Page 26 - Food&Drink Magazine Jan-Feb 2019

TRENDS REPORT 2019
Healthy insights
Consumers’ definition of ‘healthy’ is layered, writes food industry author Sharon Natoli, and businesses that want to position themselves for the future need to know the inside story.
26 | Food&Drink business | January-February 2019 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au
AT a conference in New York in 2016, then president and CEO of Campbell Soup Company in the US, Denise Morrison, declared, ‘The food industry is in a time of revolution.’ No doubt she was right. The shift in sales growth from brands owned by large, traditional food businesses to smaller, niche players indicates how our shopping and eating preferences are changing.
One of the key drivers of this change is strong consumer interest in health as a consideration in food purchasing decisions. According to Euromonitor’s latest Health & Wellness in Australia report, the impact health consciousness is having on consumer’s food and beverage purchases continues to increase year on year.
However, just like fashion changes over time, so too do the beliefs consumers hold about what they perceive ‘healthy food’ to be. While changes
to all but disappear by
2020. We’re moving from a nutrient focus to one that is much broader in context. This is already evident in the shifting focus on ingredients, the desire for ‘clean’ labels, more real and natural foods, and the influence of the degree of processing a food has undergone, in some cases over-riding its nutritional value as a deciding factor in how healthy it is perceived to be.
This evolution will continue to incorporate additional elements that will influence perceptions of health in the future. The layers of influence are: nutrients; ingredients; food; food systems; and food & ecology. To remain relevant and to create meaningful connections with consumers, it will be critical to understand how each of these layers influence perceptions of health across individual products
and categories, and to
“ Just like removing plastics from the ocean, continuing to ‘clean up’ ingredient lists will remain a core contributor to consumer perceptions of healthy.”
associated with individual nutrients, ingredients or foods make up our year-on-year trends these tend to come and go. What we are experiencing right now, however, is a fundamental shift in the elements that are influencing consumer perceptions about what healthy food really is. While in the past we may have referred to healthy food as ‘low in fat’ or ‘high in fibre’, it's no longer that simple. Consumers are smarter and Datamonitor expects single nutrient claims
strategically integrate each into marketing and innovation strategies.
To develop a strategy that genuinely meets consumer demand for ‘healthy'’food, it’s useful to consider broadening the usual approach that is taken, ensuring you have high level access to expertise across the various layers, and encouraging marketing and innovation teams to stretch their thinking. Here are some starting considerations relevant to each layer.