Superfoods

Dr Carrie Ruxton

Nutrition consultant

What are superfoods?

No agreed definition

• Implied that the food or ingredient delivers a health or wellbeing benefit

• Separate from its ability to meet nutrient requirements

Superfoods as a concept

Natural raw foods or ingredients

Processedingredients

Novel ingredients

‘naturalness’ decreases, regulatory burden increases

Consumers interested in ‘superfood’ products

Ranking

Foods that control weight 1

Energy-boosting products 2

Fortified drinks 3

Fortified foods 4

Herbal supplements 5

Beauty foods/drinks 6

Datamonitor, 2005

Consumers used to health claims

• Heart health/maintenance

• Overt or inferred intelligence boosters

• Sports performance claims

• Gut health

• Well-being

• Wacky health food shop claims

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

% of consumers not trusting

health claims

Americans British Germans French

But they don’t trust them

Datamonitor, 2005

Int J Food Sci Nutrition,2007; 57(3-4): 249-272.

Mink et al (2007). AJCN 85, 895-909

0.7

0.75

0.8

0.85

0.9

0.95

1

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5

Ad

just

ed R

R0.82

0.84

0.86

0.88

0.9

0.92

0.94

0.96

0.98

1

Zero Some

Ad

just

ed R

R

Anthocyanidins p=0.03 Flavanones p=0.01

N=34492 US post-menopausal women, prospective studyAdjusted RR for age, BMI, EI and lifestyle

Plausible superfoods

• Fish oil – omega 3s• Antioxidant-rich fruit & vegetables• Polyphenols e.g. fruit, soya, cocoa• Probiotics & prebiotics• Oats – beta glucans• Dietary fibre• Stanols & sterols• Potassium-rich foods

Problem

Consumer interest up

Evidence growing

Health claim opportunities going down?

The new legal environment Launching successful

products

Communicating Benefits to consumers

What’s on the market?

Case studies