a balanced diet. But people don't do it - we eat the wrong things," he says.

He is confident that cardiovascular health products have a bright future and hopes that they will become accepted as standard. "The market will definitely have doubled over the next five years," he claims.

Leatherhead Food International has even higher expectations. Its 2005 report, The market for heart benefit foods claimed heart health products will have grown by 60% to almost £3bn by 2009. But Ranasinghe advises manufacturers to exercise caution.

"Back in the 1980s, when everyone was watching Buck Rogers, we all thought we'd have ray guns and be wearing spandex - things don't always turn out the way you think!" FM

KEY CONTACts ? DKSH 020 8676 6800 ? Nutrition Directions 0118 971 0528 ? The Berry Company 0208 902 9646 ? Heart UK 0845 450 5988 ? Unilever 020 7822 5252​