Consumers are paying more and more attention to food health, and rising medical costs are becoming a serious problem facing society. The role of functional foods in this context is becoming more and more important. According to Technavio, the global functional food and beverage market will continue to expand in the future and is expected to grow by nearly 8% annually by 2021. In addition, the US functional food market is growing very rapidly, with sales of approximately $63 billion in 2015. It is expected that the total volume will double in 2025, with an average annual growth rate of about 6.5%, of which functional beverages will grow faster.
1. Weight Management:
Innova Market Insights conducted a survey of weight management related products in 2018 and found that sports nutrition products in weight management were stable, accounting for 31% of all weight management products. Weight management has always been an important part of sports nutrition. Sports nutrition can be divided into protein powders, nutritional bars, ready-to-drink drinks, and non-protein products that can be used to improve athletic performance. The main consumer groups are sports people, women, and middle-aged people. The core appeals are body sculpting, fitness and health. In this field, protein is already a hot nutrient. The advantage is that plant protein raw materials, such as pea protein, rice protein, hemp protein, and buckwheat protein, are shining on the market. In addition, creatine, branched chain amino acids, and HMB are also the focus of attention.
2. Oral beauty:
Oral beauty products are also known as beauty foods. This concept originates from Japan. Relatively narrow beauty foods mainly refer to foods related to hair, nails and skin whitening. It is estimated that the market for nutritional beauty products will reach 7.4 billion US dollars in 2020, and collagen will be one of the most important driving forces in this market. At present, the core appeal of oral beauty products is anti-oxidation & anti-aging, anti-fat, hair health, nail health and skin whitening effect. The main raw materials are divided into classic raw materials, super food raw materials, herbal raw materials and new raw materials.
Classical raw materials include collagen, hyaluronic acid, ceramide, etc. Collagen has been developing stably in recent years. The raw materials are developing steadily and innovation is also sought. The joint health and sports nutrition market is a new application direction of collagen. Super food ingredients include super fruits and vegetables, super grains and super seaweed, and broccoli extracts are the raw materials of concern.
3. Helping sleep and relieving pressure:
The core appeal of this kind of product is to help sleep, relieve stress and improve mood. The main functional raw materials are 5-HTP, γ-GABA, L-theanine, chamomile extract and magnesium. Innova Market Insights data shows that 2.8% of the global supplements launched in 2016 are targeted at health claims that help sleep. In the past five years, new products using the sleep-promoting claims have been steadily increasing, with CAGR reaching 51.1% from 2012 to 2016. With the increasing number of manufacturers, products are only claiming to promote sleep, which is not enough. General sleep aid claims often become a highlight of nutrition with soothing stress and improving mood.
