An apple a day once kept the doctor away. Enter herb-laced beverages to boost your energy, calcium-fortified candy to prevent osteoporosis, and margarine spreads to lower your cholesterol, and you're eating your way to health with the new functional foods. Or are you?
'Functional food': it's an inside-the-industry phrase for the 'next generation of healthy products,' as Elizabeth Sloan, a consultant to food, supplement and pharmaceutical marketers, explains. Once the province of health- food stores and body builders' refrigerators, today the functional food market includes such multi-national players as Danone, Nestle and Unilever, as well as small companies designing innovative niche products.
A functional food/beverage can be medically specific, like Cooke Pharma's HeartBar, with L-arginine, an amino acid that has a record of improving vascular functioning and increasing the production of nitric oxide, a vasodilator. Introduced in stores in June 1999, HeartBar is reportedly the first medical food product to help heart and blood vessel disease.
Or, a functional food/beverage can offer a vague mood enhancement, such as Energy Brands Inc.'s Bliss drink, which, the company says, can help tap 'the eternal relaxation channel.' Here the marketer is making no blatant health claims for its drinks, but rather implying a change in wellbeing. While in the West these claims may seem comparable to a mountebank's pitch for a healing elixir, in the East drinking tonics that fortify stamina or boost energy is an age-old, respected custom.
The functional food category -- which has its roots in health, medical and sports food and beverages -- has gone mainstream and is burgeoning. According to Nutrition Business Journal, the current functional food market in America is worth $17 billion; in Japan, $10 billion; and in Europe, $14 billion. That is 3% of the $1.5 trillion annual food industry worldwide. Functional foods are growing by 25% per year.
Because functional food is loosely delineated, and is not yet clearly defined or consistently regulated by the FDA, estimates of just how quickly the market is growing vary, depending on what types of products are included in the calculation. For instance, when we discuss functional food in this article, we are not including vitamins or supplements, but rather everyday meals or snacks that have been fortified or added to in some way to benefit health.
No matter how the sector is described, the experts agree: the functional food market is growing rapidly and will not slow down for several years.
What Marketers Know About Our Habits
Most of the major international food companies are beginning to produce functional foods. Nestle, for example, is looking to its nutritional division to add value to commodity products. In development at Nestle are antioxidant micronutrients for controlling diabetes and a food that prevents fat from going to the belly. The 'anti-diabetes' product will be of great interest to the generation of aging baby boomers who soon will have to cope in large numbers with chronic conditions such as late-onset diabetes. The 'anti-fat' product may have more universal appeal, since it speaks to vanity as well as health (belly fat being linked to risk of disease).
Consumers are attracted to functional foods because they want to improve their health without changing their eating habits, according to the president of Kellogg's Ensemble Functional Foods Division, a separate unit which recently was incorporated into the company as a whole. By eating enough Ensemble foods to provide seven grams of soluble fiber daily, and eating a low-fat diet, Kellogg tells consumers that they can lower their LDL cholesterol by 9%. Although Kellogg has withdrawn The Ensemble line from all its test markets except Grand Rapids, MI because of problems merchandising the range in a traditional supermarket setting, the company continues to invest heavily in developing Ensemble products.
Perhaps John Bello, CEO, South Beach Beverage Co., maker of the SoBe line of juice blends, has the consumer right when he explains: 'People, I think, want to be healthy, perform better and enjoy life. The herbal renaissance promises stronger, smarter, sexier and skinnier.' (SoBe's Essentials, billed as 'energizing herbal tonics,' come in such varieties as Qi, Shen and Jing.)
What Bello observes correctly is that the 'herbal renaissance' or self-treatment trend has made significant inroads into American culture, paving the way for the new functional foods.
The Self-Care Trend
According to the 1998 Trend Report by HealthFocus Inc., 52% of the adults surveyed think that certain foods can reduce their use of medicines and therapies. Of the respondents, 33% said they 'regularly choose foods for specific medical purposes.' Consumers are paying attention to the function as well as the taste of food.
Through a survey of 1,000 American adults, the International Food Information Council found that of the respondents who would purchase food for health reasons,
* Two-thirds are 45 years old or older;
* More than 60% attended college;
* Over 60% make a minimum of $50,000 per year.
New functional food products, if they respond to the needs of middleaged baby-boomers, will not find a shortage of ailments. They may address those 96 million adults suffering from high cholesterol, as well as the 70 million adults burdened with digestive problems; women, who are increasingly aware of the need for calcium to prevent osteoporosis as they grow older; and the ever-present group of people interested in preventing heart disease and cancer through healthy eating and supplement intake, which have long been part of traditional preventative medicine.
In fact, New Nutrition Business states that the two trends to watch in functional foods are ingredients to lower cholesterol and to promote intestinal health (the latter would most probably be used in dairy products).
Fortified Junk Food?
Marketers are finding ways to turn the empty, albeit pleasurable, calories of candy and snack foods into health products, by fortifying them with herbs and vitamins.
David Schardt, associate nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, puts it this way: 'There's a temptation to take junk food and add nutrients to it. But junk food that's fortified is still junk food.' Schardt predicted this about functional foods: 'Some of these foods are and will be beneficial, and some of them will be worthless. It's up to the consumer to make sense of it all.'
A major part of 'making sense of it all' is determining whether functional food actually functions. Take Snapple's Moon Green Tea, which is part of its Elements All Natural Fruit Drink line up, for instance. It contains gingko biloba and kava kava and is intended to help 'enlightenment.' Enlightenment is hardly a medical condition, but both gingko biloba and kava kava have been shown to have some health benefits. But how much gingko and/or kava kava would one need to effect memory or mood and bring about enlightenment, and how much of these herbs do the drink actually contain?
Brian Lovejoy, president and CEO of Drinks That Work, a functional beverage company and competitor of Snapple, stated: 'One of the challenges in the functional foods category is obtaining an efficacious amount of the right quality ingredients. It is more than just quantity, but quality, measured by the active ingredients. You can have 500 mg of kava in a product, but do you have 150 mg of kavalactones? We provide consumers with relevant information on the product and functionality.'
On one hand, if you are drinking a fructose-rich tea which contains herbs which are not provided in therapeutic doses, you may be imbibing fortified junk food, after falling for a mere marketing ploy. On the other hand, if you are drinking a tea with a potent dose of kava kava, shouldn't you tell your doctor, your pharmacist, or your herbalist? What if the herbs you are taking are being combined in your body in a counterproductive or even dangerous way? Without governmental regulation, the burden of research falls on consumers and their healthcare consultants, rather than on product manufacturers.
Governmental Regulation
Michael Jacobson, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, wrote to FDA Commissioner Jane Henney: 'While functional foods hold much promise, without effective regulation, they may merely become the snake oil of the next century.'
Outside of Japan, the functional food category is not clearly defined. Functional food was born in Japan, with this (simplified) governmental definition of the FOSHU category: 'Foods for specified health uses...to which a functional ingredient has been added for a specific healthful effect.' FOSHU products must be foods, not supplements in pill form. In this way, the government hoped to make it clear to consumers that FOSHU products are not medicine to be taken occasionally, but rather can be eaten every day, like regular food.
While the functional food category grows rapidly in the US, the FDA continues to communicate its confusion over classification of the products and the scope of its jurisdiction over them. To date, the FDA has treated new products such as soy-based foods, energy bars, isotonic beverages, and grain-based products very much the way it does dietary supplements, so that Americans, unlike the Japanese, do not receive a clear message that these are foods to be eaten every day, rather than taken in doses like medication.
A particularly difficult issue arises out of the semantic gray area between 'structure/function' claims for supplements, which are permitted under DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health Education Act), and 'disease claims,' which are only permissible for products that are regulated as drugs.
Here is an example of the claim confusion: A 'helps maintain healthy cholesterol' claim is usually thought to be an allowable structure/function claim, but 'helps lower cholesterol' is considered a non-permissible drug claim. To a consumer reading the label, what is the real difference in meaning between these phrases?
Benecol's Launch Helps Define Issues
Benecol, which has been shown to lower cholesterol, can serve as an example of the confusion surrounding functional food for consumers and, by extension, their physicians.
In November 1998, the FDA stopped the introduction of Benecol in the US by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, because Benecol's plant stanol ester had not been approved in food products. Stanol ester helps block the absorption of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol by the intestines. (At first, Benecol was to be introduced in supplement form, but that was blocked by the FDA.)
In May 1999, Benecol in foods received approval and McNeil Consumer Healthcare readied its introduction of its Benecol margarine-like spread. Now available in grocery stores across the US, consumers can purchase a container of Benecol, with 21 servings, for about $4.99. It is suggested that they eat three servings of Benecol per day (note that one tub of the spread contains a week's worth of doses). A serving is 1-1/2 teaspoons.
I can purchase Benecol spread at my local supermarket, rather than my usual brand (which costs much less), but first these thoughts come to mind:
* How much do I have to eat to actually help me reduce my cholesterol levels? The recommended amount is said to lower LDL cholesterol by 14%. What if I eat two servings, instead of three? Do I lower my cholesterol by 10%, say, or not at all?
* What happens if my family members who don't have high cholesterol eat the spread? Is it unhealthy for them?
* Can I eat all the other foods I want to and still lower my cholesterol levels, if I use Benecol? Or, do I have to stick to a 30% or less fat diet?
* My doctor recommends exercise to help lower cholesterol levels. Can I get away with less, if I use Benecol?
* If my doctor wants to give me medication for my cholesterol, can I still use this spread?
* Do I need to talk to my doctor or nutritionist about using Benecol? If it really works, she should know that I'm using it, just as she should know if I'm taking over-the-counter drugs, vitamins or supplements.
Summing Up
This quick look at consumer issues when using functional foods does not, however, have a quick set of answers. Obviously, functional food has many attractions, and some of them could be potentially dangerous: giving up healthful lifestyle habits for a quick fix, for one; or treating a serious condition with a frozen dinner, for another. However, if functional foods deliver more preventative medicine than marketing hype, self-care in the US will receive a boost of wellbeing, and, hopefully, a tasty meal, too.
Sources: Australasian Business Intelligence, 8/1/99. Beverage Industry, 7/99. Beverage World, 6/15/99. Canadian Chemical News, 5/99. Candy Industry, 3/99. Chicago Sun-Times, 5/4/99. Cincinnati Enquirer, 3/26/99. Drug Store News, 5/17/99. Economist, 9/11/99. Executive Health's Good Health Report, 7/99. Lookout-Foods, 6/8/99. Montreal Gazette, 6/19/99. Nutraceuticals International, 9/99. PR Newswire, 6/15/99. Prepared Foods, 5/99, 6/99. Specialty Coffee Retailer, 4/99. Supermarket Business, 7/99.
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