A columnist with Food Technology Magazine says a growing consumer demand for healthier food products is creating new opportunities for food manufacturers.
Within the next few years the number of people in Canada over 50 is expected to eclipse the number of children.
Dr. Elizabeth Sloan, the tends columnist with Food Technology Magazine, says we’re seeing a lot of new things in new product development influenced primarily by the impact that health is having.
In Canada the awareness of health and nutrition has basically been sky-rocketing.
Of the top ten most favorite new products introduced between March of 2010 and last year seven of them have significant health benefits, things like probiotics that help your digestion, things with added nutrients or heart healthy products.
So it’s very very strong.
Unfortunately it’s not as strong in this country with children as we would like to see it.
The data on Canadian children is very depressing.
If you go back 15 years you can see that everything from the amount of children over weight to the amount of children that have cholesterol levels and beginning to have high blood pressure and their body fat composition has increased dramatically and those are very serious concerns and the industry needs to be more conscious of helping them to get those things under control because they’re going to be diabetics as they grow up, more so than our generation was.
Dr. Sloan notes the one thing that hasn’t been fairing particularly well is organic foods as consumers perceive them to be more expensive.
She says consumers want more natural foods that are grown properly, that are humanely raised but they don’t necessarily have to be organic.
She observes Canada is perceived as having the safest, most wholesome food supply in the world even more so than in the United States, and she believes that offers an opportunity for food manufacturers to produce products that are uniquely Canadian.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
