Food and beverage manufacturers are increasing pressure to deliver nutritious food for the mass market. Excessive consumption of ‘junk’ food is linked with obesity, heart disease and diabetes. Policymakers are responding with tighter regulations, reshaping the landscape for food formulation and marketing.
Simultaneously, the concept of ‘healthy’ is changing. Whereas once, consumers focused on foods low in fat, salt and sugar, today’s buyers want all those things and more. Demand is skyrocketing for natural ingredients with functional benefits, offering an opportunities for brands to respond with nutrition-forward food and beverage products.
Which better-for-you trends resonate most strongly with consumers? And how can manufacturers best align new wellness trends to existing ‘mainstream’ categories, from snacks to drinks to convenience foods?
Hosted by William Reed Publishing’s global digital publication FoodNavigator, the Positive Nutrition Interactive Broadcast Series 2024 consists of six webinar sessions: Reformulation & Fortification, Plant-Based, Food as Medicine, Personalised Nutrition, Food for Kids and Free-From.
Each episode of the series includes interactive presentations, panel discussions and an audience Q&A session.
About the webinars
Reformulation and Fortification: Changing trends in healthier foods
‘Unhealthy’ foods are in the spotlight, with consumers seeking ‘better-for-you’ alternatives. But the same consumers are unwilling to compromise on taste, so food manufacturers must work out how to remove unhealthy ingredients and formulations, adding beneficial ingredients added, with positive nutrition in mind?
Plant-based under the Microscope
Over the past decade, the plant-based market has boomed; it is forecast to double in value by 2030. But a recent significant slowdown suggests that the category is failing to impress consumers. With health a key driver behind people’s decisions to reduce their meat and dairy intake, some suggest that the plant-based category’s associations with overprocessing and ‘unclean’ ingredients is dampening its reputation. How can manufacturers boost the nutritional credentials of their plant-based milks and ‘non-dairy’ dairy offerings?
Food as Medicine
A more nuanced understanding of the relationship between diet and health is shaping current consumer attitudes to food and drink. So which ingredients offer the greatest potential health and wellness benefits? This webinar explores how the latest in nutritional science is informing functional food and beverage trends.
Personalised Nutrition: Tapping into data for healthier diets
Developments in personalised nutrition – whereby individualised dietary advice is offered based on genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors – continue apace. The market is forecast to grow to over $16bn by 2027. From measuring blood-sugar responses to microbiome diversity, how is this novel sector expected to evolve? Can personalisation ever prove a boon for the masses?
Food for Kids
Europe continues to struggle with high levels of childhood obesity. But as understanding around the importance of early years nutrition grows, so too does the opportunity for manufacturers to meet demands for health and functionality. How can industry best support carers and babies in the first 1,000 days, and help set kids up for a healthy future?
Free-From
The free-from category is changing shape as more and more people follow restricted diets. These days consumers are not only turning away from common allergens gluten and shellfish, but also other widely used ingredients from soy to nuts and dairy. As an increasing number of people eliminate popular ingredients from their diets, what opportunities are opening up in the free-from space?
Listen to the recorded sessions
To listen to one, some or all six of the webinars, click here.
Lead image: FoodNavigator‘s free webinar series unpacks ‘better-for-you’ food and beverage product trends, exploring reformulation and fortification, free-from and plant-based products, personalised nutrition, food as medicine, and kids’ foods. Credit: Shutterstock