The market for nutraceutical beverages continues to be a healthy one―in more ways than one. The impetus for growth in this category, according to Dennis J. Reid, vice president marketing and business development, SensoryEffects, Defiance, OH, is “the continual quest for proactive health and alternative medicine through our foods, as a way to stave off chronic health issues.” He notes the trend “has grown beyond the ‘lesser evil’ foods which eliminate the bad components like trans-fats, cholesterol and sugars, and has evolved more to how can we enhance and optimize the good components, like antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, select herbs, and other nutritional ingredients.”
Drinking in the possiblities
While it seems that many nutraceutical beverages coming to market fall into the “me too” category, this is one area of product development where entrepreneurial innovation continues to drive the market, especially in the category of energy beverages. (Witness the blog run by a presumably under 35-year-old who reviews every energy drink he/she can find at taurinerules.com who claims to have sampled more than 800 energy drinks.)
“The most-popular categories that we see emerging in the beverage category are still energy beverages aimed mainly at young consumers, drinks with vitamin and mineral fortification, antioxidant or high-polyphenol beverages containing ingredients like green teas or berries, and drinks with select herbs,” says Emilio Gutierrez, R.Ph., M.B.A, vice president technical services, BI Nutraceuticals, Long Beach, CA.
However, these are not by any means the only prevalent options. “Smoothies continue to grow in popularity because the have a very positive health perception and can be customized and built to have very specific nutritional targets, whether it be for energy, fat-burning, or mental acuity,” notes Reid. “The sports-performance segment also continues to prosper with the protein-enriched nutritional shakes and the after-exercise recovery drinks. This trend ties directly back to people trying to get more active and supplement this activity with food and beverage products that make it more easy or effective.”
Categories such as hearth health and women’s health are currently not as popular as some of these other broad categories, observes Gutierrez “probably because they are too specific, and that functional beverages seem to still be an emerging category in the United States.” However, that leaves the field that much clearer for innovation.
Thierry Jones, general manager-North America, Diana Naturals, Valley Cottage, NY, believes that consumers’ concerns about health and a growing interest in “natural” are the main drivers for nutraceutical beverages. He sees the “beauty from within”―anti-aging and immunity products―category one of the growing market segments. “While natural ingredients in beverages are a worldwide trend, the concept is not as strong in the United States as it is in Europe or Asia,” he says. “In the United States, manufacturers will artificially add back the actives that have been removed during processing, rather than working to preserve the nutrients in the original ingredient.”
Best bets
Nutraceutical beverages that emerge on the market typically reflect the current health concerns of consumers, including brain health, heart health, immunity, beauty from the inside out, energy and women’s health. People are also looking for beverages that easily add needed vitamins and minerals missing from their diets, and for the inclusion of herbs and antioxidants. The savvy formulator needs to know which cocktail of ingredients is targeted to address these health concerns.
Brain-health ingredients include choline, Ginkgo biloba, phosphatidyl serine (marketed as a brain booster and to help the elderly with declining mental function and depression) and L-theanine (some studies say it is shown to reduce mental and physical stress, may produce feelings of relaxation, and improve cognition and mood when taken with caffeine).
Heart health is of great concern today, as heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. Incorporating hearth-healthy ingredients into products is especially attractive to the older consumer. These ingredients include beta glucan, carotenoids, grape seed extract, phytosterols and theaflavins.
Immunity comes about through proper nutrition, but with today’s busy lifestyles, proper nutrition is often lacking. Ingredients such Astragalus (Chinese root), Echinacea and probiotic cultures are most-frequently added to beverages to aid immunity.