functional & health foods
Functional foods, health foods and nutraceuticals cover nearly every food & beverage category. Most common are juice drinks, dairy drinks, soy drinks, sweet biscuits, tea, breakfast cereals, chocolate, yogurt and baby meals & infant formulae, although in recent years nearly every category has functional & healthy brands on supermarket shelves. The most common health claims made include no additives, no preservatives, allergy specific, gluten free, low fat, no trans fats, vitamin fortified, gut health, low calorie, low sodium, sugar free, lactose free and prebiotic; however there are hundreds of other claims made on varying product types. The functional, health & nutraceutical market is dominated by major industry players including Nestle, Unilever, Kraft, Danone and Heinz, although in recent years more and more retailers (including Aldi, Marks & Spencer & Walmart) and smaller manufacturers (including HIPP, Mueller & Birds Eye) have begun aggressively attacking for more functional & health food & nutraceutical market share.
