From a wealth of flavour to health-giving saviour? - IFI DecJan 10

Can confectionery be successfully marketed as conferring specific functional benefits? And if so, which benefits might work best, and in what products? Ian McMurray assesses the opportunities – and the challenges

“Healthy confectionery would have been an oxymoron just a few years ago,” says market research firm Business Insights in a recent report. “But as the industry and consumers have become increasingly health-conscious, the development of healthy confectionery has become an imperative new strategy to avoid a steady and inevitable decline in sales.”

A distinction not explicitly made in this analysis, however, is the distinction between confectionery that is ‘better for you’ because it contains reduced levels of fat, sugar and so on, and confectionery that is ‘good for you’ because it delivers specific benefits such as cardiovascular health, improved immunity and the like. The question is: while the trend towards ‘better for you’ confectionery appears to be well-established, is there any future for functional confectionery?

“It’s notoriously difficult to obtain precise market size figures for functional foods, owing to the differences in definitions used,” notes Chris Brockman, market research manager at Leatherhead Food Research (LFR). “For example, a lot of sources tend to mix sugar-free products in with more specific forms of functional confectionery, which clouds the picture somewhat.” His company valued the 2008 worldwide confectionery market at $134.85 billion, but he estimates that functional products are only a few percent of this figure.

It may be small, and it may be hard to measure – but that does not seem to be preventing the functional confectionery market from attracting many of the ingredients industry’s heavyweight players. “Confectionery is a key market for us,” says Paul O’Mahoney, business development manager at Glanbia Nutritionals. “This emerging market offers great opportunities for innovation. Ongoing breakthroughs from our R&D team mean we can now offer our customers a range of ingredients for a variety of nutritional fortification demands.”

Glanbia’s enthusiasm is echoed by ADM. “There is certainly an opportunity for confectionery manufacturers to develop functional products,” says Steve Laning, director of innovation and marketing at ADM Cocoa International. “This niche - yet growing - market is gaining importance for us and our chocolate and confectionery customers. The prospect it provides for true innovation inspires us to create unique ingredients and solutions, helping our customers develop successful new products.”

Another advocate is Ian Fairs, group manager for confectionery at Danisco. “The healthy confectionery market has always been an important one for Danisco,” he says, “and now that probiotics and antioxidants are well developed in certain applications, new ways are opening up to enable existing product lines to move towards functional offerings.”

Others believe the time is ripe for change. “The confectionery market in general has not had any significant growth over the past several years, mostly due to the fact that it is an established, mature market,” notes Ram Chaudhari, executive vice president and chief scientific officer at Fortitech. “I believe that this is going to change as more confectioners utilise a health platform to position their products. This market is growing and will continue to grow, making it an important market for Fortitech.”

Certainly, it seems as if ‘up’ is the only way the functional confectionery market can go. LFR’s third edition of “The Market for Heart Benefit Foods”, published in October, shows limited activity and fragmented interest in markets around the world. It notes the growing popularity of dark chocolate, but also the minimal effort to associate it with its known heart health benefits.

While a variety of confectionery types – including gum, bars and baked goods – show promise for functional applications, chocolate is a platform that is arousing considerable interest. Not only can it be inherently high in antioxidants, but it also lends itself readily to other purposes.

“In many cases, it is the processing conditions and stability of the additive ingredients which determine the suitable vehicles for functional confectionery,” says Fairs at Danisco. “Chocolate, particularly filled chocolates, offers suitable conditions to add some of these ingredients, but there are also many other options.”

Dark delivery platform

There is plenty to build on here. “Chocolate and cocoa are a natural choice due to their rich, distinctive flavour, which can mask unpleasant tastes or complement bitter notes,” adds ADM’s Laning. “Just as importantly, though, the association that cocoa and dark chocolate enjoy with a potential reduction in risk factors linked with cardiovascular disease makes them a credible choice for functional confectionery. Chocolate enhanced with fibre, omega-3, probiotics, calcium, low-glycemic sweeteners, soya and other ingredients of functional interest make it an interesting delivery platform.”

He may be right about that consumer knowledge of the potential health benefits of chocolate. But a question remains about how widespread this knowledge is, and the extent that it can be built on.

“I think the biggest challenge will be to get consumers to think of health improvement in connection with confectionery. An image change is going to be necessary,” says Christer Andersson, marketing manager at Avebe.

Over at Danisco, Fairs agrees. “Consumer acceptance of the concept is a potential obstacle,” he says. “Confectionery is very often a treat and consumed purely for indulgence, and there may exist a preconception that healthy products will not deliver on taste and texture when compared to the standard products. Actually, this is not the case, as manufacturers have put a lot of effort into the products and ingredients to ensure that the consumer will get the sensations they have come to expect, with the added function not detracting from the experience at all.”

There may be technical challenges in creating functional confectionery, but the marketing challenges may be even more difficult to overcome. Gum, from that point of view, is perhaps better placed. It has been in the forefront of the ‘better for you’ movement with its lowered sugar options, and has also quietly established itself as a functional confectionery with its claimed ability to freshen breath and help prevent tooth decay.

“Going forward, chocolate will still be the popular vehicle for functional ingredients, but I believe gum will be running a close second,” notes Chaudhari at Fortitech. “It is already well positioned, and research has been done that shows the nutrients in fortified gum are quickly absorbed by the body. They therefore offer consumers a more immediate response to whatever condition they are trying to address, whether it be increased energy, pain relief or stress management.”

Collagen and CoQ10?

During 2009, Fortitech demonstrated functional confectionery concepts at trade shows around the world. These included chocolate bars for improved mood, infused with a custom combination of nutrients, and nutricosmetic licorice, designed to address anti-ageing with nutrients such as collagen, vitamin E, aloe vera, CoQ10, inulin and lycopene.

Previously, Fortitech had created confectionery samples including a chocolate ‘fountain’ blended with more than 15 vitamins and minerals, and fortified lollipops including a passion fruit-flavoured lollipop with immunity-enhancing vitamins and minerals, and an apple-flavoured lollipop targeting immunity, enhanced metabolism and increased energy.

But whatever the platform, there are obstacles to overcome. “Confectionery has specific process conditions and also typically a long shelf-life,” points out Jaap Harkema, marketing manager at Solanic. “So the functional ingredients need to withstand the process and still deliver the claimed function when consumed.”

His position is echoed by Persis Subramaniam, product development project manager at LFR. “There are different technical challenges in producing various types of functional confectionery,” she says. “The base confectionery needs to be healthy – for example, low sugar or low fat. And formulation changes could mean a change in the processing conditions to accommodate the addition of actives. The incorporation of functional ingredients could affect flavour and texture, and introduce stability issues not found in normal confectionery.”

Like Harkema, she notes that confectionery tends to have a long shelf life, meaning that the stability of nutrients or actives - of vitamins, for example - needs to be assured to satisfy any claims. That alone marks confectionery out from yoghurt, for example.

On balance, the ingredients industry seems to believe that, near term, confectionery that is ‘better for you’ is a larger opportunity than confectionery that is ‘good for you’ because of specific health benefits.

However, it is also apparent that functional confectionery is a real area of focus for many of the industry’s major players. It is essential to ensure that the taste and mouthfeel of what is likely to remain an indulgence food remain unimpaired. “You don’t eat confectionery because it’s good for you or better for you. The only reason to consume it is that it tastes great,” points out Solanic’s Harkema. But that is only one of the challenges, along with issues such as the extended shelf life expected of confectionery.

Perceptions and positionings

“Consumers are increasingly demanding products that are inherently ‘better for you’ with reduced fat, salt and sugar high on the agenda,” notes O’Mahony at Glanbia. “However, consumers also recognise that often they don’t get enough of certain vitamins and minerals, such as calcium and protein. Functional confectionery can provide a convenient and tasty alternative way of consuming these essential ingredients.”

He concludes: “We’ve seen a strong demand for products with added nutritional benefits. The functional confectionery market may still be in its infancy, but it undoubtedly has excellent growth potential.”

More challenging, perhaps, are questions  about changing consumer perceptions, market segmentation and product positioning. Functional foods are now well established both within the industry and within the minds of consumers. The question remains whether that success can be extended into the confectionery arena.

Coming soon – Chocogreat?

That chocolate – especially dark chocolate – contains potentially beneficial antioxidants has been well known for some time. But there have been few, if any, truly functional chocolates specifically designed to deliver higher levels of antioxidant. This may be a function of the fact that it would require higher-quality (and thus more expensive) cocoa beans as well as gentler processing.

However, earlier this year, German natural ingredients company Wild introduced a powder blend, based on plant extracts and said to provide a cost-effective alternative to high-antioxidant cocoa. The company says this can be added to the chocolate after conching, and that this will increase antioxidant levels and allow appropriate product claims to be made. Wild states that neither the consistency nor the taste of the resulting product is impacted.