World Market for Health and Wellness

August 2024

Health and wellness sales witnessed another strong growth performance in 2023; with consumers increasingly viewing food and drinks as a long-term investment into health. Dietary and free from labels are a clear direction of travel, promising not only harmless products but also ever more nutritious plant-based recipes. The fascination around gut health will only grow alongside a revival of fermentation, benefiting claims such as immune support and high fibre. But the brain is the next frontier.

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Key Findings

Hacking your health through what you eat and drink

Dieting in 2024 looks very different to the lingering consumer behaviour a decade ago, consisting in short-lived sacrifices with better for youproducts that lack umami or indulgence with the sole aim to lose weight. Encouraged by social media influence, shoppers now want their food and drinks to effectively hack not just weight management but their overall health, whilst remaining delicious. Keto claims, which suggest low-carb but high-fat foods to trigger ketosis in the body, reap the benefits of this trend, but future foods need to focus on a holistic health proposition.

Plant-based foods on a health journey

Despite undeniable setbacks for plant-based food, related labels have consistently featured among the most dynamic claims of the 2019-2023 period. Vegan and plant-based remain particularly compelling to consumers on both health and sustainability fronts. High protein should help plant-based products compete more closely with animal-based variants on nutritional credentials – and can help them truly rise to the wider challenge of global food security.

Quest for gut health becomes universal

The explosion in interest in gut health as of 2024 is just the tip of the iceberg. Increasing research findings on the benefits of a healthy microbiome and the so-called “gut-organ axis” are further pushing sales of digestive health, as well as immune support and high fibre (both have a high average SKU overlap with digestive health) propositions. Exciting potential and investments in fermentation will enable gut health to venture well outside of a few traditional sour-tasting products such as kefir (sour milk), pickled (processed) vegetables and kombucha (RTD tea).

Sugar avoidance moves backstage

Avoiding sugar content will, to 2028, remain a crucial crusade in soft drinks, but also important across food and hot beverages. Legislation will increasingly influence the success of various sugar avoidance claims; whilst no added sugar will help brand owners convey a natural character. Focus should increasingly be on a product’s ‘net health impact’, which sugar (and increasingly, salt and fat) avoidance should be an integral part of.

Feeding the brain

With rising awareness of and interest in how to maintain brain function and mental health, consumers are increasingly turning to food and drinks as an alternative to the use of vitamins and dietary supplements or to the potential need for therapy. Innovation and positioning will become more specific to the required consumer outcomes (eg calm, focus etc), often with star ingredients delivering specific cognitive or emotional need states.

Scope
Examining five trends shaping health and wellness
Health and wellness expands in 2023, aided by e-commerce and social media
Strong tailwinds for wellness food and drinks, but inflationary era glorifies affordability
“Natural” is everywhere: consumers want harmless products
Top claim, natural, still in growth but not self-sufficient
Sugar reduction and minerals content prominent in soft drinks; gluten avoidance in foods
Dairy products and alternatives: functionality and free from pave the way globally
Dairy products and alternatives: Americas shun lactose, whilst protein proves resourceful
Dairy products and alternatives: US embraces vegan, whilst fortification prevails in Asia
Soft drinks: sugar necessarily and compulsively stripped out; but functionality bodes well too
Soft drinks: zero sugar staple still shows promise, but no added sugar comes to the fore
Soft drinks: carbonates but also energy drinks to be flipped on their heads
Growing diversification in health and wellness claims increase market fragmentation
Global leaders expand reach in low fat dairy with sustainability and innovation
Dairy brands with multiple health claims top category’s sales
Key soft drinks players strengthen their positions in no sugar soft drinks
Leading soft drinks brands are innovating and thriving in the no sugar segment
Examining five trends shaping health and wellness
Hacking your health: there is a diet for everything
Hacking your health: holistic health proposition, but without sacrificing enjoyment
Plant-based food: maturing trend where the elusive vegan label shines
Plant-based food: from core categories to pastures new
Plant-based food: look to new ingredients for a “cleaner” future
Gut health becomes universal: stars align for explosion of biotics in food and drinks
Gut health becomes universal: all hail to the good bacteria
Sugar avoidance: legislation to shape future claims
Sugar avoidance: increasingly complementary to a wider, more compelling health message
Feeding the brain: d rinks pave the way for mind-orientated propositions
Global snapshot of better for you subcategories
Global snapshot of dietary and free from subcategories
Global snapshot of fortified/functional subcategories
Global snapshot of health benefit subcategories
Global snapshot of natural & organic subcategories
Regional snapshot of Asia Pacific
Regional snapshot of Australasia
Regional snapshot of Eastern Europe
Regional snapshot of Latin America
Regional snapshot of Middle East and Africa
Regional snapshot of North America
Regional snapshot of Western Europe

Health and Wellness

Health and Wellness encompasses a number of key claims made on a food or drink products that suggest a health and/or wellness positioning. It comprises positionings relating to better for you, dietary and free from, fortified/functional, health benefit, natural and organic. Please note that data is not available at this level or other aggregated claim levels.

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