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B U S I N E S Swww.new–nutrition.com JULY 2010 ISSN 1464-3308VOLUME 15 NUMBER 9

T H E J O U R N A L F O R H E A L T H Y E A T I N G , F U N C T I O N A L F O O D S & N U T R A C E U T I C A L S

Pages 8-9

Continued on page 3

Pages 12-14 Pages 6-7

By Julian Mellentin

Do dietary guidelines serve any useful function? Are they little more than a vague mission statement, aspirational yet irrelevant? Do they influence only the eating habits of the most-informed, most health-conscious consumers?

It is an unavoidable and uncomfortable fact that in the 30-odd years since the dietary guidelines first appeared our diet and health appears not to have improved but to have got worse. The last three decades has seen continuously rising rates of overweight and obesity and diet-related diseases in most countries.

When the preliminary 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans were released in June the guideline committee’s chair Linda Van Horn wrote: “The single most sobering aspect of this Report is the recognition that we are addressing an overweight and obese American population…Everything within this Report is presented through the filter of an obesegenic environment in critical need of change.”

That the environment is in critical need of change is undisputed. But what is also being argued by some nutrition scientists as well as industry and media commentators is that the dietary guidelines have done nothing to help improve the situation.

The US Dietary Guidelines are revised every five years in order to reflect changes in nutrition knowledge over time. The 2010 draft guidelines – to be finalised later this year – contain no surprises and nothing

new. In fact they trot out old answers to the continuing question of how to improve diet. As expected, they recommend a reduction in maximum sodium intake from 2,300mg a day to 1,500mg; Americans’ average intake remains about 3,500mg a day. As anyone knows who has tried to motivate anyone to do anything differently, setting a target that people see as unattainable does not help you succeed and may even stop people from trying at all.

Other recommendations include reducing saturated fat intake to no more than 7% of calories, and eating two servings of seafood a week, contributing an average of 250mg per day of omega-3 fatty acids.

Despite the abundant science on the benefits of marine omega-3s, the Committee says that only “moderate evidence” shows 250mg of long-chain fatty acids per day can reduce death from coronary heart disease. And to the disappointment of supplement companies and suppliers of omega-3 oils, supplementation is not mentioned as a means of delivery, rather: “Increased consumption of seafood will require efficient and ecologically-friendly strategies be developed to allow for greater consumption of seafood that is high in EPA and DHA, and low in environmental pollutants such as methyl mercury.”

In summary, the guidelines say that Americans should reduce calorie intake and get more exercise; shift toward a more plant-based diet; eat more seafood and low-fat

dairy; eat fewer foods containing added sugar and solid fats; and reduce intake of sodium and refined grains.

FOOD INDUSTRY RESPONSIBILITIES

The report also tackles the issue of availability, suggesting that healthy foods should be made more affordable, and saying, as the nutrition community always does, that the food industry should be encouraged to produce foods with lower levels of solid fats, added sugar and refined grains, and that processed foods should be offered in smaller portions.

As readers will know, reducing sodium, fats and sugars is – and has been for 10 years – a key part of every responsible company’s product development strategy and most food and beverage companies, large and small, are engaged in a process of incrementally lowering these three “bad ingredients” each year – incrementally because, as some have learnt the hard way, if you (for example) reduce sodium levels too quickly people simply stop buying your foods.

Industry gets little credit for the social responsibility it demonstrates by setting itself ever-higher goals. In the US, for example, General Mills recently announced that it would reduce sodium by 20% across multiple product categories by 2015, on top of its across-the-board sodium reductions of recent years, such as a 16% sodium reduction in its leading breakfast cereals brands and more

Three decades of dietary advice: no change?

Anti-cancer benefits drive sales of super-

premium natural product

“Concentrated dose” is redefi ning food and beverages

Why ingredient, benefit and product

must fit together

JULY 2010 2

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COMPANIES AND BRANDS IN THIS ISSUE

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Angus Soft Fruits Good Natured Fruit 4

Benecol ................................................. 6

Bird’s Eye Omega 3 Fish Fingers ........ 9

Brassica Protection Products

BroccoSprouts ................. 4,5,7,12,13,14

Centre for BioSystems Genomics ...... 18

Cereal Partners Worldwide .................. 1

Costco ........................................... 23,24

Fresh Select ................................... 16,17

General Mills ....................................... 1

Kellogg’s ............................................... 1

Nestea Enviga ...................................... 9

Persil ..................................................... 7

Proctor & Gamble ................................ 6

Progresso .............................................. 1

Sahale Snacks ................................ 23,24

Sanitarium ............................................ 1

Sherbrooke Capital ............................ 23

Special K20 .......................................... 9

Starbucks ....................................... 23,24

Unilever ................................................ 6

Vital Vegetables Booster

Broccoli ........................... 4,5,7,15,16,17

Whole Water ........................................ 9

Yakult ....................................... 20,21,22

Young’s Chip Shop Omega 3 .............. 9

LEAD STORY

1,3 Three decades of dietary advice: no

change?

EDITORIAL

4-5 The right way – and the wrong way – to

commercialise new “naturally healthy”

science

6-7 “Concentrated dose” is redefining food

and beverages

8-9 Why ingredient, benefit and product

must fit together

CASE STUDIES

10-11 REGULATION: Industry lobbies

European Commission over ‘missing’

health claims evidence

12-14 COMMERCIALISATION: Anti-cancer

benefits drive sales of super-premium

natural products

15-17 COMMERCIALISATION: First failure

teaches Booster Broccoli how to

differentiate

18-19 TECHNOLOGY: How fruit and veg are

yielding their secrets to ‘metabolomics’

20-22 STRATEGY: Still learning from Yakult

23-24 START-UP: A new breed of portable,

healthy gourmet treats

NEW PRODUCTS

25-28 Functional & healthy-eating new

product launches

NEW

29 Use NNB as a Powerpoint

30 Listen to the audio file of NNB

IMPORTANT NOTICE

31 A polite reminder to our subscribers

USEFUL TO KNOW

32 NNB in Powerpoint

33 NNB Consultancy

ORDERING

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JULY 2010 3


E D I T O R I A L

than 25% in its Progresso soups. In Australia the leading cereal companies – Kellogg’s, Sanitarium, Cereal Partners Worldwide – have all made new commitments to reduce the sodium content of breakfast cereals containing more than 400mg per 100g by 15% over the next four years; 70% of cereals have already met the target.

The American dietary guidelines – and those of most countries – have not changed very much in their essence since the 1980s. The problem is that people choose not to follow them, despite a massive increase in health communications and healthy eating advice over the same period of time. The past 30 years have seen an explosion in the amount of nutrition education and on-pack information to help people make healthier choices – a food marketer from the 1980s, transported to today would be astonished at how much information companies cram onto their packages.

But the hard fact is that the increasing availability of nutrition information and the public health education have failed – and for the academic and health professional community to call for yet more is to simply pursue a failed strategy.

5-A-DAY A HIGH-PROFILE FAILURE

One of the best examples of the failure of nutrition education to make any difference to people’s choices is the 5-A-Day For Better Health Program, to encourage more consumption of fruit and vegetables. Launched in 1991, it was America’s largest public-private nutrition education initiative. A collaborative effort of many groups, including government agencies, private companies, state coordinators, and educators, its main goal was to increase fruit and vegetable consumption to at least fi ve servings per day for 75% of Americans by 2010. The programme reached far and wide to improve public awareness. Media campaigns, community-level interventions, point-of-purchase programmes and industry partnerships worked to get the message out.

But even after spending roughly $50 million (€40.7 million) per year in marketing efforts to get people to “strive for fi ve”, fruit and vegetable consumption rates did not budge, according to Elizabeth Pivonka, president and CEO of the Produce for Better Health Foundation. An article in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine assessed adult trends in fruit and vegetable consumption between 1988 and 2002 – and found that

89% of Americans failed to meet the Dietary Guidelines during that time. Furthermore, there was no change in fruit consumption over these years, and vegetable intake actually decreased. The 5-a-Day campaign was phased out in 2008.

Europeans have done no better. Europe’s fruit consumption is static (see NNB May 2010) and fresh vegetable consumption “continues to fall”, with a 14.2% reduction in 2008 compared to the average of the previous five years.

TRAFFIC LIGHTS DON’T WORK EITHER

The idea that health education and more information will make a difference to people’s choices is disproved again and again. After the failure of 5-a-Day, another spectacular example is the failure of “traffic light labeling”. Much favoured by academics, it ranks a food’s nutritional content against a set of “good” and “bad” criteria and awards it a green (healthy), amber (consume occasionally) or red (consume infrequently) “traffic light” to be carried prominently on the front of the package to guide people in making healthier choices.

But a study based on hard sales data, published earlier this year in the World Health Organisation’s journal Health Promotion International, found that traffic lights do not persuade people to make healthier choices. Researchers tracked ready meal and sandwich sales at an unnamed UK retailer for a month before and a month after the introduction of the labeling, and found no significant difference; indeed, the healthiest two sandwiches experienced the sharpest sales drop of any product.

“This study found the introduction of a system of traffic light labels had no discernible effect on the relative healthiness of consumer purchases,” said the study. The report’s co-author, Professor Mike Rayner of Oxford University’s public health department, was previously an advocate of traffic light labeling.

If the usefulness of flagging up “healthier foods” with a crude mechanism such as traffic lights has been shown to be a myth, so too is the mantra that if only the food industry makes healthier foods more available, the people will buy them. Many food companies have experienced the frustration of making healthier foods available only to find that people do not choose them. One leading company even switched all of its noodles from fried to baked – only to find that sales actually fell 20% as consumers rejected the taste of

the healthier option.And anyone who buys into the myth that

having more fruit available makes it easier for people to choose should read a study1 that looked at fruit and vegetable consumption of nearly 200,000 people in developing countries, which found that even in traditional cultures with traditional diets, when fruits and vegetables are abundant and easily accessible, people don’t necessarily eat them.

Lead author Spencer Moore and his colleagues looked at data from 196,373 adults in 52 mainly low- and middle-income countries. They found that:

• Overall, 77.6% of men and 78.4% of women consumed less than the suggested five daily servings of produce.

• There were wide variations among nations, ranging from 37% of men in Ghana who did not meet that standard, to 99% of Pakistani men.

• The researchers saw similar findings in women with the same two countries at the high and low ends of the spectrum.

“Most people, regardless of the country that they live in, simply do not meet the recommended guidelines for adequate fruit and vegetable consumption,” said Hall, adding that “the overall prevalence of low fruit and vegetable consumption is remarkably high across the globe.”

What dietary guidelines might do, some researchers speculate, is provide information on which only the most health-conscious, most-informed (and therefore higher income) consumers act. For example, among the major recommendations of the last US dietary guidelines, issued in 2005, were that Americans consume more wholegrains, fruits and vegetables. Consumption of these foods – some argue – has not risen across the board, rather it has gone up among people who are already health-conscious, the same 25% who are already the most-motivated to buy healthier foods. Which raises the possibility that dietary guidelines and health promotion might just have the unintended consequence of helping to widen dietary inequalities by providing information that is only acted on by a small and receptive group.

None of this is to say that dietary guidelines are useless, but how they can be made to work for the benefit of the population at large is a question to which no one has the answer.

Reference:1. Hall JN, et al. Global variability in fruit and vegetable consumption. Am J Prev Med. 36(5), 2009.

Continued from page 1

JULY 2010 4


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Our case studies on pages 12 and 15 illustrate perfectly the importance of good commercialisation strategy. They show how two very similar science-based natural product concepts – with similar active ingredients and similar benefits – were commercialised in very different ways and as a result got very different results in the marketplace. One adopted the best practices of science commercialisation and is earning super-premium prices and growing internationally. The other did not and as a result fell at the first hurdle.

For your convenience, the differences between these two products – BroccoSprouts and Vital Vegetables Booster Broccoli – are summarized on the table on page 5, but it’s worth looking at some of the differences in a little more detail.

The contrasting approaches begin with the strategic thinking underlying these two commercialisation ideas. From the outset, the minds behind BroccoSprouts identified and built into their strategy the key success factors for taking to market any product based on new nutrition science. These are:

• Begin by targeting the most health-conscious early adopters and make these your beach-head into the market

• Charge a super-premium price – which underscores to the target consumer how “special” the product is

• Deliver the product in packaging which serves not only to protect the product but provides strong differentiation on the shelf as well as extreme convenience

• Strongly differentiate the product in as many ways as possible, including appearance, to avoid comparison with low-price commodities and move the point of difference from being simply the health benefit to as many other factors as possible

The most striking difference is the very different ways the products are presented. In the case study on page 12 Tony Talalay of Brassica Protection Products says his company has “deliberately sought to

distinguish BroccoSprouts from other sprout offerings on the market”. Sold in high-quality lidded plastic trays, the product bears a label showing a typical serving suggestion and the product provides a small and convenient serving size, perfectly in line with the preferences of today’s health-conscious consumers. “We’ve changed the face of the sprout industry with our high quality packaging and graphics,” says Tony Talalay.

By contrast, in Australia Booster Broccoli was crudely presented in a shrink-wrap, so that it failed to establish any strong visual point of difference from other broccoli products.

The importance of differentiation through packaging is understood by smart companies the world over and they have made it a key part of their strategy, even in the fruit and vegetable business. In the UK for example, Scotland-based Angus Soft Fruits’ strategy of presenting its “grown without pesticides” products in very distinctive packaging (see illustration) has helped propel the company’s rapid growth, even while selling at premium prices and even against the backdrop of a severe economic recession.

The marketers of Booster Broccoli, to be fair, have now learnt the error of their first

strategy and say that rather than selling the broccoli as shrink-wrapped whole heads, as before, the broccoli will instead be ‘floreted’ – or cut up into small pieces.

SUPER-PREMIUM PRICE

BroccoSprouts also recognized that it was an advantage in terms of creating credibility with the most-informed and most health-conscious consumers – as well as creating much higher profit margins – to market their brand at a super-premium price, typically $3-$4 (€2.52 – €3.36) a pack. This, says Tony Talalay, is roughly three times as expensive as a pack of alfalfa sprouts, but he insists it is a price some consumers are willing to pay, adding that: “We have very broad distribution and we go in every kind of major supermarket, but our typical consumer is someone older, female, with a higher income, and who is educated about food. They’re conscious about what they’re buying – sometimes it’s organic, but certainly it’s high-end healthy products.”

Booster Broccoli, by contrast, aimed for a much lower premium, apparently with the aim of creating wider appeal – something which almost no new health

The right way – and the wrong way – to commercialise new “naturally healthy” science

The Good Natured Fruit brand from Angus Soft Fruits is based on innovative techniques for growing fruit and vegtables without use of pesticides. It achieves strong visibility in the supermarket through strongly differentiated packaging, supporting the brand’s growth at premium prices even during an economic recession.

JULY 2010 5


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concept manages to do when it first enters the market. By failing to begin with a health-conscious premium beachhead, it broke one of the golden rules of success. As a result, the company said, its sales were “impacted negatively mainly because some shoppers were put off by its relatively high price”. In other words, the company was selling to the wrong people and even when its premium over conventional broccoli fell to 30%, said a company spokesperson, many consumers found this premium off-putting: “The only negative feedback we received was that it was expensive.”

In our case study the spokesperson continues: “We experienced that consumer acceptance is a problem, particularly if you’re trying to get a premium. Health alone won’t get you that premium. You need to have a combination of health, aesthetics and – obviously – value.”

Value, of course, is not the same as low

price. At a super-premium price a product can seem like tremendous value to the right group of consumers – the people whom BroccoSprouts targeted. In fact, a low price can make these people suspicious of the effectiveness of your product. Providing “value” at the low-price in the way the mass market defines it will never result in increased sales – at best only substitution of some existing regular products by the high sulforaphane one.

AVOID COMMODITY COMPARISONS

The Booster Broccoli story shows that when taking science to market it is best to avoid comparisons with commodity products – the health benefit by itself is not enough to motivate the consumer to buy your product, as has already been learnt many times in every category of the supermarket, in every country. In “enhanced vegetables”,

for example, high antioxidant potatoes have failed to take off, despite good science, simply because it is too easy for people to compare them to regular potatoes and see that the only difference is the health benefit – a difference which is never enough to earn a significant premium.

Indeed, as the Booster Broccoli spokesman observed: “The problem you have is that there’s a lot of campaigning around vegetables anyway, and everybody knows vegetables are good for you. So to tell people that this vegetable is better for you than another vegetable is a very difficult task. Although you may see it as a no-brainer, it’s actually not. It’s hugely difficult because the question that then gets asked is: why do I have to pay a premium?”

The only answer to this question is to adopt the BroccoSprouts strategy of extreme differentiation. And that is the only way to commercialise any science.

BroccoSprouts Booster Broccoli

Product BroccoSprouts – very young broccoli plants, just a few days old. Unusual appearance, not easily comparable to anything else in the produce area except alfalfa sprouts, which have a premium and health image.

Booster Broccoli – heads of mature broccoli. Comparable directly to commodity broccoli.

Active ingredient

Sulforaphane at 73mg per 28g serving. Sulforaphane at 84mcg per serve of 70g (at least 30% more than conventional broccoli).

Science base

Very strong – science dates back to work done at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, USA, in early 1990s.

Very strong – product is one outcome of a $2.8 million/€2.3 million research project involving Australia and New Zealand’s leading research organizations.

Benefit Labelled: “BroccoSprouts. Broccoli sprouts. A natural source of SGS – the long lasting antioxidant from broccoli. 73mg of SGS per serving. BroccoSprouts are the only broccoli sprout patented and licensed by Johns Hopkins University.”

On the reverse of the label: “BroccoSprouts. 100% natural. While studying broccoli and broccoli sprouts at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, scientists identified a natural compound, sulforafane GS (SGS) which supports long-lasting antioxidant and essential cellular function. Only BroccoSprouts are grown from special seeds which are tested and certified by Brassica Protection Products, in order to provide a guaranteed level of SGS. A fat-free food, broccoli sprouts are a good source of Vitamin C. As part of a diet low in fat and rich in vegetables and fruit, broccoli sprouts may reduce the risk of cancer, a disease of many factors.”

“SGS is a long-lasting antioxidant which helps maintain the body’s immune function”.

Labelled: Naturally higher in essential antioxidants.

Packaging Sold in convenient 113g packs (in Japan in 50g snack packs) in containers which help differentiate the product and provide adequate space for label messages.

Booster Broccoli sold in heads and unattractively shrink-wrapped as conventional broccoli, failing to establish any visual point of difference.

Convenience factors

Product is hyper-convenient – instantly ready-to-eat, it can be consumed raw from the pack as a snack as well as being used in cooking without loss of the health benefit.

Zero convenience factors, zero snacking potential – product still needs to be washed and prepared by the consumer.

Pricing Super-premium – typically costing $3-$4 (€2.52 - €3.36) a pack, three times as expensive as a pack of alfalfa sprouts.

Initially aimed for 30% premium to regular broccoli, which widened to 150% as price of directly comparable undifferentiated commodity fell.

Consumer targeting

Premium health-conscious niche focus: “We have very broad distribution but our typical consumer is someone older, female, with a higher income, and who is educated about food. They’re conscious about what they’re buying – sometimes it’s organic, but certainly it’s high-end healthy products.”

Price-sensitive mass market.

TABLE 1: SUMMARY COMPARISON OF HOW TO – AND HOW NOT TO – COMMERCIALISE THE SCIENCE OF “NATURALLY HEALTHY FOODS”

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The “daily dose” or “concentrated dose” format has become one of the defining product formats of the global nutrition business – in Asia at least, where it is long-established. But in the West it is still an embryonic concept and one most marketeers continue to shy away from.

The concept of a “concentrated dose” – meaning a high, and effective, dose of an active ingredient in as small a package as possible (for example a beverage in a 1.7oz-6oz or 50ml-180ml package) – has been growing in popularity in Europe over the last decade, and the idea is now, at last, taking off in America, after years of resistance to the concept from marketers.

PROVEN TRACK RECORD IN LAUNDRY PRODUCTS

It’s a format that achieves differentiation and premium pricing, and reassures consumers that they are getting a guaranteed “concentrated dose” of the effective ingredient that provides the benefit they are looking for.

It’s a compelling idea and one with a

proven track record – “concentrated doses” have long been established as one of the most powerful concepts in consumer marketing. In laundry powders and liquids for example, products that offer a “concentrated dose” have been redefining the market for a decade (see box on page 7). The reason for this development is a very simple one, as a senior Unilever executive was quoted as saying:

“Consumers are looking for convenience and ease of use. Convenience is the big trend as consumers’ lives get more hectic.”

As a result of the willingness of companies such as Unilever and Proctor & Gamble to respond to consumers’ needs for ultra-convenient products, in the $34 billion (€27 billion) global laundry powders and liquids market “concentrated dose” powders and liquids have grown to a 35% market share, a retail sales value of $9.5 billion (€7.6 billion).

NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITY IN FOOD AND DRINK

“Concentrated dose” is an opportunity that has been neglected by all but a few food and beverage companies. However, that is slowly beginning to change.

On a conservative estimate, global sales of concentrated dose beverages are, at retail prices, already $8.5 billion (€6.9 billion), of which probiotic dairy and energy shots are the single largest segments.

This change is driven by three very compelling factors:

1. Differentiation through packaging: Good packaging, particularly innovative packaging, is crucial to creating successful health propositions in increasingly over-crowded markets. At its best, packaging supports the brand in asserting its difference from the competition. It’s the best way to catch the consumer’s eye and earn premium prices and better-than-average profit margins.

Innovative packaging performs several important functions:

• It signals to consumers that “this is something very different”.

• It can be used to mask a price premium. It is a good way of achieving high

margins since consumers have no similar existing products to function as a comparison. Using packaging, companies can create new price points and achieve much higher selling prices for their products. In particular, selling in single-serve packages makes it very difficult for consumers to easily compare prices, whereas putting your new product in a standard 1-litre gable-top carton makes it look like every other brand on the shelf and enables consumers to easily compare prices between your product and regular products.

• When you use packaging innovation to create a new category then you are defining the direction in which many of your competitors must go and you are defining the packaging format they must adopt. You are in effect establishing your credentials as a market leader and innovator.

2. I-Nutrition: We live in an era in which there is an increasing desire for customization to meet individual needs. It applies across all categories of products, and one of the best examples is the iPod or the iTouch, which enable an individual to carry around with them thousands of their favourite pieces of music and listen to them alone, through a set of headphones, whenever and wherever they like. For our ancestors music was a social and collective pleasure, with people coming together with friends, relatives or fellow villagers to enjoy the same music together, as a group. Today, thanks to technology, its enjoyment is more often a solitary, individual activity.

So too with food. As a result of longer working hours, greater social and geographic mobility, greater social isolation (33% of households in Amsterdam are single-person, for example, and 25% in Australia) and the breakdown of traditional family structures and meal occasions, more and more people eat alone.

At the same time, even where people live in traditional families, their food choices are dictated less and less by custom, tradition and family and more and more by highly personalised views about health and nutrition

“Concentrated dose” is redefi ning food and beverages

This Benecol print advertisement perfectly captures the convenience appeal to consumers of a concentrated dose.

JULY 2010 7


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and a desire for products that meet an individuals’ own health needs – a result of the huge attention given to diet and health by the media, where you will find thousands upon thousands of articles in magazines, newspapers and on websites relating to health. It sometimes seems that almost every media source offers a “nutritionist” giving advice.

As a result of the flood of what is often conflicting advice, people have given up on trusting experts and have decided to instead form their own views about what works for them as individuals, which means that consumers are increasingly customising their nutritional choices every day. The 45-year-old mother drinking a dairy drink to boost her bone health, for example, or her husband consuming something to keep his cholesterol level down, are both making individual choices which might not be seen as relevant by any other family members.

In short, we live in the era of I-Nutrition, in which – when it comes to health – single-serve packages have more appeal than family packages.

3. Better sales, better margins, better profits: If neither of the above factors is persuasive enough, then the one that should be is that the few companies who have adopted the concentrated dose packaging format have found that the format delivers:

• Higher sales• Increased profit margins• New consumers who are loyal, with

repeat purchase rates of 80% and above, and willing to pay premium prices even during recession

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR INNOVATION

Customisation towards individual nutritional preferences is not only a strategy worth adopting by companies planning to develop their presence in health, in many cases it is the only strategic choice available.

Every company that’s looking to target particular health benefits has to consider, as part of their innovation process, whether, and how, it can produce a product that could deliver the maximum effective dose of a health ingredient in a small and thus ultra-convenient package.

PEOPLE WANT THE POWER AND CONVENIENCE OF A “CONCENTRATED DOSE”

The idea of a product offering a “concentrated dose” of a particular benefi t is one of the most powerful in marketing, and concentrated dose products now account for a third of global laundry powder and liquid sales.

CONCENTRATED DOSE – THE FOCUS OF A SUCCESSFUL HEALTHY VEGETABLE

Booster Broccoli (below left) – heads of mature broccoli – provide a dose of the antioxidant sulforaphane at 84mcg per serve (70g).

However BroccoSprouts – very young broccoli plants – provide a dose of sulforaphane at 73mg per 28g serving, in other words a “concentrated dose” of more than twice as much per 100g as the mature broccoli. Retailed in a 113g pack, BroccoSprouts provide a very convenient guaranteed dose of the active ingredient and – as a guaranteed and convenient dose has maximum appeal to the target consumers (the most health-conscious) the product leverages the “guaranteed level” in its communications.

JULY 2010 8


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Failure to see a product and its benefits through the eyes of the target consumer is one of the most common causes of failure in the business of food and health. A factor that New Nutrition Business has long argued is essential to success is one of the most impor-tant steps in the product development process – namely, to make sure that the product, the benefit and the ingredient together make sense in the mind of the consumer. And if they do not make sense, you need to ask your-self what you should change, or whether you should develop a long-term plan to educate people in order to build acceptance of the combination you want to market. Newly-published academic research confirms the importance of these steps.

It’s now well-established that your product and your brand must both be credible car-riers of the benefit that is being offered and there must be a logic to the whole that the consumer can accept. The idea of fibre-forti-fied chicken, protein-packed water or probi-otic pizza may seem illogical to many readers, but these concepts have all been tried in real life (often with predictable results).

Dairy fortified with marine omega-3 is

almost as illogical – what, the consumer rightly asks, is fish oil doing in yoghurt? That, they will decide, is not natural (even if they can get past the poor taste that characterizes most omega-3 fortified dairy products).

And this is why most omega-3 fortified dairy products have failed or languish in extreme niches. But omega-3 oil added to a fish product, on the other hand, is logical and credible – and gets better sales results (see box). It’s now an established rule of the nutrition business that consumers prefer to get their health benefits in as natural a form as possible. As a result fish products, trading off their obvious connection to omega-3 in consumers’ minds, have been winning the omega-3 war. Two years ago Europe’s biggest omega-3 brand was a yoghurt – today that yoghurt is no more and the biggest brand is a frozen fish.

ACADEMICS WEIGH IN ON IMPORTANCE OF LOGICAL FIT

Academic researchers have now begun to produce their own evidence that confirms what companies have been learning the hard

way in the supermarket. A new study con-ducted at the Aarhus University School of Business, in Denmark, and titled Perceived fit of different combinations of carriers and functional ingredients and its effect on purchase intention1, pub-lished in the journal Food Quality & Preference, says that “perceived carrier-ingredient fit is strongly related to purchase intentions…Perceived carrier-ingredient fit was related to familiarity with the combination and healthi-ness of the carrier food”. Which is academic language for saying that ingredient and prod-uct format have to be a credible fit if people are going to buy the product.

The researchers tested the hypothesis that “acceptance of functional foods depends on the combination of carrier and functional ingredient” on 959 Danish consumers, mostly women. The participants were asked to rate 42 possible carrier and ingredient combina-tions. Yoghurt, muesli bars, fish balls, tuna salad, baby food, rye bread and liver paté were selected as carrier products. Omega-3, fish oil, vitamins, minerals, plant sterols and fibre were selected as ingredients.

The researchers found that muesli bars, yoghurt and rye bread were the most credible carriers of health benefits. For the muesli bar and the bread the most attractive combina-tion was with fibre and for fish balls and tuna salad the most attractive combination was with fish oil and omega-3 – combinations which, say the researchers, were regarded as “natural” by the respondents. But familiarity also played a role and the researchers say that rye bread with omega-3 was the second most-attractive combination for rye bread after rye bread and fibre, but probably because in Denmark there has been an omega-3 fortified rye bread on the market for some time so the idea seemed at least familiar to people.

However, to put that into context, out of all the 42 combinations it was a very low-scoring one. Looking at the total picture, it was tuna salad and fish balls in combinations with fish oil/omega-3 that came out with the best overall score.

In short, say the researchers:The higher the perceived fit between carrier food

and ingredient the stronger the intention to purchase.If you are trying to bring new ingredients

Why ingredient, benefit and product must fit together

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND ANALYSES FOR MAKING HEALTHIER CHOICES

Source: Krutulyte R et al, Food Quality and Preference, June 2010

JULY 2010 9


E D I T O R I A L

FISH TRUMPS YOGHURT IN THE OMEGA-3 BUSINESS

Convenient, frozen fish products, marketed for their high omega-3 content, have become a success story in the UK market – as elsewhere – delivering value growth of around 15% in 2009, even as the frozen fish category declined. In a bid to turbo-charge their only growth sector, fish processors are trying to boost their omega-3 credentials. Young’s, the UK’s biggest frozen fish brand, is rolling out David Beckham-endorsed products, with omega-3 levels 80% above those naturally found in fish.

Fish products, trading off their obvious connection to omega-3 in consumers’ minds, have been winning the omega-3 war. Two years ago Europe’s biggest omega-3 brand was a yoghurt – today that yoghurt is no more and the biggest brand is a frozen fish.

In 2008, for example, Young’s introduced a range of frozen fish called Young’s Chip Shop Omega 3. Made from Alaskan Pollock, a white fish species heralded as an environmentally friendly alternative to cod and haddock, and which contains about 25% more omega-3 than cod and haddock, its “natural source of omega-3” message has been effective.

The Chip Shop line of fish fillets earned Young’s £45 million ($65.5 million/€53 million) in sales in 2009 – an increase of 15%, according to Nielsen data. Young’s rival, Birds Eye, has also enjoyed success with its Omega-3 Fish Fingers, retail sales of which grew by 18.8% to £27.1 million ($39.5 million/€31.9 million) in 2009.

This growth took place against the backdrop of economic recession and a frozen fish market that declined and in which discounting and private label competition was intense, reflecting the strong interest of a niche of health-conscious consumers (all omega-3 products combined have a total share of just 12% of the market) and the persuasiveness of omega-3 as a health benefit that you’d naturally expect to find in fish.

BENEFIT, INGREDIENT AND BRAND MUST MATCH

The importance of having a relevant benefit in a credible brand posed important challenges for these brands:

Nestea Enviga, calorie-burning green tea: It was a problematic proposition because it is counterintuitive and lacks credibility - a carbonated soft drink that burns calories. The idea of a carbonated soft drink that causes you to lose weight is a difficult one for consumers to believe or even understand and certainly the brand was not one credibly associated with weight management.

Whole Water, protein and fibre-fortified water for weight management: Whole Water offered a new benefit (satiety) that consumers have never previously associated with water and used ingredients (protein and fibre) that consumers not only don’t expect to find in water, but which clash with the image of water as “natural” and pure.

Special K20, protein and fibre-fortified water for weight management: Kellogg’s Special K20 water stretched consumer credibility by offering a water under a breakfast cereal brand – a link that one industry expert described as “inherently strange”. In addition Special K20 was offering a new benefit (satiety) that consumers had never previously associated with water and used ingredients that consumers don’t normally expect to find in water. Although Special K is a very successful cereal brand – worldwide – and one associated with weight management, water was a brand stretch too far.

and new benefits to market in new product formats – where there is no established (or even logical) fit, then you had better be pre-pared to invest significant sums of money over many, many years (even over decades) slowly – and patiently – creating the associa-tion between the product, the ingredient and the benefit in the mind of the consumer. And this is a high-risk strategy – there’s no cer-tainty you will succeed.

In addition, the researchers found that an individual’s attitude to functional foods and health concern “will be positively related to the intention to buy the functional food, but their effect will be weaker than the perceived fit”.

There’s a very good reason that the benefit you offer needs to be relevant to the target consumers, easy to understand and a logi-cal fit to the product it’s offered in, which is that with the thousands of messages people get every day from advertising and labels in the supermarket, the more questions your product raises and the more people have to think about what your product is offering, the longer it takes them to decide to purchase it and so it becomes easier for them to stick with something they know rather than trying to understand something new. It’s on simple insights such as these that success or failure depends.

1. Krutulyte R et al, Perceived fit of different combinations of carriers and functional ingredients and its effect on purchase intention, Food Quality and Preference 2010, doi: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2010.06.001

JULY 2010 10


R E G U L AT I O N C A S E S T U D Y

The European Commission’s standing committee meets on 12 July to consider the fate of the 939 Article 13.1 health claims that were subject to opinions published by the European Food Safety Authority in October 2009 and February this year under the EU Nutrition & Health Claims Regulation.

On the whole, it has been assumed that the Commission will, more or less, rubber stamp EFSA’s opinions. After all, why ask scientific experts to do a job if you are then going to ignore their advice? Since most of the claims were given the thumbs-down, that would mean hundreds of general function claims being placed on a negative list banning them from being used – with potentially devastating consequences for the functional food and supplements industry.

However, it has now emerged that one part of the industry is refusing to take it as given that the standing committee will simply follow EFSA’s lead and ban any claims subject to a negative opinion. A group of companies that market joint health ingredients have formally joined forces to lobby member states and the Commission ahead of the 12 July meeting in a bid to persuade them that to make some claims illegal now would be premature.

The crux of their argument is that the evidence they were asked to submit to support the Article 13.1 claims wasn’t sufficient for EFSA to be able to make a sound judgement on whether these claims were acceptable. The industry wasn’t to blame for this, they say. Rather it was the fault of flaws in the application system in place at the time.

As has been well documented, back in 2006 the Commission simply asked for references to studies to support Article 13.1 claims – in stark contrast to the detailed dossiers required for Article 13.5 and

14 claims. However, it has since become apparent that for the most part EFSA is applying the same rigorous standards to Article 13.1 claims as it is to 13.5 and 14 claims. And this means that the vast majority of Article 13.1 claims have so far found themselves on the wrong end of an EFSA negative opinion.

The industry says that the kind of information applicants could not submit – or were not asked to submit – via the Article 13.1 process included details regarding the characterisation of ingredients such as botanicals and probiotics, and definitions of the effects ingredients were claimed to have. In addition, it was not made clear at the time that EFSA would expect Article 13.1 claims to be supported by gold standard clinical trials carried out among healthy subjects. Critically, these are all now easily recognisable as some of the key points of failure highlighted by EFSA in its rejections of Article 13.1 health claims.

JOINT HEALTH GROUP URGES ACTION

The joint health sector group is seeking to address this by sending all the ‘missing’ evidence to key officials in a bid to make the Commission standing committee think twice before banning the claims in question. The initiative is being facilitated by Germany-based consultancy Analyze & Realize. Christiane Alexander, biologist and project manager at the company, says: “We do not want the claims that have been judged negatively to be put on the negative list right now. It is too early. Not all the relevant data has been seen. EFSA would probably have come to a different opinion, or would have come up with a different evaluation, if they had seen this data.”

The attitude of the joint health sector group contrasts with that of some others in the functional food industry, who have become resigned to the fact that claims which fail through the 13.1 route will simply need to be resubmitted in a full-blown Article 13.5 dossier. But Alexander argues this is not acceptable. “We do not want to be squeezed into the 13.5 procedure,” she says. “We know that there is much more data out there and we want to bring this out and make the member states, the Commission and EFSA aware of this.”

INDUSTRY MEETING – TOO BIG, NO REAL ANSWERS

The 12 July committee meeting will come just a few weeks after EFSA held a second conference with industry to discuss the health claims process. On 1 June, in Parma, officials from the agency and its NDA panel, which is assessing health claims, updated about 450 delegates on progress to date. The number of attendees tells its own story. Having originally capped attendance levels at 250, EFSA yielded to a deluge of applications and in the end almost doubled the permitted number.

On the whole, the opportunity to attend another meeting (a first was held exactly a year earlier) was welcomed but there was some criticism of the set-up of the event. Cédric Bourges, director of France-based consultancy Nutraveris, says the conference was too large to enable any meaningful discussions about the issues facing companies engaging with the health claims process.

“It was a very big room, there was a lot of noise, and it was difficult to hear exactly what the NDA panel was saying,” he says. “The way we had to ask questions was also very surprising. The NDA panel would make

Industry lobbies European Commission over ‘missing’

health claims evidenceWith frustration around the flawed EU health claims process hardly diminished by a recent meeting that was judged too crowded and too “political” to satisfactorily address concerns, a section of industry has decided it won’t just stand by and watch its claims made illegal. The group is urging others to join it in lobbying the European Commission to hold off from banning some of the claims EFSA has rejected. By RICHARD CLARKE.

JULY 2010 11


R E G U L AT I O N C A S E S T U D Y

a presentation for ten minutes on a topic, and then they would take four or five questions. But they didn’t answer each question in turn. Someone would ask a question, then another person would ask a question, then a third, a fourth and a fifth. The panel then answered all five questions – though most of the time they didn’t answer the questions at all.”

David Richardson of London-based consultancy DPR Nutrition says the unsatisfactory structure of the meeting was a function of the number of participants. “There was a lack of clarity in both the questions and the answers,” he says. “With so many people, it was a very difficult forum to manage.”

Bourges says he found the meeting very “political” in the sense that the answers given to the questions asked rarely gave satisfaction. “Most of the time they would answer: ‘ongoing process, ongoing evaluation, case-by-case basis’.” It contrasted with the meeting held in June 2009, he says. “That was more transparent, it was all about technical questions, technical answers.”

OVERWHELMED PROCESS MAKES INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION UNLIKELY

A key theme to emerge at the event, according to those present, was EFSA’s desire to make delegates understand that the agency was struggling under an immense workload as a result of the sheer number of health claims it was assessing. Analyze & Realize’s Alexander says the EFSA and NDA officials present admitted to having massively underestimated the task that would face them. They had expected to evaluate a tenth of the number of Article 13.1 claims they received – 450 instead of more like 4,500.

Nigel Baldwin, senior scientific and regulatory consultant at Cantox Health Sciences International, who was also at the meeting, says: “From the word go they were saying: this thing is eating a huge amount of our resources.” This, says Baldwin, is a key point, because it makes it highly unlikely that EFSA – at least for now – will consider granting applicants one-to-one meetings with its team to discuss dossiers in detail, which is something many in the industry are clamouring for.

“What people really want is far more communication on a company-by-company basis when they make their submissions,” he says. “They want a pre-submission meeting, they want dialogue during the application, and they want to know that what is going

to be published is the result of them having a real ability to discuss any issues the committee has with their application. Pre-submission meetings are about the only way you’re going to solve those real questions that individual companies have, so they can thrash out exactly what’s expected from their petition.”

EFSA’s warning about its workload could perhaps be taken as a coded message in relation to this issue, he suggests. “Is it a way of saying, if you give us more resources we can give you pre-submission meetings? I don’t know; maybe. But my view is that, because of the workload issue, we need to move past the Article 13.1 stage before pre-submission meetings can become a bit more of a reality.”

Alexander argues that there is no reason why pre-submission meetings should not be possible. Germany’s national drug registration procedure includes a face-to-face dialogue, as do those in many other countries, she says. “You can discuss your study designs and your data up-front, and they advise you where the gaps are and what you need to do in order to produce a good application.”

She says that many companies would be willing to pay to meet with EFSA before submitting a health claims dossier. “I would rather invest €2,000 in a meeting than €200,000 in a trial that is useless. This would be an opportunity for companies big and small. What we want is upfront discussion about biomarkers, about risk factors, about target groups, in order to set up the right trials.”

DEMAND FOR PUBLISHED STUDIES ROBS COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGE

Meanwhile, concerns persist about the use of proprietary data to support claims. Nutraveris’ Bourges said he obtained confirmation at the meeting, via a one-to-one discussion away from the main proceedings, that while EFSA will consider unpublished studies, it will always perceive them to be less convincing than those which have been peer-reviewed and published in academic journals. This, says Bourges, makes it very difficult for a company to protect any investment made in researching its products.

“In EFSA’s view, if a clinical study is not published there’s always a doubt about the quality of the study,” he explains. “It means it has not been controlled by other scientists. There will always be a doubt over the data. EFSA says: you can submit unpublished studies but we won’t read them the same way

as published studies.”He continues: “To get a claim you must

run a clinical study which will cost €200,000-300,000, and then you need to publish the study. But as soon as it is published, it will serve anybody. It’s in the public domain and you cannot ask for a proprietary claim. You get the claim – but it serves everybody, every company.”

It emerged at the 1 June meeting that the next batch of Article 13.1 opinions will not now be published until September, with three more batches due for publication in 2011. Under the previous timetable, the next batch was to have been published in July 2010. DPR Nutrition’s Richardson says the industry is unhappy that only a small part of the 776 Article 13.1 claims submitted by European trade body CIAA has been judged by EFSA.

There was an expectation by many in industry that these would be given some kind of priority. Only 91 of the original CIAA industry-wide list were done in batch one and only 40 were done in batch two – a total of only 131 so far. The mismatch in expectation has led to a significant degree of frustration, say some industry executives.

One major concession made by EFSA at the Parma meeting was to promise a series of claims-specific workshops. This initiative has been broadly welcomed as positive, albeit one that has come a little too late for those with claims already in the process. “In essence the damage is done if you’ve got negative opinions on these substances out there already,” says Richardson. “But everyone is learning so they have an excuse. We’re all learning.”

In the meantime, all eyes will be on the outcome of the 12 July meeting of the European Commission’s standing committee. If it emerges the joint health sector group’s lobbying efforts have paid off, it could spark similar activity by other sectors, potentially throwing the entire health claims process into disarray. But this would be no bad thing, says Alexander, who is urging other sectors to lobby hard now.

“Any group that finds they have the data, but they were not able to bring it forward or they were not properly asked to bring it forward, should gather the data and send it in,” she says. “We just want a fair process and to be given the chance to put forward all the information. We don’t want to see good products being given an inappropriately negative reputation in the eyes of the consumer.”

JULY 2010 12


C O M M E R C I A L I S AT I O N C A S E S T U D Y

You might not have heard of Paul Talalay and Jed Fahey, but you’re probably aware of the fruits of their greatest achievement. The two scientists are widely credited with having been the first to show how a phytochemical found in broccoli – sulphoraphane glucosinolate – acts as an antioxidant in the body that can help prevent or delay the onset of cancer.

That was in 1992, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and 18 years later the legacy of their work lives on in the form of broccoli’s burgeoning reputation as a cancer-busting vegetable. Their discovery also endures in the shape of a consumer product they launched off the back of their own research – a functional vegetable called BroccoSprouts.

BroccoSprouts are very young broccoli plants – just a few days old – that contain highly concentrated levels of sulphoraphane glucosinolate. Marketed by Brassica Protection Products, the company established in 1998 by Talalay and Fahey, the sprouts are now sold throughout the US, Europe and

Asia-Pacific, with total retail sales valued at an estimated at $25-$30 million (€21-€25 million) a year.

QUEST FOR RELIABLE SOURCE OF SGS

Tony Talalay, son of the now 83-year-old Paul, is CEO of Brassica Protection Products. He says his father and Fahey came across the BroccoSprouts concept almost by chance. With a background in researching the causes and treatment of cancer they became intrigued by epidemiological data linking high consumption of cruciferous vegetables, particularly broccoli, with a lower risk of cancer. Subsequent animal research led them to the conclusion that sulphoraphane glucosinolate (SGS) in broccoli was responsible for inducing ‘phase 2 detoxification enzymes’, which deactivate carcinogens and free radicals in the body, enhancing its defence system against cancer-causing chemicals.

At this point, says Tony Talalay, the duo were not really thinking about opportunities

to commercialise their discovery. But that changed thanks to a question they were asked. He recalls: “Someone came along and said: ‘Well, professor, how much broccoli should I eat?’ And they said: that’s a good question. So they went out to supermarkets and bought something like 25 heads of broccoli and found that they were extremely variable in their SGS content. Some of the broccoli was 10 times more potent than others. But there was no way of telling by looking at the broccoli. Organic broccoli wasn’t any higher, and the really green broccoli wasn’t any higher. There was no signal to the consumer to say this broccoli is a good broccoli versus others.

“They assumed this was a scientific problem so went back and tried to figure out what was going on. They started growing broccoli plants in the basement of Johns Hopkins and they discovered that the compound was very concentrated in the three-day-old broccoli sprouts and in the broccoli seeds.”

The likeliest explanation for this, says

Anti-cancer benefits drive sales of super-premium natural product

Keen to help consumers access the anti-cancer benefits they’d discovered in very young broccoli sprouts, two ground-breaking scientists have applied smart packaging and intellectual property protection to their “functional vegetable” – branded BroccoSprouts – creating a premium product that retails in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific. By RICHARD CLARKE.

Brassica Protection Products has worked to steer BroccoSprouts clear of the “hippy food” image of the sprout category with high quality packaging and graphics.

JULY 2010 13



Tony Talalay, is that plants require the most protection while they are at their youngest. Nature produces these phytochemcals, which have a sharp taste, to deter pests from eating them. Concentrations are lower in the larger plants, which are less vulnerable. “Nature doesn’t make a lot of molecules for no reason, and these chemicals protect the plant,” he says. “The baby plant gets the most protection.”

Growing the sprouts was relatively straightforward, requiring just water and light, which meant they could be grown indoors hydroponically (ie without soil). “You put the seed in and you get the sprout in a few days,” says Tony Talalay.

The discovery, in 1997, that broccoli sprouts were so high in SGS caused a stir. “The weekend their paper on it was published, sales of broccoli seed on the open market increased by a factor of five,” says Tony Talalay. “And because it only takes four or five days to grow a broccoli sprout, a week later sprouts were on the market in the US.”

This spurred Paul Talalay and Fahey into action. Unwilling to stand by and watch others profit from their work, they recruited Tony Talalay for his experience in consumer marketing and, with his help, set up Brassica Protection Products to launch, in 1998, BroccoSprouts onto the retail market.

SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE GIVES ADVANTAGE

Tony Talalay says Brassica Protection Products had an advantage over rivals because it knew exactly how to produce sprouts that would reliably yield the highest levels of SGS. To preserve this advantage, the company has protected some aspects of its business intellectually – including the varieties of sprout it grows and some of the processes used to grow them. Brassica Protection Products says its BroccoSprouts reliably contain levels of SGS more than twice those found in other broccoli sprouts, and up to 20 times greater than in a fully grown broccoli.

Sprouts from their specially-selected seeds are now grown by 13 hydroponic sprout producers across the US, as well as growers in Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and the Netherlands, from where it is hoped the whole of Europe will eventually be served. Japan is Brassica Protection Products’ largest market, with about 40% of the company’s sales. “People in Japan have a history and culture of eating fresh sprouts,” says Tony Talalay. The US, meanwhile, is the company’s second

largest market, representing 30% of sales.Usage habits vary between the two

countries. In Japan, BroccoSprouts are packaged in 50g packs designed for snack consumption. In the US, they are sold in 113g (4oz) packs intended for consumption as a component in a meal. Generally this would be a sandwich or salad, says Tony Talalay, but they can also be cooked in pasta sauces or omelettes because heat does not destroy the SGS. The sprouts don’t taste anything

like broccoli. Rather they possess a sharp, peppery taste akin to radishes. To provide variety, Brassica Protection Products produces packs of BroccoSprouts alone or in blends with other kinds of sprouts.

DIFFERENTIATION WITH PACKAGING

Tony Talalay says Brassica Protection Products has deliberately sought to distinguish BroccoSprouts from other sprout offerings on

NUTRITIONAL CONTENT OF BROCCOSPROUTS

Because the SGS™ in our BroccoSprouts® is at least 20 times greater than in a full head of broccoli, many people have asked for a comparison of the other nutrients between BroccoSprouts® broccoli sprouts and full grown broccoli. We are happy to oblige.

One serving of BroccoSprouts = 1 oz (28 g) (about 1/2 cup)(4 servings per package)

“ND” indicates the nutrients for which we have no data.

* US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2001. USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 14. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home Page, http://nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp.

** Boiled, drained, without salt.

Soucre: www.broccosprouts.com

JULY 2010 14



the market. In the US, he says, the category has a reputation for being “hippy food”, a perception he is keen to change. The US packaging for BroccoSprouts certainly goes some way towards achieving that aim. Sold in high-quality lidded plastic trays, the product bears a label showing a typical serving suggestion. “We’ve changed the face of the sprout industry with our high quality packaging and graphics,” says Tony Talalay.

In terms of on-pack messaging, the label reads:

“BroccoSprouts. Broccoli sprouts. A natural source of SGS – the long lasting antioxidant from broccoli. 73mg of SGS per serving. BroccoSprouts are the only broccoli sprout patented and licensed by Johns Hopkins University.” (‘Long lasting’ is a reference to tests which have shown SGS provides protection for 72 hours once consumed.)

On the reverse of the label, on the underside of the lid, there is further explanation of the product:

“BroccoSprouts. 100% natural. While studying broccoli and broccoli sprouts at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, scientists identified a natural compound, sulforafane GS (SGS) which supports long-lasting antioxidant and essential cellular function. Only BroccoSprouts are grown from special seeds which are tested and certified by Brassica Protection Products, in order to provide a guaranteed level of SGS. A fat-free food, broccoli sprouts are a good source of Vitamin C. As part of a diet low in fat and rich in vegetables and fruit, broccoli sprouts may reduce the risk of cancer, a disease of many factors.”

The label also points the purchaser towards a website where recipe ideas (developed in conjunction with professional chefs) can be found. It goes on to list the 13 growers approved to grow BroccoSprouts, and the patent numbers associated with the products. Finally, for good measure, the label advises:

“SGS is a long-lasting antioxidant which helps maintain the body’s immune function”.

In the US, BroccoSprouts sell via a range of channels – including mass-market natural retailers such as Whole Foods Market and mainstream stores such as Walmart. It is a relatively expensive concept – typically costing $3-$4 (€2.52 - €3.36) a pack. This,

says Tony Talalay, is roughly three times as expensive as a pack of alfalfa sprouts, but he insists it is a price some consumers are willing to pay. “We have very broad distribution and we go in every kind of major supermarket, but our typical consumer is someone older, female, with a higher income, and who is educated about food. They’re conscious about what they’re buying – sometimes it’s organic, but certainly it’s high-end healthy products.”

Brassica Protection Products handles marketing directly in the US (though not in its overseas markets, where this is done locally) and uses a mix of PR and in-store activity to get its message across. “Our story is very hard to tell in a seven-word outdoor advertisement or a 15- or 30-second TV commercial,” says Tony Talalay. “We really rely on off-pack communications, such as PR, to get the message out. We do event marketing, sampling the product, and talk to the consumer one-on-one to explain the benefits. We have a very active social marketing programme which distributes recipes.”

EXTRACT A BIG OPPORTUNITY

From a scientific perspective, Brassica Protection Products has built on the original discovery in 1992 by carrying out its own clinical studies into the benefits of SGS and,

specifically, BroccoSprouts. The company has also begun to broaden its horizons. It has developed an SGS-based ingredient extracted from broccoli seeds which is designed for use in functional foods and dietary supplements. Tony Talalay says this represents an “enormous opportunity”. Brassica Protection Products has already developed a green tea product enriched with SGS to demonstrate the possibilities, branded as Brassica. Research is also underway to develop a topically-applied ingredient for use in toiletries and cosmetics after tests showed that SGS protects the skin from damage by the sun’s rays.

Tony Talalay believes the rising significance of cancer in modern lifestyles means his company is well placed to prosper in the future. “Cancer and other diseases of ageing are serious issues and even delaying cancer for a few years has a huge public health impact in terms of the cost and, frankly, the social burden on families,” he says. “There’s so much scientific work going on in this area – there’s now been something like 700 or 800 scientific papers in major journals published in the last 10 years, not just about broccoli sprouts but about SGS, about the mechanism, and about how it works. We know the benefits are there. We just have to get our message out to the consumer in a way that is relevant to their lives.”

As well as being the key antioxidant in BroccoSprouts – as featured in this logo on the sprout pack – SGS offers new horizons for Brassica Protection Products, which has developed an SGS ingredient extracted from broccoli seeds and intended for use in functional foods and dietary supplements, and possibly even toiletries and cosmetics as tests have shown that SGS could protect the skin from sun damage.

JULY 2010 15



Booster Broccoli – a variety of the brassica vegetable that is particularly high in the cancer-preventing antioxidant sulforaphane – has been withdrawn after less than a year on the Australian market following teething problems.

The group of companies and research bodies behind Booster Broccoli have taken the decision to remove the brand from store shelves after experiencing difficulties regarding consumer resistance to the price point at which it was being sold and problems with the appearance of the product.

However, far from abandoning the concept altogether, they are already planning to launch a new version within the next year, alongside a range of two other varieties of high-nutrition vegetable products – an antioxidant-rich bagged salad mix and a capsicum (pepper) rich in vitamins A, C and E. A launch for the range into the neighbouring New Zealand market is also imminent.

Booster Broccoli was developed by five research institutions across New Zealand and Australia under a NZ$4 million-a-year ($2.8 million/€2.3 million) initiative called Vital Vegetables. The programme was set up nearly 10 years ago in a bid to breed, using non GM techniques, a range of everyday vegetables much higher in nutrients than existing products on the market.

The first product to be commercialised under the initiative, Booster Broccoli was launched across Australia in August 2009 by a group of six fresh produce companies that comprise the Vital Vegetables Marketing Partnership. Each of the marketing partners is responsible for selling Booster Broccoli into a different retail channel.

The brand was positioned in stores as an antioxidant-rich broccoli offering at least 30% more sulforaphane than conventional broccoli. But at the end of May this year, the

decision was taken to withdraw the product. It is hard to assess precisely the performance of Booster Broccoli because New Nutrition Business was unable to obtain specific sales figures for the product’s time on the market. However, John Said, CEO of Fresh Select, the Victoria-based company that has been supplying the supermarket chain Coles with Booster Broccoli, admits the launch didn’t go as smoothly as hoped.

BROCCOLI GLUT EMPHASISES PREMIUM PRICING

Said says sales of Booster Broccoli were impacted negatively mainly because some shoppers were put off by its relatively high price. In part, this was due to the unfortunate timing of its launch. When it first came to

market, Booster Broccoli received a huge amount of news coverage in Australia. “It was the largest launch of any vegetable line in Australian history,” says Said. Results from pre-launch consumer research had been positive, and it appeared the scene was set for success.

However, Booster Broccoli hit the shelves just as a glut of ordinary broccoli was flooding the Australian market and forcing wholesale and retail prices down to rock bottom levels. “When we launched, the commodity value of broccoli was very low – some of the lowest prices seen in ten years in fact,” says Said. “Standard broccoli was super-cheap and at the same time we were trying to launch with a premium of 150%.”

With retail price points between AU$1.49 and AU$1.99 per head of broccoli ($1.30-$1.73/€1.05-€1.40), the partners behind Booster Broccoli were actually aiming for a premium of more like 30% over conventional broccoli. Besides the significant investment in developing the product, yields are also smaller than for conventional broccoli, necessitating some form of price premium. And once the glut eased off, the gap between the two kinds of broccoli eventually narrowed to a point close to the desired 30%. Nonetheless, even then Said admits many consumers found this premium off-putting. “The only negative feedback we received was that it was expensive,” he says.

Another factor holding Booster Broccoli back was that the hot climate in Australia detrimentally affected the shape and colour of the broccoli heads. “Broccoli doesn’t like extreme weather conditions,” says Said, “and we have drought and high heat. When the product is stressed it’s not a nice green and it hasn’t got that nice round, dome shape to it. We experienced that consumer acceptance is a problem, particularly if you’re trying to get a premium. Health alone won’t get you that

First failure teaches Booster Broccoli how to differentiate

Despite excellent science, a failure to use packaging innovation to differentiate from low-cost commodity products lead to Booster Broccoli, a high-sulforaphane broccoli, being withdrawn from Australian supermarkets. But the backers of Booster Broccoli aren’t going to let years of development go to waste. They’re banking on improved presentation to better persuade consumers they should be paying a premium over conventional broccoli. By RICHARD CLARKE.

Booster Broccoli – developed as part of the Vital Vegetables programme – is a standard broccoli with 30% more sulforaphane than regular broccoli.

JULY 2010 16



premium. You need to have a combination of health, aesthetics and – obviously – value.”

On the upside, Booster Broccoli suffered no problems associated with eating quality. “It tastes fantastic,” claims Said. “It has a very good nutty complexion to it.” Additionally, the harsh climate caused no problems in terms of sulforaphane content. “When the product is stressed the levels increase,” he says.

COMEBACK SEES IMPROVED VALUE PROPOSITION, BETTER PACKAGING

The partners in the Vital Vegetables programme will reintroduce Booster Broccoli to the Australian market within the next 12 months with significant format changes that will address the issues with both price and appearance. Rather than selling the broccoli as shrink-wrapped whole heads, as before, the broccoli will instead be ‘floreted’ – or cut up into small pieces.

This will directly address the problems with appearance, says Said. “If there’s a head of broccoli that’s got a slight variation in how it looks, or a blemish, it can still be

used because you can cut it up.” This in turn saves money, he adds. “While it might seem more expensive to floret, in the long run it’s actually cheaper because you’re able to use more of the broccoli from the field.” In addition, by pre-preparing the product for the consumer at the point of sale, it enhances the value of the proposition, he says.

Said is certain that the changes to be made to the Booster Broccoli retail product, and the launch of the other products from the Vital Vegetables stable, will pay off – but he also believes it will still not be easy and that a major investment in marketing will be required. In Booster Broccoli’s time on the market, much of the marketing emphasis was placed on in-store activity and sampling, but Said says this had mixed results.

“The concept is good. It’s certainly what consumers are looking for, there’s no doubt about that. But the problem you have is that there’s a lot of campaigning around vegetables anyway, and everybody knows vegetables are good for you. So to tell people that this vegetable is better for you than another vegetable is a very difficult task. Although you may see it as a no-brainer,

it’s actually not. It’s hugely difficult because the question that then gets asked is: why do I have to pay a premium? It needs a lot of money spent on it.”

SOUND SCIENCE BEHIND PRODUCT

It’s hard not to sympathise with those behind Booster Broccoli. The sheer amount of planning, care and hard work that has gone into its development is almost enough to merit commercial success. From concept stage to launch, no stone has been left unturned in a bid to ensure Booster Broccoli is optimised for consumer acceptance. The fact that Fresh Select and the other five fresh produce companies became involved in Booster Broccoli a good three years before its launch tells its own story. Said says: “There was crop planning; there was area identification. We did a lot of trialling and once the trials were finished we then checked the levels of sulforaphane to be sure we were in the right area growing the right product. Then we were selling the concept to the retailers and coming up with marketing and public relations campaigns.”

BOOSTER BROCCOLI NUTRITION FACTS SULFORAPHANE CONTENT FOR BOOSTER BROCCOLI AND CONVENTIONAL BROCCOLI COMPARED

Source: www.vitalvegetables.com.au

JULY 2010 17



But even prior to that, years of research went into ensuring the variety of broccoli that would be sold as Booster Broccoli was suitable for commercial production and was acceptable to consumers. Carolyn Lister, research leader at the New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research, one of the Vital Vegetables research partners, says the concept first stemmed from the idea that if plants could be screened and bred for attributes relating to high yields and disease resistance, then why not for nutritional value, too? Subsequently, she says, the quest began to identify the varieties of broccoli offering the best of all worlds – and then to breed a commercially-viable broccoli variety from these that would boast a range of desirable characteristics.

GUARANTEED HIGH DOSAGE ANTIOXIDANT

“From the screening work we discovered broccoli lines that were higher in sulforaphane,” says Lister. “But it was also a matter of looking through the lines to see what the yields were like, and whether they tasted any good. One of the issues with a lot of these phytochemicals is that they can have bitter or unpleasant tastes. It was very important any of the vegetables we developed tasted at least as good as what’s on the market now, and if they tasted better that would be a bonus.”

The next stage was to run trials to assess the performance of different broccoli varieties in the field. “We looked at how the broccoli performed growing in different locations, through different seasons and from year-to-year to check that we were consistently producing the levels of sulforaphane we wanted to achieve. We also went through all the data that’s been published on broccoli to determine what level of sulforaphane we needed to have in that crop to be confident that it was likely to have a health benefit. We didn’t want to be putting a product on the market that had below that level.”

That level, Lister says, is about 84mcg per 70g serving of Booster Broccoli. Content in conventional broccoli can vary widely, she adds. “Sometimes it will be as low 10mcg. And that’s the thing – if you just go and buy any old broccoli you have no idea how much is there. Occasionally you could get a higher one but other times you will get a low one. With Vital Vegetables broccoli we aim to

have 40% more than standard broccoli in the supermarket.”

Booster Broccoli is produced under tight controls to ensure the desired levels of sulforaphane are present in the crop. The farmers producing it are given strict protocols to follow in relation to growing techniques – the way it is fertilised, for example. There are also set procedures governing how the crop is handled and packed post-harvest. The details of these are a closely guarded secret. The growers producing it are subject to random testing to ensure their crop is performing consistently. “It’s about making sure that once it’s gone from the paddock, through the processor, on to the supermarket, and that when somebody purchases it, the right level of sulforaphane is there at the point of consumption,” says Lister.

EXPLICIT ANTI-CANCER BENEFIT PLAYED DOWN

On-pack, the product is branded as Vital Vegetables Booster Broccoli, and is described as “Naturally higher in essential antioxidants”. It is also labelled as “GMO free”. Fresh Select’s John Said says other on-pack messages focused on explaining that Booster Broccoli was 30% higher in the antioxidant sulforaphane than conventional broccoli. The percentage comparison was deliberately conservative (the Vital Vegetables programme officially says it is 40% higher) to ensure the product promise was met every time, he says. However, he adds, the local food industry regulator, Food Standards Australia & New Zealand, opposed the use of any explicit cancer-prevention claims.

It is perhaps inevitable that Booster Broccoli grabs attention mostly for its potential to prevent cancer, given public concern about the disease. However, Lister says the focus of the Vital Vegetables

programme is broader than that. “Cancer’s not an easy one to sell products on really. We’re looking at a much wider range of health benefits. We’re looking at things like immunity, anti-ageing – just generally making people healthier and more resistant to disease, whether it’s cancer or colds and flu.”

Lister believes that when Booster Broccoli returns to the Australian market it will benefit from being sold alongside other products from the Vital Vegetables range. “They will be promoted together to try to get a bit more brand awareness,” she says.

Besides the aforementioned salad and capsicum products, Lister says a high-nutrition tomato is also close to being ready for the market.

Meanwhile, trials are underway in New Zealand ahead of a launch for Vital Vegetables there. But because of the amount of preparatory work required, the concept is still some way off being launched further afield – in Europe, North America and Asia for example – although these regions are on the radar.

The plan will always be to grow crops locally to save on distribution costs, says Lister, which means extensive trials will be required. “Growing conditions impact very much on the levels of some of these nutrients,” she explains.

Consumers are under increasing pressure from national health authorities to consume five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, a target that is consistently missed, and Lister says the Vital Vegetables programme could hold the key to making this more achievable by giving consumers the opportunity to get the same benefits by eating less. “The reality is that people aren’t eating their five. Vital Vegetables makes it easier for people to get the same health benefits from five serves by maybe only having four serves, because they are more nutritionally dense.”

Fresh Select’s John Said believes the way will be clear for Vital Vegetables to succeed because there is little chance of any rivals coming to market in the near future. “It would be very difficult for other companies to do this because of the science that’s required,” he says. “You need to have validation for the trust factor. They’ve spent years and years and years on this research and I don’t think we’ll ever see any competing vegetables in the market that can come close to the checks and balances this product has.”

JULY 2010 18


T E C H N O L O G Y C A S E S T U D Y

Among the most recent of the various techniques to emerge for swiftly ‘finger printing’ foods is metabolomics, a form of analytical chemistry that allows scientists to identify and analyse large numbers of even the tiniest compounds found in organic matter, including edible crops such as fruit and vegetables.

The term metabolomics was coined in the late 1990s, and it was only in the early 2000s that the first scientific papers on the method were published. The approach gets its name from the fact it is designed primarily to detect metabolites – small molecules – in a biological sample. These might be primary metabolites such as amino acids and vitamins, or secondary metabolites such as the coloured compounds found in plants – carotenoids for example.

Excitement surrounding the potential of metabolomics is so great that the European Union recently put up €3.5 million ($4.2 million) in part-funding for a three-and-a-half-year long, €4.5 million ($5.4 million) initiative to research and develop the science behind it. The project – called META-PHOR – concluded on 31 March, and later this year the research partners will publish two books on metabolomics that will be designed to act as a guide to any company, institution or governmental organisation interested in using the technology.

META-PHOR was set up and led by Robert Hall, who is managing director of the Centre for BioSystems Genomics and group leader at Plant Research International, a not-for-profit research organisation based at Wageningen University & Research Centre in the Netherlands. In total, the project boasted 22 participating bodies drawn from across Europe and beyond, and was focused on the analysis of melons, broccoli and rice – three crops that were chosen because they are all chemically very different from one another.

The primary reason for the European Union’s interest in the project was the idea that a better understanding of the compounds within crops such as fruits and

vegetables could lead to the production of foodstuffs with enhanced nutritional values at a time when food supplies are expected to become scarcer in the future.

“The population of the world is growing and in 20 or 30 years time we are going to need twice as much food as we need now,” says Hall. “One way of meeting increased demand for food is to increase the yield of crops, or the production area, so you can produce more food. But another way is to come up with better quality food so we need to eat less to get the same nutritional input.”

FASTER, BROADER ‘FINGERPRINTING’ AND PROFILING

In addition to interest at official levels, says Hall, metabolomics has also caught the eye of companies operating in the commercial world thanks to the way the methodology allows scientists to discover the biological make-up of foodstuffs in a fraction of the time that was previously possible. A process that once might have taken weeks can now be completed in a matter of hours.

In practice, metabolomics involves the use of liquid or gas chromatography to separate the components of a sample, followed by mass spectrometry or nuclear magnetic resonance to detect the metabolites present. Powerful computer software analyses the data collected, allowing scientists to understand the mechanisms that give fruits and vegetables their characteristics in a way that is otherwise impossible, says Hall.

“Previously, if you were interested in the nutritional quality of a foodstuff you would look at components such as the sugars and organic acids, and you would analyse these separately,” he says. “But you would be restricted in the number of samples you could look at, and you would be restricted in the number of components you could analyse. You would be given the data by a machine, but you would have to go through it by hand.

“The advantage of metabolomics is that it is almost fully automated and in just a few

analyses you have the potential to look at everything in a foodstuff at the same time. This means you can quickly get a broad overview of what’s in a food, and you can rapidly screen large numbers of samples to find the most interesting ones.”

He continues: “There are also lots of specific computer science tools which allow you to process the data and extract the compounds of most interest. Let’s say you want to find out why tomato variety ‘A’ tastes better than tomato variety ‘B’. You want to discover, as quickly as possible, the biochemical differences between A and B. You’re not really interested in the things that are the same, because they are probably not going to be particularly relevant. You want some way of analysing the two samples, subtracting one from the other, and coming up with the differences. That’s what metabolomics can do using computer software to very quickly home in on key differences between different samples.”

Subsequent to this, Hall explains, it may then be possible to breed the compounds that make the tomato taste good into other varieties of tomato, such as those which offer the highest yields or disease resistance but perhaps not the best flavour, for example. “Very often companies working with fruits and vegetables know what tastes good and what tastes bad but they have very poor knowledge about why it tastes good or bad,” he says. “If they could find this out, they could breed more directly for better tasting varieties. A breeder trying to create a new variety can use metabolomics to find the best possible candidates in his population to use for the breeding using chemical biomarkers for good and bad quality taste.”

It’s not just for achieving improved flavour that metabolomics is useful, says Hall, but for better nutrition too – with potentially huge significance globally. “In some developing world countries most of the population get practically all their micronutrients from rice,” he says. “If we have the right technology we can measure levels of mineral elements such

How fruit and veg are yielding their secrets to ‘metabolomics’

With global interest growing in the commercialisation of super-nutritious fresh produce, the race is on to develop and refine the technologies that can help companies bring tried and tested products to the market quickly and effectively. The EU is putting €3.5 million behind metabolomics, a technique that allows much faster and more accurate identification of the make-up of foods. By RICHARD CLARKE.

JULY 2010 19


T E C H N O L O G Y C A S E S T U D Y

as magnesium and iron in rice and select the varieties with the highest possible levels.” This was a major focus of the META-PHOR project, he adds.

ANTIOXIDANT APPLICATIONS

Much of current commercial interest in the nutrients in fruit and vegetables centres on antioxidants. The META-PHOR project didn’t look specifically at these substances in the crops it examined, but Hall says metabolomics has major potential in this area of burgeoning interest. “Metabolomics can measure the components responsible for antioxidant capacity,” he says. “In the past we could measure this antioxidant capacity, but we didn’t know which components were responsible for it. Now we can link antioxidant capacity to particular chemical components of a food. So if we want to enhance antioxidant capacity in one of our vegetables, then we know which components to focus on in order to do that.”

Hall says this is a big step forward. He cites the example of two different tomato varieties, each with an antioxidant capacity of 100. “In the past you would assume they were the chemically the same but in fact they might be

totally different. It might be that in the first variety there are three phenolic components responsible for the antioxidant capacity of 100, while the second has a lower level of phenolic components but a higher level of vitamin C. The total level is the same but the reason behind it is different.

“If you know that, you can then breed a high vitamin C variety with a high phenolic variety and get an even higher level of antioxidants. You can combine two sets of components together which, in the previous generation, were in separate genotypes.”

Despite the exciting opportunities it presents, metabolomics remains at a relatively early stage in its development, says Hall. For one thing, the equipment required is expensive and requires highly trained personnel to operate it. At the moment this means it is accessible to few but the largest companies. But one aim of the META-PHOR project is to democratise the science, so there is hope this may change in the future.

There is certainly interest. Carolyn Lister, research leader at New Zealand-based Plant & Food Research, whose Vital Vegetables concept is profiled on page 15 of this issue, says of metabolomics: “We are looking at it at a science level now. We haven’t used it for the

lines we’ve developed to date, but it’s certainly something that will take us forward in the next few years.”

“It’s still a very new technology,” says Hall. “There remains a lot to be done to make it more efficient, and to make it easier for users to quickly arrive at the answers they want to get.”

There is also still much to discover about the plants themselves being analysed by metabolomics, and this is perhaps where the true potential of the technology lies, says Hall. “Metabolomics is revealing to us how complex plants are. There are many, many thousands of different metabolites in our food which have never been detected before, simply because the technology wasn’t there. We can detect them now, but we don’t know what they are yet as they’ve never been defined before.

“Perhaps it’s not totally interesting from a biological point of view to know what everything is. But if you’re doing a comparison between good and bad qualities in a foodstuff, it’s certainly interesting to find out the metabolites that are responsible for that. Metabolomics is a tool that is being used more and more to help us use that information in a targeted way.”

BROCCOLI IS ONE OF THREE EUROPEAN CROPS TESTED IN THE EU’S META-PHOR PROJECT

Source: www.meta-phor.eu

JULY 2010 20


S T R AT E G Y C A S E S T U D Y

Yakult Honsha, one of the oldest health brands, has weathered the global financial crisis in good shape. Although in the year ended March 31st 2010 Yakult Honsha’s sales were down 1%, to JPY 290,678bn ($3.27bn/€2.7bn), operating profit was up 13% to JPY18.990bn ($214m/€175m). Both numbers beat the forecasts that Yakult made last year.

There are some continuing “core themes” in the story of Yakult and it’s important to look beyond the apparently unique and idiosyncratic nature of this company because most of them contain lessons that can be applied in most companies.

1. Transformative power of China Unsurprisingly, Yakult has been focusing on China in recent years – a strategy that is paying off, with sales of Yakult up 36% between 2008 and 2009, driven by growth in existing territories as well as expansion into new markets. Although China accounts for just 5% of the company’s volume, worldwide, its growth is the main driver of the Yakult company’s overall increase in volume.

2. Asia leads the wayAsia, excluding Japan, already accounts for 51% of Yakult’s worldwide dairy drink sales volume. Korea is the second-biggest market in Asia and in the world for Yakult, after Japan. While recently sales have declined in Korea – 1.9% in 2009 following an 8.5% decline the year before – that is to be expected in a mature (and highly competitive) market and they have declined from a very high level. With consumption of 4.2 million bottles of Yakult a day among a population of 50 million people, Yakult still has the highest penetration in Korea of any country. In Korea it is a low-cost mass-market brand rather than a premium brand for the niche of health-conscious early adopters, as it is in many Western countries.

While Yakult is known in most countries for its classic 65ml bottle (80ml in some markets) and the company rarely offers more

than two or three SKUs, in Korea it is a diversified beverage business. Importantly, in response to its evolution to a mass-market, low-priced brand in Korea – a position it is decades away from in most markets – the company has launched new products that re-stake its claim among the most health-conscious early adopters, which is where Yakult sells best in most countries (see Chart on page 21). These new launches maintain Yakult’s image as an innovative company and draw in new users.

Almost everywhere else in Asia Yakult continues to grow between 6% and 25% a year. The Asian opportunity that’s as important as China and potentially as transformative for Yakult lies in India, where Yakult entered the market in 2008 in a joint venture with Danone (which is a major shareholder in Yakult Honsha).

3. Selling America on probioticsThe Americas are another big part of the Yakult success story. Just two countries – Mexico and Brazil – account for 18% of

Yakult’s worldwide sales. The most significant market is Mexico, in volume terms Yakult’s third biggest market. The massive popularity of Yakult in Mexico provided the springboard for the brand to go into the US, where there was a long period of test-marketing limited to Korean, Chinese and Hispanic stores in California, where these three ethnic groups (with their long familiarity with Yakult in their home countries) together comprise almost 50% of the state’s population.

Since 2008 Yakult has been ramping up its efforts in the US and moving into mainstream distribution and in support of its American expansion Yakult has already committed to building its first factory in the US, in the dairy state of California. Hitherto the company has imported product from its factory in Guadalajara, Mexico.

So far Yakult has concentrated its sales activities in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico and New York. But now the company plans to drive expansion with its new local production base.

The new facility will have capacity to manufacture 250,000 bottles of Yakult a day and production is due to start in 2012. Were Yakult to grow to that level of sales that would equate, at the current retail price of $3 for a pack of fi ve bottles, to retail sales of $55 million (€45 million). That’s a fairly modest target compared to the $400 million (€328 million) of sales Danone’s Activia probiotic yoghurt earns each year, and one that looks achievable.

4. Concentrated dose powers growth in mature marketsJapan is still Yakult’s largest market – accounting for 26% of total company sales – and the key brand is still the original Yakult 65ml drink, which accounts for more than half of all sales (measured by volume) in Japan. The flagship brand has managed to keep its sales steady, despite Japan’s severe economic downturn.

The second-biggest brand in the portfolio, Yakult 400, contains the same lactic acid

Still learning from YakultA pioneering company in food and health, and one of the first to create a global health brand, there are always good lessons to be learnt from the fortunes of Japan-based Yakult Honsha: how to grow internationally; the challenges of how to handle a health brand when it reaches maturity in the mass-market; why sticking to a core competence is usually better than diversification; the power of the “concentrated dose”; even how to by-pass the stranglehold of giant supermarket chains and build sales direct-to-consumer. By JULIAN MELLENTIN.

Yakult 400 – a concentrated dose of probiotic bacteria at seven times the level found in regular Yakult (40 billion per bottle compared to 6.5 billion). Sold mostly in Japan, with a small amount of business in Korea and Brazil, in the year to March 31st 2010 sales of Yakult 400 increased 13%. The brand accounts for half of Yakult sales in Japan.

JULY 2010 21



bacteria strains as Yakult Original, but its proposition is a concentrated dose – it contains almost seven times the quantity of bacteria as regular Yakult (40 billion per bottle compared to 6.5 billion).

Sold mostly in Japan, with a small amount of business in Korea and Brazil, in the year to March 31st 2010 sales of the Yakult 400 range were overtaken by Yakult 400LT – a lower calorie variant – propelling a 13% increase in sales of the Yakult 400 brand.

Beyond these two core brands the Yakult portfolio in Japan has become a series of niche brands, many of which have had variable performance. For example:

• Pretio – a probiotic- and GABA-(gamma-amino-butyric acid) based dairy drink that lowers blood pressure – has continued to decline, its sales falling 20% in the year to March 2010, following a 25% fall the previous year.

• The woman-specific brand Yakult Shes –

offering the benefits of iron, calcium and collagen – which was launched in June 2008, saw its sales fall by 17% to 70,000 bottles a day.

Some brands targeting specific niches of medicalised technology-oriented consumers did better, such as BF-1, a product that fights the stomach-ulcer-causing bacterium helicobacter pylori. It increased its sales by 81% to 107,000 bottles a day, despite being in limited distribution.

5. Extensions into new categories disappointProbiotics is the technology that is core to Yakult, and intestinal health the focus of its dairy drinks business – its strategy rests on becoming the brand that is “the expert in gut health” in each market in which it operates.

However, in recent years the company has tried, in Japan, to expand into beverages such as teas, juices and soy drinks. Despite heavy

investment and a multiplicity of brands and product launches the beverage business is not yet a success and is far from providing a second “pillar” to the company. It generates less than half the sales revenue of the dairy probiotic business. And while dairy probiotic revenues in Japan were up slightly in the last financial year, the beverage business experienced an across-the-board fall in volume, and revenue fell 6.9%, led by an 8% fall in the lead brand Bansoreicha, a sugar-free tea made from guava leaves, and a 37% fall in sales of Lemorea, an anti-stress drink. Yakult has in the past expressed high hopes for these brands’ growth prospects.

6. Direct sellingIn the West, companies are increasingly frustrated by the growing stranglehold that a small number of retailers have in each market. Industry executives describe situations where supermarkets give innovative brands as little as six weeks to sell as well as

THE NUTRITIONAL PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE – HOW TRENDS EVOLVE – YAKULT IS MASS IN MATURE MARKETS BUT FAVOURED BY EARLY-ADOPTERS IN NEW MARKETS

Many products start out on the left, selling in low volumes at premium prices. Over time their appeal increases and they move down the price curve to the right, eventually becoming mass-market products. The stages of the life cycle are:

Technology consumers – Early adopters, people who have a near-medical need for a product. They will pay a substantial premium for something that addresses their condition.

Lifestyle consumers – Interested in maintaining their wellness, not fighting illness. They will adopt new brands and will pay a premium if it supports their lifestyle.

Mass-market consumers – Motivated when a benefit becomes a standard and is available in products with low or no premiums, ideally from well-known and trusted brands.

Source: Mellentin & Wennström, The Food & Health Marketing Handbook

TECHNOLOGY CONSUMERS

LIFESTYLECONSUMERS

MASS-MARKETCONSUMERS Solid line = sales

volumes

Broken line = unit selling price

6% - 8% of consumers 20% - 25% of consumers 67% - 74% of consumers

SALES

TIME

Yakult 400 – a concentrated dose of probiotic bacteria – has re-positioned Yakult among the most health-conscious consumers.

In some long-established markets, such as Korea, Yakult has evolved over forty years into a mass-market product, with high penetration. In these mature markets it is low-priced.

In Western markets, such as the US, Yakult is a premium-priced niche brand that appeals primarily to early adopters.

JULY 2010 22



established brands – or refuse to provide any shelf-space at all. More and more, companies are considering how they can reach their target consumers without over-reliance on the big supermarket chains. It’s a challenge that Yakult Honsha addressed long ago. The Yakult Ladies are a 45-year-old institution and one of the pillars of the success of the Yakult brand. These salespeople deliver products in person to homes and offices, taking the opportunity of these face-to-face visits to educate customers about the benefits of probiotics. It is a system which has proven much more effective than advertising in getting across the benefits of drinking Yakult and, as the company itself says, this type of face-to-face communication builds trust.

In Japan there are about 42,700 Yakult Ladies and they accounted for 59.5% of sales of Yakult dairy products. Supermarkets account for 35% and vending machines an impressive 19.2%.

The Yakult Lady system has been copied to a greater or lesser extent in many of the countries in which Yakult operates and this direct-to-consumer approach accounts for much of Yakult’s success. For example:

• Across Asia (excluding Japan) there are 22,914 Yakult Ladies, generating a staggering 66.8% of the daily sales in the region.

• In the Americas there are 13,590 Yakult Ladies, generating 53.7% of Yakult’s sales of 4.5 million bottles a day.

The Yakult Ladies are not only sales people, they also fulfill a social role, visiting single elderly people, as they make their deliveries, to confirm that they are safe and spend some time chatting them. Approximately 3,700 Yakult Ladies pay regular visits to over 48,000 elderly citizens each year, often in response to requests from local governments in Japan.

HARD TIMES IN EUROPE

By comparison with the rest of the world, Yakult’s performance in Europe has been modest. In six European countries, and after 15 years on the European market, Yakult sells just 717,000 bottles a day. Part of the challenge in Europe is that the company does not use the direct-to-consumer sales approach which has proved so successful in Japan, South America and many Asian markets. Europe’s new ultra-strict health claim regulations are also a barrier to growth.

Yakult is also faced in Europe by competition with a wealth of other probiotic dairy products, both pan-European brands, such as Danone Actimel, and strong local brands, such as Campina Vifit in the Netherlands and Emmi in Switzerland. It’s a particularly tough competitive environment, far tougher than the US or Asia.

Yakult is a company that has, for almost 50 years, demonstrated the benefits of a highly-focused strategy. Its sales and marketing approach has been proven to work in all cultures. Yakult Honsha is a role-model for the entire industry and there’s no company with ambitions in the nutritional industry that can afford to ignore the lessons from this extraordinary success story.

In Japan there are about 42,700 Yakult Ladies and they accounted for 59.5% of sales of Yakult dairy products.

THOUSANDS OF BOTTLES

PER DAY

% CHANGE IN SALES VS

2008

STARTED BUSINESS

Asia-Pacifi c Taiwan 834 6.8% 1964Hong Kong 576 7.8% 1969Thailand 2226 17.0% 1971Korea 4176 -1.9% 1971Philippines 1299 6.9% 1978Singapore 183 10.6% 1979Indonesia 1407 27.6% 1991Australia 184 4.4% 1994Malaysia 170 18.1% 2004Vietnam 20 79.2% 2007India 14 136.1% 2008

China Guangzhou 747 28.2% 2002Shanghai 252 30.4% 2005Shanghai area 186 90.1% 2007 Beijing 101 42.8% 2006

China total 1220Asia-Pacifi c total 12309

Japan Japan 6548 3.2%

The Americas Brazil 1444 4.8% 1968Mexico 3128 0.8% 1981Argentina 36 -3.6% 1997USA 89 40.6% 1999

Americas total 4697

Europe Netherlands 206 -14.4% 1994Belgium 80 -10.1% 1994UK 228 -3.9% 1996Germany 127 -15.9% 1996Austria 20 -8.5% 2005Italy 36 33.0% 2007

Europe total 717

24271

TABLE 1: WORLDWIDE SALES OF YAKULT DAIRY DRINKS

Total Worldwide

JULY 2010 23


S TA RT- U P C A S E S T U D Y

The view from atop Washington State’s massive Mt. Rainier would have been a lot sweeter for Edmond Sanctis and his business partner, Josh Schroeter, had it included a nice bottle of wine, some bread and cheese. But instead it was typical backpacker fare—freeze dried foods, trail mix, stale nuts. That experience on Rainier in 2003 helped these two former media professionals figure out what to do with their lives and turned them into mountaineers with a mission—to make portable food that’s interesting, nutritious and has great flavour combinations.

That climb spurred the partners to launch Sahale Snacks and has served as an inspiration in formulating the company’s products as well as its brand. Today, the mission has expanded as Sanctis and Schroeter see an opportunity to not only provide portable snacks for active users, but to replace the unhealthy snacks in American pantries. It would seem they are well on their way. The six-year-old company has about 50 employees and is selling its packaged seasoned nuts and biscotti crisps in major US retail chains, such as Costco, Starbucks, Wal-Mart and Whole Foods. Sahale Snacks Soledad Nut Blend was chosen “Best Trail Mix” by the editors of Men’s Health, in the magazine’s “125 Best Foods for Men” in June 2009.

INNOVATION BREAKS THROUGH CATEGORY CLUTTER

Sahale is taking a product that is well understood by consumers and delivering it in a “delightfully unexpected way,” said Kerry Muse, director of Sherbrooke Capital, which recently gave the company an Entrepreneurship Award. “Their flavours are unique, delicious and different from anything we’ve seen.” Muse added that the company caught Sherbrooke’s interest because they thought it could break through the category’s clutter. “You have to have something that sets you apart and is groundbreaking. There are a lot of nuts and chips out there—so it comes down to innovative product, branding and marketing.”

As for many entrepreneurial companies, however, the road to success was long and winding. Sanctis and Schroeter had been friends and on-and-off colleagues for 25 years, meeting occasionally to climb mountains and share their love of great food. “When we used to climb, we violated all the basic backpacker rules regarding pack weight,” recalled Sanctis. “We’d bring along bread and cheese, a bottle of wine. We never wanted to compromise on this, so we would just struggle with the weight.” But the Rainier trip was technical and guided—

meaning no wine bottles allowed. “It was a great time, but not the experience we were used to because we couldn’t take the foods we love.”

But deciding to start a company on a mountainside doesn’t make it happen. With no food manufacturing experience, these former news reporters had their work cut out for them. The pair had to figure out everything from making the products to finding pouches to put them in. “Being reporters, we knew how to start with a blank notebook and ask questions,” said Sanctis.

GLOBAL TASTES

In what Sanctis describes as a six-month process to launch, they formulated the products, found a manufacturing partner and developed the brand. They began by pairing various dried fruits and nuts in Schroeter’s Seattle home to formulate the basic recipes, and then connected with chef Danielle Custer to refine the formulations. The original line featured nut blends with imaginative and ethnic flavour combinations, such as Ksar Pistachios with Sesame Seeds, Pepitas, Fig and Moroccan Harissa and Sing Buri Cashews with Pineapple, Peanuts, Lemongrass and Mild Chinese Chile.

Each nut blend is evocative of a

A new breed of portable, healthy gourmet treats

Sahale Snacks started with a mission to bring portable and interesting snack foods to backpackers with a gourmet sensibility. Now, with distribution expanding into Costco and Starbucks, this quintessential Seattle company has a broader mission to reinvent American snack categories and populate pantries with healthier options. Noticed for its innovation, the company recently expanded its product line and seems well on its way to attaining those goals. By KAREN RATERMAN.

JULY 2010 24


S TA RT- U P C A S E S T U D Y

unique part of the world or a great culinary tradition. For example, the Ksar Pistachios were inspired by Moroccan cuisine, which Schroeter learned to enjoy on several trips in the ‘80s. The Valdosta blend with southern pecans recalls the partners’ time as reporters in Valdosta, GA.

The formulations are extremely important to these part-time foodies. With both Sanctis and Schroeter having spent time in big corporations, they are aware of the importance of doing things the right way and not compromising quality. “First, we had to have the products we wanted, with flavours that were wonderful and surprising,” Sanctis explained. “If a formula didn’t have the ‘wow’ factor, we sent it back to R&D.”

In making the blends, Sanctis said, “we are mindful of every ingredient”. Their checklist rates healthfulness, nutritional profile and avoids artificial flavouring. The products are all natural with some organic ingredients and contain no trans fats. The nuts are rich in protein, antioxidants, fibre and vitamin E. Suggested retail prices for the original nuts are $3.99 (€3.00) to $4.99 (€3.74) per 4oz(115g) bag.

CREATING A PREMIUM IMAGE

Initial branding and messaging was also crucial for the company. The founders spent considerable time during the launch phase creating packaging with beautiful food photos and interesting descriptions. The company is named after a favourite mountain, Sahale Peak, in the North Cascades National Park. Pronounced sah-HA-lee, the word, derived from a Northwest Native American language, means ‘falcon’, ‘sacred’ and ‘high lofty place’. It fits well with the company’s messaging, which talks about adventure and expeditions combined with “snacking heaven” and the sensual pleasures of food. The pouches feature the company’s tag line “Snack Better” and product descriptions that read like a Gourmet magazine food article.

Once the formulations and packaging were ready, manufacturing and distribution were the next challenges. Schroeter, who was initially manning the operation in Seattle, would make product overnight and sell it to local stores during the day. “Everywhere we took it, it sold well and people loved it. It wasn’t long before we knew we were on to something,” Sanctis recalled. After about a year, they knew their vision for a real company was possible.

The company’s core customer has broadened beyond the original vision of hikers and mountain climbers. “They are not geographically or demographically limited, but rather have an interest in great food and are willing to make an extra effort to get it,” said Sanctis.

With very little market research, the company’s distribution base started in natural and high-end gourmet stores in Seattle, the broader Pacific Northwest and Canada. Now distribution is expanding into different regions and retail channels, such as mainstream grocers, Costco and Starbucks. “We have had very good luck at finding customers,” Sanctis said. “Retail buyers

appreciate the product and have given it a chance on store shelves.”

Sahale’s growing success has prompted the launch of new products this year, including a line of Biscotti Crisps as well as seasoned nuts (Barbecue Almonds with Mild Chipotle + Ranch, Southwest Cashews with Chile +Cheddar) and glazed nuts (Cashews with Pomegranate + Vanilla and Almonds with Cranberries, Honey and Sea Salt). The nuts have a suggested retail price of $5.29 (€3.97) per 4oz (115g) bag and the biscotti crisps retail for $4.99 (€3.74) per 6oz (170g) bag.

Success has also allowed Sanctis and Schroeter to spend time fine-tuning their company. From the beginning, the partners had a specific work ethic and culture in mind. Coming out of big corporations, Sanctis noted that they learned from the best practices of great companies, but also knew what was not so good. Beyond making quality products, they wanted to create a work environment that would be energizing, respectful, tolerant and offer a broader commitment to its communities. The company emphasizes a work-life balance for employees and leading in environmental impact and health issues. For example, Sahale participates in the Bonneville Environmental Foundation’s Renewal Energy Development Program purchasing carbon offsets for 100% of its manufacturing and packaging energy.

As for the future, Sanctis and Schroeter have plenty of ideas to expand where they see a need for product reinvention, but for now they are keeping the plans under wraps. “We have been walking store aisles and have identified several areas where we can bring culinary flair and new flavours to create a whole new Sahale category.”

NUTRITION FACTS FOR CASHEW AND POMEGRANATE GLAZED NUTS

JULY 2010 25


N E W P R O D U C T S

Country Company Brand & Product DescriptionPART 1: NORTH AMERICA – FOODS & BEVERAGES

All new product information is sourced exclusively from Mintel’s GNPD (Global New Products Database), which can be visited at www.gnpd.com. Mintel can be contacted at 18-19 Long Lane, London EC1A 9PL, U.K.. Tel. +44-(0)20-7606-4533, Fax +44-(0)20-7600-3327

FUNCTIONAL & HEALTHY-EATING NEW PRODUCT LAUNCHESEach month we summarise new product launches from around the world.• Part 1: North America • Part 2: Rest of the World

BAKERYUSA Nairn’s Nairn’s Oat Biscuits Now available in a Stem Ginger flavour. Made using only wholegrain oats

and without the use of insecticides. Wheat-free, no trans fats, are a source of fibre and contain slow energy release carbohydrates which keep the consumer feeling fuller for longer. The preservative-free, vegan product is retailed in a recyclable 7.1-oz. pack containing four separately wrapped pouches of oat biscuits so they can be enjoyed on the go.

USA Kashi Kashi Heart To Heart Roasted Garlic Whole Grain Crackers

Repackaged and the manufacturers claim to have added more heart healthy ingredients to promote healthy arteries and healthy blood pressure. Contains: six natural antioxidants; plant sterols to reduce cholesterol; three heart healthy vitamins - B6, B12 and folic acid - and promotes healthy blood pressure with low sodium.

USA Interstate Brands Corporation Nature’s Pride Oven Classics Oatmeal Bread

100% natural, contains 40% less sodium than other breads, 8g of whole grains and 90 calories per slice. No high fructose corn syrup, free from trans fat, artificial colours or flavours.

BEVERAGESCanada A. Lassonde et Fils Oasis Health Break Kiwi and Green

Tea SmoothieA blend of purees and fruit juices from concentrate with spirulina and green tea. Sugar-free, contains 100mg of polyphenols.

USA Apple & Eve Apple & Eve Fruitables Berry Berry Fruit & Vegetable Juice

Contains one third less sugar than most other juice and juice drinks and no high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners or preservatives. This gluten-free juice contains one combined portion of fruits and vegetables and 100% of the DV of vitamin C per serving.

USA CLICKco Click Espresso Protein Drink Claimed to be an all-in-one energy drink with a Vanilla Latte taste. A healthier alternative to sugary coffee and energy drinks, it is said to be perfect to start the day, as a mid afternoon snack or before or after a workout. This microwaveable double shot espresso coffee drink contains 15g of protein, 23 vitamins and minerals, is low in sugar and calories, and is free from artificial colours and added flavours.

USA Evolution Evolution Soy & Dairy Protein Fruit Juice Blend

Contains 30g of soy, dairy and fruit protein per bottle, with vitamins and minerals and fresh coconut and banana.

USA Gilsa Products and Services Frusion Breakfast Banana Berry Smoothie with Cereals

A blend of the classic smoothie with rolled oats and cereal. Said to provide a long lasting hunger satisfaction and is made with real fruit, is enriched with protein, fibre and vitamins and can be consumed on the go.

USA Hibix Corporation Ooba Sparkling Hibiscus An all-natural drink available in a hibiscus and vanilla variety. Said to be high in vitamin C and a super antioxidant to help maintain cardiovascular function.

USA KIDStrong KIDStrong Active-Kids Hydration Drink

This natural orange flavoured product contains no artificial colours, flavours, sweeteners or preservatives, is all natural and vitamin enriched. Formulated for kids’ hydration and energy. Contains 22 vitamins, minerals and nutrients, is low in sugar and has a low glycemic complex carbohydrate blend.

USA Mott’s Mott’s Medleys Grape Juice Drink A pasteurized unsweetened grape, apple and carrot juice blend from concentrate. It claims to contain 100% juice and to be perfect for moms who are trying to get more veggies in their children’s diet as it tastes just like grape juice. Every 8-fl. oz. glass is said to contain two fruit and vegetable servings, vitamins C and E and magnesium.

USA Nestlé Nestlé Juicy Juice All Natural Sparkling Berry

A sparkling flavoured juice beverage from concentrate, with natural flavours. Contains no sugar, no artificial ingredients, is an excellent source of vitamin C, is gluten free. One can is the equivalent of one serving of fruit.

USA Nextfoods Goodbelly Kids Probiotic Fruit Drink A cherry flavoured drink with multi-vitamins and calcium that contains 30% juice from concentrate. It is formulated for children over 12 months to support healthy digestion and strengthen immunity, and includes 10 billion cultures each serving. The organic certified product is dairy free, soy free, wheat free, contains no fat and is suitable for vegans.

USA Tropicana Tropicana Trop50 Pomegranate Blueberry Beverage

A blend of apple, pomegranate, grape and blueberry juices from concentrate. Free from artificial sweeteners and contains 50% less sugar and calories than regular pomegranate blueberry juices and 100% vitamin C. Sweetened with Purevia (stevia).

BREAKFAST CEREALSUSA Small Planet Foods Cascadian Farm Organic Flax Right

Pomegranate Raspberry ClustersOrganic whole wheat, corn, and rice cereal with flax and pomegranate-raspberry juice clusters. Certified organic, it is a good source of ALA-omega 3. No artificial flavours or preservatives.

USA International Harvest International Harvest’s FruitFull Triple Berry Granola

100% certified organic and contains more than 42% fruits, nuts, and seeds. Agave sweetened, vegan, low sodium, and free from wheat, cholesterol, dairy, trans fat.

USA Kellogg Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats Little Bites Shredded Wheat Cereal

Now half the size of Bite Size Frosted Mini-Wheats. This lightly sweetened wholegrain cereal is an excellent source of fibre and is said to be the key to keeping kids full so that they stay focused.

USA Kellogg Kellogg’s All-Bran Original Wheat Bran Cereal

Repackaged in a 18.3-oz. recyclable pack. Contains 10g of fibre (40% of the DV) and is claimed to help cleanse the system & make the body work better.

USA Kashi Kashi Heart To Heart Oat Flakes & Blueberry Clusters

Said to contain six antioxidants that help defend against damage caused by free radicals in the body. Also said to help to reduce cholesterol with 1g of soluble fibres from oats, helps to support healthy arteries with six natural antioxidants plus three heart healthy vitamins: B6; B12; and folic acid, and helps to promote healthy blood pressure with low sodium.

JULY 2010 26



CONFECTIONERYUSA Maramor Chocolates Maramor Chocolates Omega-3

Premium Dark ChocolateContain 70% cocoa and said to be an excellent source of antioxidants and omega-3. Each serving provides 80mg of EPA and DHA. The 4.7-oz. pack includes 14 individually wrapped chocolates providing one week’s supply. Also new is Maramor Premium Dark Chocolate with Probiotics that promote digestive balance and immune support. Each bar contains over 1 billion lactobacillus helveticus and bifidobacterium longum. The cocoa butter is said to protect the probiotics and therefore no refrigeration is required and shelf life is one year.

USA Attune Foods Attune Probiotic Coffee Bean Dark Chocolate Bar

Said to provide an excellent source of calcium, is gluten-free and suitable for vegans. It contains 4g of fibre and provides 90 calories per bar. Probiotics “are clinically proven to help support a healthy digestive and immune systems”.

DAIRYUSA Stonyfield Farms Stonyfield Organic Yokids Squeezers

Low Fat YogurtReformulated with added vitamin D. They contain 2% fat and no artificial ingredients or preservatives. Available in a Strawberry flavour and retails in a newly designed pack containing eight 2-oz. portable tubes.

MEALS & MEAL CENTRESUSA Aldi Fit & Active Fettuccine Alfredo Chunks of white meat chicken and broccoli florets in a creamy Alfredo

sauce. The trans fat-free product is an excellent source of calcium and a good source of iron, and contains 20g protein per serving.

USA ConAgra Foods Healthy Choice Chicken Parmigiana Breaded chicken breast in marinara sauce with cheese, wholegrain penne, broccoli and caramel apple multigrain crisp. Contains 16g of protein and 12g of wholegrain.

SAUCES & SEASONINGSUSA Turtle Mountain So Delicious Cultured Coconut Milk A dairy free and soy free product made with organic coconut. Gluten free,

it contains six cultures including lactobacillus bulgaricus, streptococcus thermophilus, lactobacillus rhamnosus, lactobacillus acidophilus, bifidus bifidum, and bifidus animalis.

SIDE DISHESUSA Mars Uncle Ben’s Natural Whole Grain

Brown RiceHelps support a healthy heart as it contains the full daily requirement of whole grains and is naturally low in fat, and cholesterol-free. Sodium-, and gluten-free, hypoallergenic, contains 0g trans fat and no saturated fat, and is a natural source of fibre, B-vitamins, and iron.

USA Seeds of Change Seeds Of Change Uyuni Quinoa & Whole Grain Brown Rice

The manufacturers claim this supergrain is exceptionally fluffy and delicious. The quinoa is cultivated on the Uyuni Salt Flats in the Bolivian Altiplano, the 13,000-foot high plains of the Andes. Retails in a 8.5-oz. pack sufficient for two servings with each one containing 60g or more of whole grains.

SNACKSUSA Gatorade G Series Pro 01 Prime Pre-Game Fuel

Nutrition BarsContain macro-nutrients to help support optimal performance, 15 cofactor vitamins and mineral blend for muscle metabolism, whey and casein delivered from milk protein isolate, and provides 38g of carbohydrates to promote muscle and liver glycogen restoration. Said to be a portable and convenient bridge between meals to ensure energy for training and competition.

USA Dr. Praeger’s Sensible Foods Dr. Praeger’s Kids Broccoli Littles All natural and contain no saturated or trans fat; they are low in sodium and free from fat, cholesterol, and gluten.

USA Kardea Nutrition Kardea Banana Nut Nutrition Bars Contain 1g natural plant sterols for cholesterol management, 7g fibre and 7g protein.

USA Unique Pretzel Unique Sprouted Splits Pretzels 100% wholegrain and made with sprouted wholegrain flour that digests like a vegetable. The manufacturers claim sprouted whole grain flour tastes “absolutely wonderful” as it has not been bleached, refined or overly processed. All natural and a good source of fibre.

USA Target Market Pantry Double Dark Chocolate Nutrition Bars

Contain 12g of protein per bar, are naturally flavored, and are designed for breakfast, as a between-meal bite or when an energy boost is needed. Contains 19 vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, vitamin C, E and selenium.

USA Shearer’s Foods Tangos Blue Corn & Berry Tortilla Chips

All natural and contain real blueberries, strawberries and cranberries. Free of artificial preservatives, gluten, trans fat, cholesterol and contain antioxidants. Each serving provides 20g wholegrains and 3g fibre.

USA Gnu Foods Gnu Foods Flavor & Fiber Espresso Chip Bar

Entirely natural and contains 12g of fibre for regularity and heart health. Said to provide 50% of the daily value of fibre. Also in Lemon Ginger variety.

USA Promax Nutrition Promax Rocky Road Nutrition Energy Bars

All natural, and free from high fructose, trans fat, corn syrup and gluten. Contains 18 vitamins and minerals and 20g of protein which is the equivalent to three eggs.

Canada CulturedCare Probiotics Cultured Care Probiotic Gum A vegan product formulated with a minimum 500 million colony forming units of Blis K12, an oral probiotic bacteria for the re-colonization of the oral cavity after antibiotic treatment. This GMO- and sugar-free product also promotes oral health and fights bad breath. It features an organic raspberry-pomegranate flavour and contains no artificial flavours, colours, sweeteners or preservatives.

SWEET SPREADSUSA B&G Foods Polaner All Fruit Black Cherry

Spreadable Fruit with FiberSaid to be made with the finest fruits and sweetened only with fruit juice. Gluten-free, no artificial colours or flavours. Also available in Peach; Strawberry; and Raspberry.

USA Wedderspoon Organic Wedderspoon Active Beechwood Honey

A 100% raw, organic honey, rich in oligosaccharides and minerals. Oligosaccharides are also known to multiply friendly-bacteria in the stomach, are good for the digestive system and can help maintain a balanced intestinal flora.

SWEETENERS & SUGARUSA Swanson Health Products Swanson Premium Brand PureLo Lo

Han SweetenerMade from lo han (or monk fruit) which is a traditional Chinese fruit. Described as a calorie-free way to sweeten food and drinks.

SUGAR & GUM CONFECTIONERY

JULY 2010 27



Country Company Brand & Product DescriptionPART 2: REST OF THE WORLD – FOODS & BEVERAGES

BAKERYSouth Africa Wheyfields Bakery Division Wheyfields Milky Whey Brown

BreadFat free bread made with natural whey. Rich in calcium, fortified with vitamins and minerals. Whey is said to have health benefits including: lower blood pressure; reduce cholesterol and improve cardiovascular health; antimicrobial and antiviral properties which may help protect against cancer, toxins, bacteria and viruses; provide easy-digestible high quality proteins; increase bone density and protect teeth; increase cognitive performance; enhance the immune system by raising anti-oxidant levels.

Italy Barilla Alixir Cor Sweet Biscuits Contains barley-derived beta-glucans, which are said to help naturally control cholesterol in order to keep the heart healthy.

UK Hovis Hovis Hearty Oats Bread With 50% oats and 50% wheatflour. Helps maintain normal cholesterol levels, approved by H.E.A.R.T UK, the cholesterol charity. Low in saturated fat and sugar, a good source of fibre, no artificial preservatives or flavourings. Two slices provide a third of the RDI of beta-glucan.

BEVERAGESUK Shotz Limited Big Shotz Mango & Passionfruit Juice A shot-style fruit juice drink that now retails in a recyclable 4 x 120ml

multipack. Contains enough nutrients to replace a daily multi-vitamin tablet, comprising 11 vitamins, six minerals, omega 3, prebiotic fibre, ginseng believed to help the body cope with stress, and anti-oxidants.

UK GlaxoSmithKline Lucozade Sport Pro Muscle Chocolate Milk Protein Shake

A milk-based protein shake, for during or after a workout. High quality protein from milk supports high intensity resistance exercise, assisting in the building of muscle mass and strength through muscle protein synthesis. Contains 20g protein; specifically tested for athletes.

Brazil Nutrilatina Nutrilatina Diet Shake Woman Strawberry and Blackberry Diet Shake

The redesigned 400g pack contains a convenient dosage cup. A source of calcium, proteins, antioxidants, isoflavones, vitamins and minerals. Said to reduce PMS symptoms; help prevent cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis and cancer; helps control weight; aids muscular, skin, teeth and bones regeneration, and is said to help women stay healthy and beautiful.

Germany PowerBar Europe PowerBar Protein Plus High-Protein Drink Mix

Formulated with 80% casein and whey protein. According to the manufacturer, it supports muscle building and shaping. Also available is a Chocolate Flavoured Powder, for long-lasting muscle build. The high-protein product is formulated with whey, milk, soya and amino acids.

Germany PowerBar PowerBar Gel Caffeinated Green Apple Flavoured Food Supplement

Formulated with guarana extract and extra sodium to compensate sweat loss. The gel features C2 MAX carbohydrate mix, which has a special ratio of glucose and fructose sources. According to the manufacturer, it quickly delivers energy and can increase the amount of carbohydrates that can be digested and used by working muscles during exercise up to 55%.

Czech Republic Podebradka Podebradka ProLinie Aktiv Sparkling Mineral Water with Plum & Elderberry

A lightly carbonated water with added carnitine and fibre. Free from sugar and preservatives.

Japan Kirin Beverage Kirin Plus-I Turmeric Drink (Double) A citrus flavoured drink containing 30g of curcumin and 400mg of ornithine (double the amount in previous products). Launched in light of the growth of the turmeric-based drink market and a study which found that many people don’t like the bitter taste and odour of turmeric-based drinks.

Russia Yakult Doshirak Aloe Pomegranate Drink Rich in antioxidants and is claimed to help with staying healthy and beautiful. Japan Kagome Yasai Ichinichi Kore Ippon Rich

Green & Yellow VegetablesThe company introduced a 280g PET bottle to the vegetable juice range, containing 450g of green and yellow vegetables. It is a “stronger” variety of the regular 280g vegetable juice, featuring 100g more vegetables and 20% more beta-carotene. Targeted at working men in their 30s to 50s.

India Medisynth Naturals Alfamalt Plus Chocolate Flavour Malt Based Food

Enriched with alfalfa which helps “maintain good health and rejuvenate the body”, ashwagandha which “helps boost body immunity and reduce stress and fatigue”, and oats for good digestion, bowel regulation and weight management. With zinc, vitamins and easily digestible proteins, to help maintain healthy cholesterol levels.

UK Pomegreat Pomegreat Pomegranate & Beetroot Juice Drink

Said to combine the world’s number one superfruit and superveg. “Packed with antioxidants and health-boosting vitamins and antioxidants known to contribute to healthy heart function as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle”. No artificial colours, sweeteners and preservatives, a good source of folic acid. Comes in a 1L carton made from wood.

Australia Musashi Musashi SLM Fat Metabolising Formula

High in fibre and protein and low in carbohydrates, includes 16 vitamins and minerals. Claimed to help maintain a healthy weight and provide high protein levels for hair, skin and nails. Contains L-carnitine along with choline and L-methionine, said to assist the mobilisation of fat stores. For men and woman trying to maintain a healthy weight as well as for athletes.

BREAKFAST CEREALSAustria Vita+ Naturprodukte Verival Bio Re-Active+ Organic Fruit

MuesliWith wholemeal flakes and 40% fruit. The fibre-rich cereal contains OPC antioxidants, said to be natural cell protectors.

Ireland Weetabix Weetabix Oatibix Bites Cranberry Cereal

A bitesized 100% wholegrain oat cereal. Fortified with vitamins and iron. Low in saturated fat and salt, and the oats contribute to a healthy cholesterol level. The manufacturers claim wholegrain oats are a source of dietary fibre which can help to maintain normal blood sugar levels and a healthy immune system. Includes a prebiotic which “can boost friendly bacteria to help keep tummies healthy”.

Russia Petergof Vkusnyatina Fitobalans Instant Fructose Based Oatmeal

Contains wheat germs, natural sugar, and apple fibre. Claimed to help main-tain a healthy digestive balance and to lower blood cholesterol. This low calorie product also helps keep weight under control, is suitable for diabetics and beneficial for the cardiovascular system. It strengthens immune defences, is suitable for children.

JULY 2010 28


India Diat Foods Sugarless Bliss Logl-i Chocolite Natural Fat-Free Chocolate

Contains 25% less calories and is enriched with DHA omega-3 beneficial for the brain, eyesight and heart, folic acid, high calcium and vitamin E. High in fibre, sweetened with Splenda and formulated with an advanced prebiotic. Specially designed for women, to help control weight and promote healthy bones and teeth.

India Chocolat Stella Chocolat Stella Actifs Duo Chocolate Dark with Green Tea

Has polyphenols “which feature anti-stress and anti-ageing properties”.

DAIRYSpain Kaiku Corporacion Alimentaria Kaiku Sin Lactosa Plus Lactose-Free

YogurtNaturally sweet and is claimed to support the digestive system. Recommended by ADILAC (Spanish Lactose Intolerancy Association).

Austria Kärntnermilch Milk Fit Raspberry Flavoured Acidophilus Milk

A probiotic drink, said to support the digestive system. The GM-free product contains lactobacillus acidophilus, said to strengthen the immune system.

Ireland Nom Dairy Pro-X Probiotic Strawberry Drink Contains fruit juice. Said to be scientifically proven to help support the natu-ral defences of the body. Contains L.casei, which is “a friendly bacteria that works in harmony with the body, to try to help its natural defences when consumed daily as part of a healthy balanced diet and lifestyle”.

Finland Danone Danone Danacol Natural Yogurt Drink

A milk-based yogurt drink with plant sterols which are said to have a choles-terol lowering effect.

Portugal La Finestra Sul Cielo Profesional La Finestra sul Cielo BeVida Rice Drink with Cocoa

With calcium from seaweed and organic ingredients. No colourants, preser-vatives or hydrogenated fats.

Malaysia F&N Foods F&N Magnolia Good Night Low Fat Milk

Contains lactium, an ingredient clinically tested to relieve stress and aid relaxation for improved emotional well-being when consumed regularly. Contains chamomile flowers, and honey “for its soothing properties that help promote relaxation, relieve insomnia and aid restful sleep”.

Malaysia F&N Foods F&N Magnolia Good Morning Low Fat Milk

High in calcium and provides a source of protein. Contains oats that “help improve digestion, contribute to heart health and lower cholesterol”; malt, “known as a source of nutrition, energy and vitamin B”; vitamins B3 and B2.

Russia Wimm-Bill-Dann Neo Imunele Pomegranate-Cherry Flavour Drinking Yogurt

Said to be now healthier and to strengthen the immune system in 14 days. With lactic cultures L.Casei and L.Rhamnosus, vitamins and minerals.

Russia Foodline Tere Dr. Hellus Rhubarb & Oat Yogurt

Made with Lactobacillus fermentum ME-3 and contains 2.5% fat. Also avail-able is Apple & Spinach Yogurt, which provides a source of omega 3.

Australia Parmalat Pauls Chocolate Milk A drink for children aged 12 months and up that is high in calcium and pro-tein. No preservatives, colours or artificial flavours, gluten free. Retails in a pack of eight x 160ml portions with straws.

Indonesia Sanghiang Perkasa Kalbe Nutritionals Zee Platinum Chocolate Flavoured Growing-Up Milk for Teen Girls

Suitable for teenagers, low in fat, helps maintain intestinal function.

Australia National Foods Yoplait Formé Satisfy No Fat Yogurt High in protein and fibre, “to make consumers feel fuller for longer”. Low Gl. Australia Jalna Dairy Foods Jalna Vanilla Creamy Yogurt with A2 Made with A2 milk, which “may provide protection from a range of intoler-

ances to dairy products and assist digestive wellbeing”. Contains probiotics, Acidophilus, Bifidus and Casei. No gluten or starches, no artificial sweeteners, no gelatines, preservatives, colours or cane sugar. Low Gl.

DESSERTS & ICE CREAMJapan Ezaki Glico Glico Ice Calorie Control Ice Cream A calorie-controlled parfait-style ice cream, contains only 80kcal, half the

calories of regular ice cream per pack. Contains low-calorie sweeteners, tofu and added fibre.

Czech Republic Dr. Oetker Dr.Oetker Fruit Jelly with Strawberry Flavour

A dessert mix with gelatine, said to be beneficial for joint health and flexibil-ity of skin, ligaments and cardiovascular system.

FRUIT & VEGETABLESItaly Orogel Surgelati Orogel il Benessere Foglia Bella

Frozen SpinachBaby leaves which are naturally rich in fibres said to be important for intestinal regularity, vitamin E which has an antioxidant function, folate for the formation of blood, calcium and vitamin K are good for bones, and vitamin A and lutein which promote healthy sight and skin.

MEALS & MEAL CENTRESThailand Mars Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice Butter and

Garlic Flavoured RiceReformulated. Made with premium rice grains, features a 100% natural flavour and is a good source of fibre, iron, folic acid, niacin and thiamin.

France Gayelord Hauser Gayelord Hauser Mon Programme Minceur Midi Douceur Spaghetti with Neapolitan Sauce

According to a manufacturer’s survey, 100% of women have lost body fat in conjunction with consuming this product.

SNACKSNetherlands Nutrition & Santé Modifast Sea Salt Potato Snack Crisps made from potato and soya, said to be rich in fibres and protein, and

contain PinnoThin, a Korean pine nut oil which quickly provides a satiated feeling. The 20g pack provides 82 calories.

Mexico Supermercados Internacionales H-E-B

Fullbar Puffed Wheat Bars Contain fibre and protein; said to be an easy way to control weight. Said to reduce the amount the stomach can hold so less food is required to feel full. Contains cocoa chips but no weight-loss stimulants.

UK GlaxoSmithKline Lucozade Sport Pro Muscle High Protein Bar

Tested for athletes and is said to promote protein synthesis for increased muscle mass. The 75g bar contains 20g protein.

Germany PowerBar PowerBar Performance Cookies & Cream Flavoured Bar

Available with an improved texture, making the bar easier to chew. Features C2 MAX carbohydrate mix, which has a special ratio of glucose and fructose sources said to increase the amount of carbohydrates that can be digested and used by working muscles during exercise up to 55%.

Netherlands Nutrition & Santé Weight CareSugar-Free Chewing Gum

With green tea and chrome. Contains the polyphenol EGCG from green tea extract, an antioxidant said to remove free radicals and to raise the body’s warmth production, which helps to break down fats. It also contains chrome for the metabolism of carbohydrates.

SUGAR & GUM CONFECTIONERY

CHOCOLATE CONFECTIONERY


JULY 2010 29


Did you know you can now read New Nutrition Business as a powerpoint presentation?If your company has a corporate license, or if you upgrade to a license, you can now also download a 100-slide powerpoint version of each issue of New Nutrition Business as well as the pdf !

1

NEW NUTRITION BUSINESS

© New Nutrition Business

July 2009: Published in powerpoint and pdf.

You can also:• download past issues in powerpoint.

• incorporate our case studies in powerpoint into your own presentations and

• share the insights with colleagues, customers and suppliers.

6



5



Consumer challenges – quick-hit campaigns that offer tangible and rapid results for those

who follow the rules of the programme – have been the key driver of Special K’s success

and have become synonymous with the brand.

Kellogg Special K – the billion dollar weight management brand

4 NEW NUTRITION BUSINESS


In contrast with the sharp focus on “drop a jeanssize” and similar results-oriented messages that arethe distinctive and consistent communications ofSpecial K breakfast cereal (since 2001),

Kellogg seems to have struggled to find the rightpositioning for its water.

At launch the label carried a tape measure in anecho of the Special K drop a jeans size conceptwhile advertising promised that: “Losing up to 6pounds in 2 weeks just got easier!”

In its current incarnation the brand has evolved tosay on the label that it: “Takes the edge offhunger”

MUDDLED MESSAGES?

3



Sales of Kellogg’s Special K20 Protein Water were never high – and now have collapsed,

falling 28% this year. Kellogg’s extension of a breakfast cereal brand to water with a

weight management benefit has proved to be a brand stretch too far. Poor merchandising

didn’t help.

With sales apparently tumbling it’s hard to see how this brand can survive. The recent

launch of Special K Protein Shakes suggests that Protein Water’s days may be numbered

and Kellogg is keen to take a new direction in weight management beverages.

Special K20 Water’s look, shape and

messages have all undergone significant

change in the two years since it was

launched, suggesting that Kellogg was

searching for the right positioning.

BRAND FUTURE IN QUESTION

2

NEW NUTRITION BUSINESS© New Nutrition Business

1



Kellogg makes second attempt

at protein drink market

NEWS ANALYSIS

To fi nd out more e-mail: [email protected]

JULY 2010 30


Too busy to read New Nutrition Business?Now you can listen to the wit and wisdom of NNB on your ipod, your computer or your car radio!

Exclusive to license-holders – each case study and news analysis

in NNB is now available to you as a downloadable audio fi le!

You can fi nd the MP3 podcasts for the June 2010 issue by logging in and going to the current issue download page.

To get the benefi t of the MP3 and powerpoint versions of NNB ask [email protected] or [email protected] how you can upgrade your subscription.

JULY 2010 31


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I M P O RTA N T N O T I C E

JULY 2010 32


Prices start from $150/€110 up to a maximum of $295/€200.

Why so low? Because we believe quality insights should be affordable.

And because the business of nutrition and health is our sole focus.

To find out more go to www.new-nutrition.com/ourproducts.asp or email [email protected]

Planning a presentation to senior management?Or to your colleagues, customers or suppliers?

New Nutrition Business has the solution for you.

Did you know we have Powerpoint versions of our reports? These ready-to-use presentations are filled with sales figures, charts and tables, pictures and our usual crisp insights. The topics they cover include:

• Dairy

• Beverages

• Snacks

• Commercialising science

• Digestive health

• Protein

• Soups

• Weight management

• Probiotics

• Kids’ nutrition

• Regulation

• And much, much more!


3.3 Pricing, penetration and positioning Chart 3: Price comparisons of juice products on the Swedish market – re

ProViva is priced competitively as a mass-market brand.

Source: New Nutrition Business supermarket survey in Lund, Sweden, 2009

NEW NUTRITION BUSINESS41

A check-list for kids’ beverage success



33

Nutrition facts and ingredients for Essensis raspberry &

pomegranate flavour Per 100g Per pot (110g)

Energy90kcal 99kcal

(380kJ) (418kJ)

Protein4.1g 4.5g

Carbohydrate 13.9g 15.3g

of which sugars 13.0g 14.3g

Total fat2.0g 2.2g

of which:

saturates1.0g 1.1g

mono-unsaturates 0.53g 0.58g

poly-unsaturates 0.43g 0.47g

Omega-60.14g 0.15g

FibreTrace Trace

Sodium0.06g 0.07g

Calcium144mg 158mg (20% RDI)

Vitamin E1.8mg 2.0mg (20% RDI)

Ingredients: fat-reduced milk, sugar (7%), raspberry (4%), crema, pomegranate (1%), borage oil

(0.7%), green tea extract (0.5%), flavourings, colours, stabilizers, lactic ferments, vitamin E.

Case Study: Danone Essensis

JULY 2010 33


Consultancy and strategic advice

Data is everywhere, explanation is rare. We focus on the explanation.Our exclusive focus on the business of food, beverages, nutrition and health gives us unrivalled knowledge of our sector globally. Our customers appreciate our ability to explain what is happening and what it means to them. This is why we are uniquely positioned to deliver significant value through a range of services including:

Health & Nutrition Trend Analysis: what we do better than anyone else. All year round we monitor consumer research, supermarket sales data and interview 400 industry executives to give our customers clear, actionable insights. Then we tailor these to individual companies’ specific areas of interest. From Australia to America to Europe, businesses use our unrivalled health trend analysis to inform their strategy and guide the direction of product development. We individually tailor a package for each company. We make the content as convenient and accessible as possible, using web delivery tools, webinars, audio files and in-house presentations.

For a taste of our trends analysis, take a look at our annual Ten Key Trends report at www.new-nutrition.com/10kt2010.asp. Julian Mellentin’s in-person presentations of the Key Trends are popular with companies around the world. For more information e-mail: [email protected]

Health & Nutrition Success Factors: our expert focus means that we are able to identify and constantly refine and evolve – in response to the evolution of markets and regulations – the “Golden Rules” for success for products with health benefits. Tailored to your category and market, our Success Factors guides are widely used by many companies. For more information e-mail: [email protected]

Business Models: since 1995 we have identified models which are now widely used to help businesses think clearly about how to get the best results, whether for commercializing science, new ingredients or food and beverage brands.

Workshops and presentations: insight into how to create specific advantages for your business, explanations of successes and failures across many categories and markets, and much, much more. Julian Mellentin delivers these in person or long-distance via webinars.

Market overviews and research: enabling companies to identify and validate opportunities.

Case studies: analyses of particular brands and what key lessons can be applied in your business.

Strategy consulting: strategic guidance and strategy reviews that allow you to define and analyse your strategic choices.

Brand development and positioning: market and strategic analyses to ensure your brand propositions make sense.

Confidentiality: All of our work is carried out under complete confidentiality. Unless given prior permission we never disclose the names of any clients or the details of any projects in which we have taken part.

To find out more contact [email protected]

JULY 2010 34


PUBLICATIONS

REPORTS

Coconut water: innovation and natural health benefits drive a new categoryFrom Brazil to America to Europe: coconut water is the fastest-growing new category, with retail sales already above $450 million (€327.5 million), thanks to its strong isotonic, hypo-allergenic and all-natural health benefits. Using new processing technologies and new brands, start-ups in Germany, the US and elsewhere are growing coconut water sales and getting premium prices. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, some of Europe’s biggest brewing families and even Madonna have invested in the sector.

Innocent Drinks: seven strategy lessons from the setbacks of Europe’s biggest smoothie makerInnocent Drinks rocketed from start-up to over $200 million in retail sales within eight years, creating a new category in Europe – fruit smoothies. But between 2007 and 2009 its sales plunged by 29% and prices were slashed. This unique 27-page report sets out the seven strategy lessons that can be learnt from the experience of Innocent.

Beauty foods and beverages: 7 strategy lessonsBeauty foods and beverages are big in Japan, but in the West few brands have gone beyond a niche. This unique report sets out the seven strategy lessons that can be learnt from the experience of Danone Essensis, Nestlé Glowelle and Borba Skin Balance Water - three case studies which provide the most clear insights into the risks and opportunities in the “beauty-from-within” business.

10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health 2010Our annual review, 10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health, is one of the most sought-after publications in the food industry. The report identifies the 10 mega-trends that will have the most impact on the food and beverage industries over the year ahead. This year we also include seven Micro-Trends, and we address regulatory issues in Europe. It points companies towards some clear and practical strategies for their functional food and beverage developments, production and marketing.

20 Key Case Studies in Functional and Health-Enhancing Beverages 2010Using 20 Case Studies of brands addressing a range of benefits – energy, joint health, sports beverages, protein boosting, digestive health, weight management and heart health – this report looks at what makes some functional and health-enhancing brands succeed and what makes others fail.

Probiotic juice: five key strategy lessons from Europe and the USCase studies in digestive and immune healthProbiotic juice is one of the biggest untapped innovation opportunities in the healthy beverage business, worldwide. The author of this unique report, Julian Mellentin, drawing on case studies from Europe and the US, sets out the five key lessons that are essential reading for anyone who wants succeed in probiotic juice.

Marketing Kids’ Healthy Beverages: Ten key case studiesIn the market for kids’ foods and drinks, it’s in beverages that you will find the most examples of success – and some of the smartest innovations.

Organic and all-natural kids’ snacks and baby foodsSeven key case studiesHealth-conscious parents seem committed to continuing to buy healthy food for their children despite the recession, even as they economise in other ar-eas. This 42-page report looks in detail at these different approaches. Using seven detailed case studies we analyse the performance and strategies of leading organic and “all-natural” kids’ snacks and babyfood brands in the US and UK.

Failures in Functional Foods & Beverages: And what they reveal about successThe functional foods market is a complex one. Success with a new product or ingredient is rare. This unique 98-page report examines failures by functional brands and ingredients. It sets out the lessons that can be applied by anyone trying to develop an effective strategy for a brand or trying to commercialise nutrition science and offers concise strategies for reducing the risk of failure.

Energy shots: birth of a new premium-priced, high-growth categoryStrategies, trends and case studies from the US and UKSuch is the value to consumers of the proposition of a daily dose of energy with no added sugar that in the US alone this new category has soared to over $350 million in retail sales in less than two years - despite recession and despite selling at a massive 400% price premium over “mainstream” energy drinks such as Red Bull!

Trends & Strategies in Weight Management: Ten Key Case StudiesOur concise analysis shows which brand strategies are most effective and why, which ingredient strategies are most effective and why and sets out the key market and consumer trends. Our analysis is illustrated with ten detailed case studies which cover satiety and fat burning and look at how to use weight management to revive old brands or create new ones.

Superfruit: strategy for superfruit successSuperfruits are the product of a strategy, not something you find growing on a tree.Superfruits are revolutionising the way consumers relate to fruit and fruit-based products and they’re growing their market fast – from 40%-100% every year. And yet just a handful of fruits have crossed over from commodity status to superfruit stardom. This guide provides a checklist for superfruit success.

Probiotics: Successful Strategies from the Global MarketplaceThis report is written for anyone trying to develop an effective strategy in the challenging and fast-changing area of probiotics. It sets out the seven steps to creating a successful probiotic brand and describes probiotic strategy both in dairy and emerging new segments such as fruit juice and solid foods.

The Food & Health Marketing HandbookIn a competitive world how do you take your technology to market so that it’s your product that wins at the point of purchase? This handbook tells you how to get the best out of the science and the health benefits of your ingredients or products.

Price per unit SOLE USE ONLY (Multiple user price on request)

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Our case studies and reports give you unique insights into the vital and changing food, beverage and nutrition market.

For more New Nutrition Business case studies visit www.new-nutrition.com

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JULY 2010 35


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