burcon blog

What is this billion dollar market you ask? A new report published by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. has estimated the Global Functional Foods and Drinks market to exceed $130 billion by 2015. Think of functional foods and drinks as products that provide health-promoting or disease-preventing benefits beyond the basic function of supplying nutrients to the body. Foods and beverages fortified with vitamin or probiotics are functional products, for example.

Today we take a look at the “I” in BRIC and its growth potential. Among the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), India is making a splash in the food ingredients market with a 9% growth rate year on year, well above the 5-6% seen in the global market.

Imagine taste, function and nutrition all rolled up into one product – that is what consumers are demanding nowadays. No longer are we just buying juice, but rather, we are choosing juice that is natural and contain vitamins and minerals. We have come to realize the effects of diet on our health and actively seek functional food products that enhance our health beyond basic nutritional needs. The question is: What type of healthy functional products are we demanding?

“Food fortification has the dual advantage of being able to deliver nutrients to large segments of the population without requiring radical changes in food consumption patterns”

The UK functional foods and drink market is expected to grow at a rate between 4.5 percent and 6.5 percent per year over the next five years. This is in contrast to the 9.6 percent growth rate experienced last year, where we saw innovative products such as prebiotic, probiotic and omega-3 yoghurts; vitamin, mineral and protein drinks, to name a few.