Prioritising Health Through Food

The health & wellness industry is booming, having been valued at a staggering $1.8 trillion in 2024.

As consumers become increasingly health conscious, the pressure to move away from long ingredients lists and ultra-processed foods mounts. Better-for-you products, eating to replenish the microbiome and product solutions to monitor health and improve longevity are the rising trends. Not to mention the latest craze taking the United States by storm: the rise of Ozempic & other GLP-1 drugs.

To keep up with trends in the space, food companies are working to improve the nutritional profiles of products, reformulate their portfolios and create foods catered to those using weight management solutions.

At Future Food-Tech London on October 2-3, speakers from across the value chain will address what they’re doing to stay ahead of the curve with sessions on technologies providing tasty, healthier choices, examining the GLP-1 phenomenon and innovations to unlock the gut-brain axis.

 

Better-For-You

The Better-For-You movement refers to a reduction in the calories, sugar or sodium levels of products, and has become a popular marketing term to attract the health conscious consumer.

Victoria Spadaro Grant, President, Innovation and Commercial Development, TATE & LYLE says of the trend: “Better-For-You has established itself in today’s wellness revolution, which witnessed continued post-pandemic acceleration. Our research indicates consumer focus expanding from sugar, calorie reduction into positive nutrition (emphasizing fibres, proteins), and increasingly seeking products supporting gut-health, weight management, and overall wellbeing.”

Delivering on Taste

When looking to develop in such a competitive space, it’s imperative that products deliver on the taste experience. Victoria is a firm believer in identifying consumers’ expectations as a first step. Diving into Tate & Lyle’s process, she says: “This involves a holistic, multi-sensorial understanding of taste and mouthfeel coupled with visual, olfactory, and emotional experiences. Technological developments like our proprietary mouthfeel formulation tools, unlocking use of functional ingredients, ingredient synergies such as bespoke sweetener, fibres and starch solutions are some examples of bringing taste to life in better-for-you offerings.”

Continuous Innovation is Key

At Tate & Lyle, continuous innovation to create science-based solutions is paramount. When discussing how the company uses R&D to improve the nutritional profile of foods, Victoria says: “Using starches, fibres, and proteins are some ways to enhance nutritional offerings while reducing sugar, fats, and calories. Increasing the presence of macro-nutrients like fibers and proteins, helps deliver on taste and product experience while countering endemic societal challenges like obesity and nutritional deficiencies.” The sugar giant’s next-gen Stevia sweetener and calorie-reducing ingredient substitutions is a perfect example of this.

Creating Nutritious, Affordable and Sustainable Solutions

Of course, higher quality ingredients and less processing of foods means that the label comes with a heftier price tag than products outside of the category. Victoria ends by emphasising that affordability challenges stand in the way of democratization and calls for change: “Better-for-you foods need to embed sustainability deeper into the journey to ensure resilient accessible nutrition, evolving into Better-For-Us.”

 

Gut Health

Closely linked to Better-For-You is our second hot topic: Gut Health.

Gaining huge popularity over the past decade and transforming the way consumers look at healthy eating, the global digestive health products market was valued at $47.58 billion in 2023, and is expected to reach $105.48 billion by 2033, according to Precedence Research.

Linking the Microbiome to Overall Health

Strides are being made to better understand the links between the gut microbiome and overall health, whether metabolic, mental or immune system.

Aurélien Baudot, CEO & Co-Founder at CRYPTOBIOTIX puts this down to improved preclinical microbiome models with predictivity for clinical outcomes: “They are quickly enhancing our understanding of the interplay between products, the gut microbiome and health benefits either in the gut itself or in other organ systems. Combined with multi-omics analysis, we can now investigate a greater number of biological markers and zoom in on the mechanism of action of microbiome-mediated products.”

Challenges in the Space

From labelling and regulation to pricey clinical trials, challenges remain in better understanding the gut and making gut health mainstream. Aurélien shares that at CRYPTOBIOTIX, the team believe in de-risking of gut health product development. By using the scale-up’s predictive platform, SIFR®, key questions can be addressed in a cost-efficient way: “Is there a potentially beneficial effect? How unique is that effect? How consistent is that effect in the population? In this way, you build confidence in the relevance of gut health products, for producers, end-users, and investors.”

Continuing the Investment Boom

To continue the investment boom in the gut health space, Aurélien believes we need to see clear indications of the efficacy of products: “While a lot of products may have shown promising results in initial tests, the translation to proven effects on gut health is often limited. Substantiating gut health benefits through successful clinical trials would build further confidence in the field and incentivise further investments.”

 

GLP-1

Ozempic has taken the world by storm, making headlines across the U.S. due to the extreme weight loss of celebrities. Where once upon a time consumers would stick to three meals a day, the drop in appetite means that consumers are favouring snacking and lighter meals.

The rise of GLP-1 has therefore undoubtedly impacted the food sector. Although we are yet to discover the long term affects, popularity is growing, and Kristofer Cook, Chairperson & CBDO, CARBIOTIX believes the food system needs to work to adapt to this new reality.

New Opportunities for the Ozempic Era

As ripple effects begin to reach Europe, Kristofer is confident that GLP-1 usage in the EU will grow as a weight management approach similar to the U.S. And where such shift occurs, of course does great opportunity, and exciting solutions are already emerging in the space. “At Carbiotix we see an opportunity to help our customers develop food & beverage products rich in soluble fibre that can help address the negative GI sides effects of GLP-1 drugs and increase their efficacy.”

When GLP-1 becomes more entrenched and readily available in the region, Kristofer believes this could be the food system’s opportunity to “transform processed foods into adjuvants that can serve to increase the efficacy of related drugs by addressing underlying inflammation.”

Natural Alternatives to Weightloss

Kristofer urges consumers to lean on increasing their soluble fibre content as a natural alternative to weight management. At scale-up CARBIOTIX, their goal is to “transform any processed plant-based food & beverage product into a healthier functional product by fully utilising and making bioavailable the soluble fibre, protein and other active ingredient components through onsite upcycling and fortification.”

 

To join powerful conversations with Victoria, Aurélien and Kristofe, in addition to 100+ visionary speakers and 500+ decision makers from across the value chain, you need to be at Future Food-Tech London on October 2-3.

The early bird sale is live, and discounted tickets are available until August 14. Register now to save £300 and secure your seat at the table.