NPD in Preventive Health: Growth opportunities in cosmeceuticals, targeted and performance enhancing food and drinks

In food and drink, preventive health is a growing trend where consumers make intentional food and drink choices to protect against the onset of ill health and/or alleviate symptoms of illnesses or diseases. Increasingly, consumers want to sustain their mind and body’s highest possible capacities and potential through ‘looking well’ and ‘living well’. Linked to this, there is wider recognition of the links between dietary choices made in earlier parts of the life course, and levels of health and wellness experienced later on. Important consumer drivers for preventive health food and drinks include the aging of the population and the obesity epidemic. Both of these drivers are important because they encourage consumers of all ages to use their diet to plan ahead, to try and achieve not just a long life, but a healthier one. This longer term view about preventive health gives a new twist to the ‘you are what you eat’ concept (‘you will be what you eat now’), and means that consumer interest in preventive health food and drinks products will continue to grow in the future, giving manufacturers strong market opportunities within this trend. This report examines which preventive health trends, and which regions, consumer groups, and product categories have shown growth up to 2008, and evaluates which are best placed for growth over the next five years.