According to Frost & Sullivan analysis, in 2013, $22 trillion global food and beverage value chain was largely driven by health and wellness products developed to meet the demand for risk reduction of preventable lifestyle ailments responsible for 42 per cent of global deaths in comparison to 25 per cent in 2000.
The analysis highlights the extremely high healthcare costs at over $12 billion as a consequence of lifestyle related death due to cardiovascular diseases in 2013. Therefore according to F&S analysis, lifestyle ailments are key demand drivers for H&W products in the form of safe functional foods and beverages like liquid breakfasts, say, oat and fruit smoothies containing 100 per cent real fruit juice or puree with no added sugar and water-soluble oat fibre (launched by Wellness Works, USA) and indigenous ethnic articles from ancient civilisation’s products - energy drink Gurana Antarctica (gurana flavoured beverage manufactured and distributed by Anheuser-Busch Inbev: Brazil, Japan, Portugal).
Needless to say, such a fantastic health and wellness products development scenario is nowadays possible due to the latest food packaging innovations. The packaged milk and curd with no appreciable loss of good bacteria and RTD green tea are also examples of H&W products which require the latest packaging technology innovations for their extended shelf life.
As per F&S analysis on “Functional beverage industry – trends, challenges and developments: 2014” over 30 per cent of 1.3 billion Indians are vegetarian and there exists a demand for vegetarian-based Omega-3 juice and yoghurt-based probiotics in India. Though many Indian consumers are unwilling to pay premium for a product made at home as part of their staple diet, still over 50 lakh (5 million) litre of milk is purchased each day in Indian metros, about 20 per cent of which is converted to curd ensuring a gradually increasing demand for H&W products developed on cultural formats in the form of probiotic smoothies. Hence India too is calling for the latest packaging innovations in food processing sector.
The Asian Scenario
Highlighting the functional food and beverage industry growth in Asia, the Frost & Sullivan statement in context of H&W product development goes this way - the fastest growing economy today is expected to perform the dual role of providing nutrition as well as preventive medication as part of the growing demand for health- and wellness-based food in Asia, driving food consumption. It will also see growth (or development) in health and wellness products.
At the same time, the F&S report states that growing affluence, increasing income inequality and rising lack of efficient distribution of wealth remain key economic growth obstacles across the scope of the study; however, the US, Europe and Japan are the most advanced markets while India, China and Brazil are the key growth geographies. The major products out of entire Asian H&W products scenario, as per report, are as follows -
Ayataka is a green tea-based drink that has become Coca-Cola’s 15th one billion dollar brand in 2013. The tea claims weight management benefits and while it is produced in Japan, it is quickly becoming a global favourite. Calamodin or calamansi is an Asian native fruit tree in the family Rutaceae, widely cultivated in the Philippines. Calamansi juice is produced by manufacturers in the Philippines to provide local flavour with natural ingredients.
Vithai Food Products has Vfresh basil seed drinks aimed at a variety of daily diseases including constipation, blood sugar and diarrhoea. Available in a tea format, it is highly popular in Thailand with growing focus on breakfast.
Local flavours such as Jamu are witnessing popularity due to their contribution to improvement in health conditions such as menstruation, exhaustion, body shaping, face toning, beauty, younger appearance, and glowing skin. Thai-Go was developed by Nature’s Sunshine scientists as an immune health drink aimed at Asian women. The drink is made from pericarp (rind) of the mangosteen fruit, and has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory features.
Thailand-based Tipco has introduced a series of fruit juices fortified with Omega-3, DHA and vitamins aimed at addressing malnutrition and providing children with balanced micronutrients.
Singapore-based Kvas Beverage Enterprise Pte Ltd offers a yoghurt- based children’s drink that does not need refrigeration, in a bid to encourage children to move away from sugary drinks and incorporate health digestive bacteria into their daily diet.
RTD tea drinks priced at a premium will immediately face resistance in ethnic tea drinking markets of Indonesia and Malaysia.
Packaging Innovation
The F&S report presents details of consumer preferences for packaged food which probably brought about packaging innovations leading to proper health and wellness product development process. The HTST (high temperature short time) packaging technology employed to kill harmful bacteria also destroys the good bacteria along with some nutritionally significant ingredients like vitamins leading to product quality deterioration.
The aseptic packaging for a high water activity product demands inclusion of sugar, citric acid and other preservatives, if HTST technique is followed. This situation is not enjoyed by health-conscious consumers. With the application of both the pressure and the heat, scientists succeeded to overcome the obstacle to some extent. This technique is called retort packaging which enables packaging of high water activity products without using sugar and other preservatives. In this way, RTE vegetables (processed), slightly high pH curd or yoghurt, and 100 per cent pure juices were packaged.
Still the problem of destruction of good bacteria and vitamins due to high temperature treatment remained as such. Later, with the onset of 21st century, high pressure application in chilling conditions became the feature of innovative packaging leading to successfully package the product with no appreciable loss of digestive bacteria and nutritional ingredients like vitamins. This packaging technique, called HPP (high pressure processing), was developed in the United States but now has been worldwide employed including the Asian scenario mostly via contract manufacturing. HPP packaging innovation contributed a lot to aseptic as well as nutritionally rich packaging of a variety of perishable products like fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, pure fruit juices, milk, and yoghurt with almost maintenance of good bacteria and vitamin level.
H&W Product Development
The product development process goes along the well-known definition of ‘product,’ given by Philip Kotler. The product is defined as something that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. Needless to say, consumer preferences for a product make trend-set in market along which the product has to develop gradually in the five dimensions called levels of product value: core benefit, generic product, expected product, augmented product and potential product -
1. Core benefit - It is the most fundamental level of product, associated with the basic benefit or service that the consumer is really buying. In case of a food product, the core benefit level is the well edible or tasty item which supplies energy (calories) to human body at the rate of 4.0 to 9.0 kilo calories per gram. However HTST packaging technology adds the core benefit of shelf life extension on loss of good bacteria and vitamins to it while HPP packaging technology adds shelf life with almost maintenance of naturally available good bacteria and nutritional ingredients like vitamins.
2. Generic product – The marketer turns the core benefit to generic product level. Generic product means the basic version of product. The food product is not just eatable with a shelf life, but something more. As a generic product, a food article maintains the human body by proper co-ordination of limbs activities as natural properties or action on the body. Needless to say, HPP packaging technology enables marketer to genuinely claim for a natural product.
3. Expected product – At the third level, the marketer prepares an expected product by offering the set of attributes and conditions that buyers normally expect. A consumer normally defines the values of food article by colour, flavour, and standardisation. HPP packaging technology facilitates the natural appearance and taste to persist in the food article.
4. Augmented product – The fourth level, the product augmentation, leads the marketer to look at the buyers’ total consumption systems. Health aspects of foods and beverages normally attract the consumers. The health or risk reduction claim can be genuinely made by the manufacturer, if HPP packaging technology is adopted.
5. Potential product – At the fifth level, as potential product, the product points out to its possible evolution in future as a health and wellness symbol, says a delighted consumer. Needless to say, this stage of product value could be genuinely achieved with HPP packaging technology. The potential of a food article augmented as ‘natural’ or ‘preservative-free’ or ‘no added sugar’ or a risk reduction claim rests in the true health and wellness assurance perhaps genuinely achieved via HPP packaging technique.
