Thursday, January 8, 2009

Funtional Food Industry Sees 27% Increase


Wild Harvest Pharma’s extensive research indicates that the global functional foods market will be worth about €175 billion by 2012 – a 25% jump over 2007 levels of €120bn, according to Euro monitor International data.

In a global health and wellness market, which Euro monitor puts at €450bn, functional foods are the fastest growing sector and second only in value to naturally healthy foods (€155bn), both now and in 2012.

By 2012, better-for-you foods (€140bn) will be the third highest selling category, followed by vitamins and food supplements (€60bn); organic (€24bn); botanicals (€22bn); slimming products (€8bn); food intolerance products (€6bn) and sports nutrition products (€2.4bn).

The UK, together with Germany, has the highest spending functional food consumers in Europe (spending nearly € 175 per person annually). Another important health claim for functional food is anti-oxidation. According to a survey, 73% of the German public would buy enriched foods and drinks with anti-oxidation properties (Anonymous, 2004). In Europe, the concept of smoothies first became popular in UK, where this market was estimated to be 18.7 million liters by volume and £69.4 million retail value in 2003.

World-wide, the total turnover of botanical remedies and dietary supplements increased sharply, especially in the 90s, and almost doubled, from U.S. $12.4 billion in 1994 to U.S. $20.3 billion in 2003.