The challenge of children’s food is that it must win over consumers on two fronts: the parents who purchase the product and the children who will eat it. This can be a tall order because parents are becoming more discerning about their children’s health—but health hasn’t always been synonymous with great flavor, at least if you ask kids.

“To be successful, brands must balance delivering on kids’ sensory priorities—taste, texture, appearance—while also providing foods and beverages with the improved nutritional profile parents desire,” explains Carla Saunders, senior marketing manager, Cargill (Minneapolis, MN).

Luckily, there has been a great deal of progress in food technology, giving formulators better tools to meet these demands and giving parents better options on store shelves.

Among the top concerns for parents are sugar and protein content, says Saunders. “Concerns about childhood obesity have made sugar reduction and avoidance a central theme in parents’ purchase decisions,” she explains. Meanwhile, “Protein, especially plant proteins, are gaining popularity, as is the inclusion—sometimes stealthily—of more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. This is especially true in the snack space where our proprietary research found that parents are embracing options that have clear nutritional value—things like protein, whole grains, and fiber.”

Brands like Simple Mills (Chicago, IL) accomplish this through careful ingredient evaluation and formulation. Simple Mills has made a name for itself by offering everything a health-conscious parent wants: products that use only whole-food ingredients and that are free from grains, gums/emulsifiers, natural/artificial flavors, and gluten. It does a good job of taking everyday products and giving them a healthier spin, without compromising flavor.

“Our Chocolate Chip Crunchy Cookies are a great example of ‘cleaning up’ a conventional item,” says Jamie Rubenstein, Simple Mills’ brand manager. “Our Crunchy Cookies are almond flour–based for nutrient density and sweetened with coconut sugar, which we love because it is natural and unrefined.”

Another example is the company’s Veggie Pita Crackers. “We transformed the typical pita chip/cracker to include nutrient-dense ingredients,” explains Rubenstein. “With a classic pita taste and one-third serving of vegetables per serving, these dippable, crunchy crackers feature veggies as the number-one ingredient to help boost veggie intake.”

The children’s beverage space faces particularly high scrutiny when it comes to sugar content. “Euromonitor International suggests children’s beverage categories are in a state of terminal decline, but they don’t have to be,” says Saunders. Saunders recommends stevia products such as Cargill’s EverSweet stevia sweetener to reduce sugar levels by 70% while still crafting delicious beverages. Products like Cargill’s Zerose erythritol and Oligo-Fiber chicory root fiber can be sugar-reduction solutions for dairy, dairy alternatives, as well as snack bars and confections.

“Our latest proprietary research suggests that across the board, consumers are very accepting of the sweetener,” says Saunders. “When compared to 12 of the leading low-/no-calorie sweeteners, consumers ranked stevia as the most healthful as well as having the most positive perception on the label.”

When it comes to protein in children’s food, plant protein is particularly popular, and the ideal vessel appears to be frozen foods. “Not surprisingly, convenience plays well in households with children, so frozen pizzas, kid-friendly nuggets, and other easy-to-prepare ready-meals are still a hit with busy families,” says Erin Radermacher, senior technical services specialist, Cargill. Thankfully, frozen food has come a long way to provide chef-inspired meals and label-friendly formulations.

Plant proteins give a frozen meal a healthier halo. “Take frozen pizza, a longtime staple of kid-friendly foods,” explains Melissa Machen, senior technical services manager, Cargill. “You’ll find pizzas topped with sliced pepperoni meat alternatives and plant-based Italian sausage crumbles. Developers are even closing in on creating really good plant-based cheeses, opening the door for vegan pizzas.”

Ingredients such as Cargill’s SimPure starches offer frozen foods control over syneresis, high-process tolerance, and freeze-thaw stability. Plant proteins such as Cargill’s Prosante textured soy flour offer a good source of protein while also mimicking the mouthfeel and texture of traditional ground meat. Unlike older consumers who have a point of comparison when trying alternative products, children exposed to plant protein at an early age may be more likely to continue eating plant-based products into adulthood, not viewing it so much as an alternative to meat but simply as another option. Ensuring optimal taste and texture of children’s products on the whole secures repeat customers because children are creatures of habit, and if the food they want is healthy, their parents are happy to supply it to them.

Articles

Less sugar and more protein are top of mind for health-conscious parents buying children’s food, but delivering on taste and texture is still paramount to win with kids.

Making children and parents happy in the children’s food aisle

A broader industry push toward sustainability is giving rise to creative new ways of repurposing so-called “waste” ingredients. Driven by consumer demand for socially responsible and eco-friendly products, the upcycling trend isn’t exactly new, but it is growing. As consumers continue reducing their environmental footprints, more manufacturers are looking to technological innovation and processing reforms to achieve an increasingly coveted “zero waste” product claim.

While it’s not always practical to redesign manufacturing practices in a way that eliminates waste products at the source, upcycling is the next best thing. Here are some of the ways that upcycling is making ingredient development more sustainable.

Conscious and creative upcycling allows manufacturers to turn one waste byproduct into several valuable and marketable ingredients. Amanda Ollenburger, senior director of marketing and international sales for Biova (Johnston, IA), says one of the challenges associated with upcycling is the requirement for companies to think beyond traditional purposes and processes. Biova, Ollenburger notes, solved this challenge by identifying the individual components that make up its waste byproducts.

“Biova’s eggshell membrane products naturally contain collagen, elastin, glucosamine, chondroitin, protein, and a variety of amino acids,” Ollenburger says. “All of these things are well known to be beneficial for joint and skin health. By identifying the components that make up the membrane, we identify one source in nature for several beneficial products.”

Biova’s upcycling process separates the eggshell membrane from the rest of the eggshell, which facilitates upcycling of the eggshell into feed and fertilizer as well. According to Biova, this process keeps over two billion eggshells out of landfills every year.

Supply Chain Innovation an Emerging Priority

The future of upcycling will likely involve whole supply chains. Micah Osborne, president of Stratum Nutrition (Carthage, MO), says that while individual companies are paying closer attention to what they throw away, there is an emerging opportunity and need for a whole-of-industry approach to upcycling.

“In most cases, the current supply chain isn’t optimized for the output you’re upcycling to,” Osborne says. “We’re already spending resources to produce the waste byproducts, or, as we like to call them, Poorly Utilized Resources. It’s important for us to spend the time figuring out how we can maximize the use of these resources.”

Stratum Nutrition produces an upcycled eggshell membrane ingredient, branded NEM, designed for inclusion in bone and joint health products for the human and animal markets. But Osborne says there are several other ingredients that are prime candidates for upcycling. Crop waste, for instance, can be upcycled into a prebiotic. Distillers’ grains, a byproduct of beer and whiskey production, are often upcycled into livestock feed.

While upcycling is undoubtedly good for environmental sustainability, sustainable business practices must, at the minimum, offer a path to cost recovery in order to be scalable. Quite simply, for-profit businesses won’t adopt a prohibitively expensive process no matter how good that process may be for the environment.

Rob Brewster, president of Ingredients by Nature (Montclair, CA), says new innovations in upcycling technology and increased efficiencies in general production are now enabling companies to look for alternative ingredient sources in a cost-effective manner. Ingredients by Nature produces an upcycled product, branded as CoffeeFruit Pure, that is made from recovered coffee fruit.

“When coffee fruit is discarded and left to decay, it produces harmful mycotoxins,” Brewster says. “More than 25 million tons of coffee fruit are wasted every year. But by removing the coffee fruit immediately after it is separated from the bean during the coffee production process, we’re able to reduce mycotoxin development and prevent damage to flora and fauna in the local environment.”

Recovering coffee fruit immediately after processing also results in a higher-quality, more marketable product that is richer in active ingredients. CoffeeFruit Pure contains over 80 mg/g of phenolics and over 8 mg/g of chlorogenic acid, according to Ingredients by Nature. Immediate upcycling preserves the fruit’s nutritional profile, as there is no opportunity for the raw source material to decay before processing.

Better Upcycling Creates More Potent Products

Advances in upcycling technology also enable manufacturers to create competitive differentiators without sacrificing sustainability. Hannah Ackermann, RD, is the corporate communications manager for Comet Bio (Schaumburg, IL). Ackermann says upcycling processes are enabling Comet Bio to extract arabinoxylan in an efficient manner, something that has historically been a challenge for the industry.

“Despite its exceptional prebiotic benefits, this plant fiber extract hasn’t been widely available for use due to inefficient extraction,” Ackermann explains. “We saw an opportunity to make arabinoxylan available in an isolated, purified, and fully soluble form. Our proprietary water extraction technology makes it possible to extract arabinoxylan from many food and crop leftovers and purify it.”

Comet Bio’s branded arabinoxylan product, Arrabina, is sourced from crop leftovers such as straw, leaves, and shells. Ackermann says Comet Bio’s dextrose production process emits 60% fewer greenhouse gases than traditional manufacturing, which is just one of many challenges upcycling solves.

“According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, 40% of the food produced around the globe goes to waste. Our food system is producing more waste than ever and still isn’t providing adequate nutrition. We’re working to address both challenges by extracting nutrition from food system waste,” she says.

Industry experts expect upcycling to become increasingly popular in 2021. The Upcycled Food Association (Greenwood Village, CO), a nonprofit advocacy group founded by upcycled-food companies, is in the process of developing a voluntary certification standard for upcycled food products that would set minimum upcycled-ingredient volume requirements.

 As upcycling gains prominence among sustainability initiatives, expect to see more such consumer-oriented communication projects designed to convey the benefits of upcycling to consumers.

Upcycled Food Association. “UFA Upcycled Certification Standard: Version 1 – Comment Period Draft.” Published online October 2020. 

Nutritional supplements and functional foods are becoming more sustainable thanks to better use of ingredient development byproducts.

Upcycling makes ingredient development more sustainable

“Humans,” observes Brian Zapp, creative director, Applied Food Sciences (AFS; Austin, TX), “are confusing. We can be quite caring—and selfish—at the same time.”

And we needn’t look farther than our own shopping carts to see how. Case in point, Zapp says, “We can be simultaneously health-conscious, late-night-craving, keto-friendly, fast-food-loving, gluten-free, deep-fried, on-the-go, sugar-free sweet-tooths. And how we approach the issue of sustainability fits right in with this.”

That means that even as headlines crow about rising rates of sustainable shopping, human beings still let one-third of all food produced globally, or the equivalent of 1.3 billion tons, go to waste every year, according to United Nations measures.

So now, with the COVID-19 pandemic sowing further confusion in our lives, might consumers’ commitment to sustainable consumption—and the supplement industry’s commitment to sustainable sourcing and production—grow even more tenuous?

Zapp actually isn’t so sure. “I think it should be clear that being selfish 

caring for the environment can live harmoniously,” he says—“with the right approach.” And the pandemic, it turns out, may present the best approach we’ve seen yet.

More than half a year into that pandemic, there’s little evidence that consumers have abandoned sustainability. As Mike Forbes, CEO of confectionery company Alter Eco (San Francisco, CA), notes, “There’s been a steady rise in sustainable shopping habits over the past few years, and we’re seeing the pandemic accelerate that trend.”

Indeed, results of an IRI consumer survey conducted in July—several months into most lockdowns—found that sustainability still plays an “important” role for one in seven Americans, with another half claiming that it’s “somewhat important.”

Moreover, when IRI teamed with the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business to review consumer purchases of sustainability-marketed products in 36 CPG categories from January 2015 through June 2020, the resulting Sustainable Market Share Index

 found that sales of items marketed as sustainable continue to grow even amidst COVID-19. Not only did such products see significant increases in market share early on—up 19.32% for the week ending March 15—they maintained their strong share through mid-June.

All of which makes sense to Andrea Zangara, head of scientific communications and marketing, Euromed S.A. (Barcelona). In unsettled times, consumers crave safety and certainty, he says, which translates into support for brands that “keep their promises in terms of health benefits, quality, origin, and sustainability.”

“For this reason,” he says, “they’re scrutinizing brands’ claims and practices more closely, and they prefer products that are certified sustainable or organic, produced with clean and ecological technologies, and less likely to present the risk of residual chemicals that are harmful to health and the environment.”

And the current contagion has done yeoman’s work impressing upon them why this is important. “The pandemic has illuminated just how interconnected our health is to the health of the planet,” Forbes says. “News of drastically dropping carbon emissions during shutdown renewed attention on our carbon footprints and showed that it’s not too late to make an impact.”

No wonder, then, that since the pandemic began, “there’s been a groundswell of awareness of carbon-neutral and carbon-negative foods,” he says. “Brands across the board—from Annie’s to Panera—are answering with regenerative agriculture and more sustainable programs.”

As is Alter Eco. The company is especially keen on promoting restorative farming and dynamic agroforestry, a regenerative-agricultural model wherein farmers plant a diversity of crops—up to 15 species per acre, Forbes says—next to the main crop “to mimic a natural, self-sustaining ecosystem that improves plant and soil health, as well as farmer working conditions and income diversification.” It’s a model that he believes “has the potential to change not only our entire food system, but also our futures.”

It has the potential to remove carbon from the atmosphere, too, which could put us that much closer to bending the curve on climate change.

“That’s why we’re excited to have launched the Alter Eco Foundation during this difficult time,” Forbes explains. The foundation’s mission is to make the brand’s agroforestry model available to the cocoa industry at large and, the company hopes, expedite its adoption across global chocolate supply chains.

Calculations show that by shifting its cocoa production to this regenerative model, Alter Eco could on its own increase carbon sequestration by 83 metric tons of CO

 per acre over 20 years relative to conventional monoculture, Forbes says. That suggests that implementation at scale across the global cocoa industry’s roughly 30 million acres could sequester 2.5 gigatons of CO

Such farming systems are critical, given the pace of climate change and the fact that at the current rate of degradation, we’ll no longer have enough soil

 suitable for growing the crops we need to feed ourselves within 50 years, Zapp says. But sustainability encompasses more than just healthy soil and sequestered carbon.

IRI’s July 2020 consumer survey found that respondents view sustainability as a multifaceted concept encompassing values and goals that range from minimizing carbon footprints and natural-resource exploitation to reducing waste, shifting to renewable resources, diminishing negative environmental impacts, and slowing climate change.

And increasingly—especially among younger consumers—social-justice concerns such as protecting human rights, reducing poverty, coming together as a community, and supporting people and organizations that benefit society at large also define big-tent sustainability. According to IRI’s July survey, half of Gen Z and Millennial respondents actively seek out retailers that carry sustainable products, with 54% buying at least as many organic products as they did before COVID-19 and 69% buying as many or more “eco-friendly” products as they did pre-COVID.

Consumers aren’t alone in gathering under sustainability’s big tent, either. “From an ingredient-supplier perspective,” Zapp says, “sustainability goes beyond regenerative agriculture and avoiding the pollutants, plastics, and chemicals that impact the environment. While these are essential, sustainability entails human elements in terms of social responsibility and traceability, too.”

For example, given that many of the raw materials that AFS sources grow in locations where living conditions are poor and workers have little agency, the company created its Responsible Sourcing initiative to address sustainable growing, socially responsible sourcing, and full traceability, Zapp says.

And it likely wasn’t a difficult move for the company to make. As Ann Armbrecht, PhD, director of the American Botanical Council’s (ABC; Austin, TX) Sustainable Herbs Program (SHP), points out, maintaining sustainable business practices is the surest route to strengthening supplement-ingredient supplies.

Why? “Because if growers and collectors aren’t treated fairly or paid a decent wage, they’re likely to leave their work to find jobs that pay more,” she says. Such urban migration leaves the botanical industry’s long-term stability vulnerable.

Thus, Armbrecht concludes, “Every company needs to think about how to address the root causes of that migration. Why are younger generations not going into farming or collecting? How does local sourcing play into that? How do fair labor practices play into that? How can the industry make those jobs more meaningful by providing better wages and, also, longer contracts, training, and other opportunities?”

And as if industry needed any more convincing, Armbrecht offers this: “Investing in the value networks where botanicals are sourced leads to higher-quality botanicals. So it makes sense from a business view, even if the moral argument doesn’t.”

To that end, this spring ABC and SHP released their Sustainability and Regenerative Practices Toolkit, which Armbrecht describes as “a collection of best practices for the botanical industry.” In its wake, the organization has hosted online conversations to foster further action on the issues it raises.

Per Forbes, Alter Eco’s further action focuses on farmers, whom he calls “the lifeblood of our business.” So when the pandemic struck, he says, “We immediately started raising funds to protect them and their families, making sure they had the supplies needed to stay safe.” And far from weakening the company’s commitment to sustainability, “the pandemic has only strengthened our commitment to making a positive impact on the planet, pioneering a sustainable supply chain, and taking care of people, especially during these times,” he says.

For its part, Euromed is focusing on locally sourcing raw materials in an effort to ward off supply bottlenecks and to support local communities while shrinking its carbon footprint. “Waste products from our saw-palmetto extraction are used to develop ecological dyes,” Zangara adds, “and we’ve invested in cleaner extraction processes and expanded the number of ingredients obtained using our water-only extraction technology, Pure Hydro Process.”

What’s more, Euromed was an inaugural underwriter of the ABC’s SHP itself, “aiming to increase the awareness of sustainable sourcing to benefit all parties in the supply chain, from growers and businesses to consumers,” Zangara says.

Yet while industry’s efforts are admirable, they’re not without costs. And if those costs trickle down to consumers—increasingly cash-strapped as the pandemic ushers in recession—will they value them enough to pay more?

Only time will tell. But worth noting, Forbes says, are the results of a recent survey

 that found 43% of respondents who’d been laid off, furloughed, or otherwise professionally disrupted thanks to the pandemic still willing to pay extra for more sustainable products. “That’s a powerful number,” he says.

And the lesson he and others draw from it is that demand for sustainable products isn’t a mere trend—“it’s a major decision factor for consumers,” he says. “Shoppers, especially younger ones, realize that the brands they support today can affect the world they live in tomorrow, and they’ll spend on them if it means positively investing in their futures, even during times of uncertainty.”

Yet all this focus on the consumer, Armbrecht maintains, misses the point.

“My goal at the Sustainable Herbs Program is to show that investing in sustainability is not an add-on to have because consumers do or don’t demand it,” she explains. “Making the sourcing investments that fall under sustainability is essential to ensuring that botanical companies have the raw materials they need in the long run. So I get frustrated with conversations that continue to hold out consumers as the drivers for sustainability. I believe we all have a moral responsibility to invest in building healthier soils and ecosystems, address the loss of biodiversity and climate change, and reverse the preexisting social inequities that COVID-19 amplified. We don’t have much time to turn things around, and I believe that whether we’re a company head, a sourcing lead, or a consumer searching for a natural product in the supplement aisle, we each need to do whatever we can to take action to support the long-term health of the plants and people on whom this industry depends.”

And the need is more evident now than ever. “As the coronavirus has made starkly clear,” Armbrecht concludes, “we are all interconnected. And our health and wellness are inextricably connected with those of the human and ecological systems in which we live and on which we depend. So my hope is that we all—the botanical industry included—use this time to awaken to what this interdependence means and to how we move forward to create more resilient economies that recognize and build on it.”

United Nations Environment Programme webpage. “Minimizing Food Waste.” 

NY Stern Center for Sustainable Business report. “Sustainable Market Share Index: Research on 2015-2020 IRI Purchasing Data Reveals Sustainability Drives Growth, Survives the Pandemic.” Updated July 16, 2020. 

Genomatica press release. “Survey: Americans Embrace Sustainability Despite COVID-19 Upheaval.” Released July 29, 2020. 

Is sustainability still top of mind with consumers and companies amidst the pandemic?

Can sustainability survive COVID-19?

Whatever happened to “slow food”? The movement may have begun as an effort to reinvigorate local and traditional foodways, but it ultimately became shorthand for slowing it the heck down, already, when tucking into a proper meal.

All of which seemed a little out of place—if not outright irrelevant—in a pre-pandemic era that so prioritized speed, convenience, and technological innovation that investors pumped millions of funding dollars into meal-replacement startups vowing to revolutionize eating as we know it.

But make no mistake: Slow food is still out there and is to some extent enjoying a renaissance as consumers cooped up under COVID-19 orders use their newfound free time to rediscover their kitchens.

But modern-day meal replacements are still out there, too. And as far as Jakub Krejcik is concerned, the category isn’t letting a little global contagion get in the way of its progress.

“In my opinion,” declares the CEO and cofounder of European meal-replacement producer Mana, “the rise of meal replacements is connected with the evolution of culture and technology. They used to be the stuff of sci-fi flicks, but as new food-production technologies allow us to eat healthy, quick, and tasty meals for a reasonable price, people are catching on.”

And, thus, today’s meal replacements aren’t just remaining relevant; they’re setting trends.

Of course, any discussion of modern meal replacements requires first establishing what a meal replacement circa 2020/21 actually is. And while the prevailing definition leaves room for interpretation, we’re definitely not talking about the SlimFast shakes or thinly disguised candy bars of yore.

In Krejcik and Mana’s vision, in fact, a contemporary meal replacement has far more hurdles to clear than that if it wants to win with contemporary consumers.

For starters, he believes, the primary qualification for a 21

 century meal replacement is that it be “a convenient food that provides the body all the nutrients it needs to be healthy—a food that’s not just high-nutrition but 

-nutrition,” he says. “People should be able to consume it for any meal or every meal without having to worry about getting the energy they need.”

Beyond that, the modern meal replacement should have a formulation that’s based on the latest nutrition and ingredient science, Krejcik adds, and should be produced with methods and inputs that respect environmental sustainability. Finally, it still has to deliver the baseline convenience that was the category’s raison d’être in the first place.

Yet is on-the-go convenience still an important attribute as we approach the anniversary of a pandemic that has most of us sheltering at home with plenty of time to fool around in our kitchens? Krejcik’s experience tells him that, indeed, it still is.

He and his Mana colleagues have actually seen COVID-19 send a whole new raft of consumers to the category: not just busy techies and businesspeople but moms, active seniors, and even healthcare professionals. “We’ve witnessed huge spikes in sales during the periods when stay-at-home orders have been in effect,” Krejcik says. “And I think there are a few reasons for this.”

One is consumers’ impulse to stock up before the next shoe drops; after all, because meal replacements like Mana have long shelf lives and need no refrigeration, they’re perfect candidates for the emergency food stash.

“Another reason,” Krejcik continues, “is that, at least in Europe, there’s been increased demand from those involved in relief efforts, such as emergency responders and healthcare professionals.” And that makes sense: With scanty free time and high demand for nutritious energy, they naturally reach for meal replacements.

Last spring, Mana even had to increase production more than twofold to meet demand, and donated nearly 50,000 meals to local hospitals and relief organizations. “Based on current indications, we expect the same demand spike this autumn and winter,” Krejcik adds, “which just proves that meal replacements’ benefits are highly relevant when the going gets tough.”

When it comes to keeping Mana’s formulations themselves relevant, Krejcik sees ingredient choice as “one of the main frontiers in the development of complete-nutrition meal replacements.” So core is it to Mana’s continual development that the search for a wider variety of nutrient sources is actually a formulation imperative each time they iterate the product. “And thanks to new technologies,” he adds, “it’s now possible to do this without compromising taste.”

Yet because environmental sustainability is also a core brand value, the company views the inclusion of any animal-derived ingredient in its products as a no-go. That posed a challenge when it wanted to include significant levels of the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. But the company’s since found a plant-based workaround in the form of algal oil.

“Algae is rich in EPA and DHA, which are hard to find in the proper proportions in the plant kingdom,” Krejcik explains. “People often look to fish oil for these omega-3s, but the fish are actually getting it from algae, themselves.”

It just goes to show that the future of meal replacements really will run on a steady stream of ingredient innovation. “As nutritional science and food-production technology evolve,” Krejcik says, “the format possibilities will be virtually endless.”

Consider that when Mana launched its first product in 2014, it was a powder that users mixed with water, with an oil blend on the side. Three years later that evolved into a ready-to-drink format, and a year after that “we patented a mixing technology that allowed us to combine our oils and powdered ingredients into a single dry substance.”

Krejcik even believes that meal replacements can evolve to coexist with “slower” foods. “In fact, they already have,” he says. “We recently released the world’s first complete-nutrition plant-burger patty. It’s not a drink-and-run type of food, but it does replace the traditional beef burger and can be cooked in minutes.”

So what’s the key to continued meal-replacement success? “If I could sum it up in one word, I would say accessibility,” Krejcik concludes—for as much as meal replacements have evolved to be clean, plant-based, complete-nutrition products, they still have to make the task of nourishing oneself easier. “So if they’re not accessible in this way,” he says, “they won’t win consumers.”

And that goes a long way toward explaining why Krejcik wagers that the term 

 itself is “actually becoming a misnomer.” Bottom line, he says, “People are busy, and if a meal-replacement product can save them time, fill them up, and provide the nutrients they need, then I think it’s as much of a real meal—if not more—than anything else. Lifestyles are changing and so is how we think about food and meals. As our culture and technology continue to evolve, so, too, will meal replacements."

Today’s meal replacements aren’t just remaining relevant; they’re setting trends.

Today’s meal replacements are revolutionizing

You’ve got to hand it to COVID-19 for bringing out our extremes. If we’re not chilling at home with Netflix, we’re at the track doing bleacher sprints; if we’re not building a bunker in the basement, we’re first in line at the sidewalk café reopening. And if we aren’t sending sales of sweet and salty comfort foods skyrocketing, we’re rediscovering the power of nutrition to fortify our bodies against the coronavirus to come.

That last of which spells opportunity for natural and functional food and beverage brands—

Well…As belts tighten amidst recession fears—and as retailing upheavals transform the natural-products space—there’s no lack of COVID-driven headwinds shredding the silver lining on the natural sector’s cloud. (And don’t forget the therapeutic appeal of those sweet and salty comfort foods.)

But no matter how this storm blows over, says Simon Gunzburg, research analyst, Euromonitor International (Chicago), “COVID-19 has put health at the forefront of consumers’ minds. So they’re paying even more attention to the foods they purchase.”

As Gunzburg continues, “The idea that diet was integral to overall health was already growing prior to COVID. But the pandemic has amplified that notion even further.”

Based on his reading of partial-year sales data for 2020 as well as conversations with industry players, he has no doubt that this keener focus on health and wellness means “consumers are even more interested in natural and functional foods than before.”

And they were pretty interested before. According to SPINS (Chicago) and IRI (Chicago) research, the natural-products industry represents 8.4% YTD of total store sales and continues to outpace non-natural and conventional products. In fact, data shows that the natural sector contributed more growth overall than did its non-natural counterpart in advance of COVID-19.

Yet while concerns about the pandemic’s effects are “near universal,” how individual shoppers respond to those concerns understandably varies, says Abby Cullinan, senior consultant, Hartman Retainer Services, Hartman Group (Bellevue, WA).

Interviews that the Hartman Group conducted with consumers as part of its April 

Functional Food & Beverage and Supplements 2020 report

 reveal a pulling back on functional food and beverage purchases among some shoppers who consider the products “less relevant right now,” Cullinan says. “Maybe they were buying convenience-oriented nutrition drinks to refuel from gym workouts, and now they have a different exercise routine and can make their own beverages at home.”

Nevertheless, the same research found “many instances of people consuming more functional and natural foods than before,” Cullinan continues, “as they rededicate themselves to healthy eating or supplementing for additional benefits.” To wit, 29% of American adults have upped their functional and natural consumption, per the report.

To be sure, those consumers expect a lot from functional and natural foods in the bargain: improved immunity, relief from anxiety, all-around wellness and prevention. “And the list goes on,” Cullinan says.

Hartman Group data show an equal emphasis among consumers on what Cullinan calls “general ‘insurance’”—“covering your bases with prevention and nutrition”—as on the targeted benefits that have been much vaunted during the pandemic, including the aforementioned immunity and mood boosts, improved digestion, and better sleep, as well.

“And younger consumers have an even longer list of asks,” Cullinan adds. “More than half of Gen Z and Millennial shoppers are actively managing their cognitive health.”

Translated in formulations, those asks have shone a spotlight on ingredients across the nutritional spectrum, including “standbys” like vitamin C as well as botanicals like elderberry and medicinal mushrooms, Cullinan says.

Mushrooms—with a rich history of immune-boosting use in Asian medicine—have attracted particular attention. According to IRI and SPINS data, the category saw an 876% sales increase over the previous year for the four weeks ending April 19, 2020.

Meanwhile, antioxidant-packed oregano oil enjoyed its own hefty year-over-year sales jump of 276% during the same period. And—not surprisingly—sales of the sleep aid melatonin were up 52% vis-à-vis the previous year during the period; children’s melatonin even shot up 87% compared to a year ago for the four weeks ending March 22, 2020.

Gunzburg points out that probiotic foods have performed well, too, in no small part thanks to their association with a healthy microbiome and, by extension, improved immunity. And while “growth here isn’t unique to 2020,” he says, “COVID has made immunity more of a top concern for consumers.”

Then there’s the continued success of plant-based products. Consumers were adopting them at fast clip even before the coronavirus hit. “But the pandemic,” Gunzburg says, “has accelerated this trend even further.”

He notes that when retail grocery sales spiked during the beginning of local lockdowns, “plant-based foods experienced some of the biggest growth in the store,” adding that plant-based milk’s longer shelf life didn’t hurt, given that consumers were stocking up to avoid unnecessary trips to the store.

When IRI and SPINS looked at the numbers, they found that dollar sales of plant-based products grew 32% over the prior year for the four weeks ending April 19, 2020; yet at the same time, sales of paleo items skyrocketed, too—up 53%.

 The upshot: Even during times of strife, consumers’ diet and lifestyle habits are important enough to maintain.

But how long will consumers maintain them, and against what economic obstacles?

Cullinan suggests we look to past downturns for hints. “During the Great Recession and ensuing recovery, we tracked growth in different pockets of the functional- and natural-foods space,” she explains. Their findings: “Consumers were trading up in some areas while trading down—or even out—with other categories and brands they deemed less relevant. And as with the last recession, the economic hardships here are being unevenly born.”

Gunzburg also acknowledges the inevitability of tradeoffs. “For consumers struggling financially, it may be difficult to justify spending a premium on natural and functional groceries,” he concedes. “By contrast, other consumers might look to cut other costs before shifting to less-expensive foods that might not have the same health benefits or may simply be lower quality.”

Other tactics to balance wants with needs include scooping up sale items, or econo-pack sizes, or—especially—private-label alternatives. According to Mintel research, 98% of natural and organic food and drink consumers already purchase natural and organic private-label items at least occasionally, and as recession woes mount, their openness to private label will likely pose stiff competition to the natural sector’s national brands.

The key point is that consumers have options—even during a pandemic. And those options extend to how they discover and purchase natural products, with more of them embracing online platforms for natural and functional shopping. In fact, IRI and SPINS found that online sales sustained double-digit growth for the month following the initial stock-up period, besting growth of other outlet trips.

The online medium is surely influencing natural and functional demand—and to understand how, Gunzburg says, “It’s important to look at how consumers shop differently online versus instore.”

For example, while shelf placement, sampling, and endcaps attract consumers’ attention instore, consumers online tend to select the same items over again once they’ve made their first basket purchase. “And for that reason,” Gunzburg continues, “it’s important for brands to make it into a consumer’s cart on their first trip. This requires good page placement from the retailer and packaging that’s optimized for screen viewing.”

And as far as the absence of instore sampling goes, Cullinan isn’t worried: “Consumers are still trying new natural products,” she says. Fully 31% of consumers told the Hartman Group that they were experimenting with new brands more than before.

Granted, much of their experimentation took place early in the pandemic when first-choice items were sold out. “Yet even with temporary out-of-stocks resolved,” Cullinan notes, “households still face new challenges in need of solutions, and consumers are certainly shifting some of their browsing and discovery to online channels. If a brand wasn’t already well versed in that space, it’s now playing catchup for sure.”

That catchup game will kick into high gear for individual brands and the entire natural and functional space once we emerge from the pandemic. In fact, some of the adaption is even happening right now.

“We’re already seeing the beginnings of the potential long-term impacts on the sector,” Gunzburg says. “Especially for consumers who’ve made dietary and lifestyle changes during the pandemic and felt positive benefits, their behavioral changes could have a lasting effect. Interest in immunity, mental wellbeing, and overall health as relates to diet could be key themes into the future.”

To accommodate those consumers’ interest—and expand it—Cullinan wagers that a post-pandemic sector “will have to continue diversifying its offerings and becoming a more approachable, welcoming space.” Among COVID-19’s positive side effects has been a raft of new consumers that the pandemic’s carried to natural and functional aisles. According to research from IRI and SPINS, consumers across the spectrum—not just longstanding natural patrons—bought natural products at a higher rate during the pandemic’s early stock-up period, presenting brands with an opportunity to keep them coming back for more.

As Cullinan says, “Demand for tools to support physical and mental health will remain—and will challenge any preconceived notions of who the natural consumer is. Understanding your target audience’s new challenges and the different dimensions of value will be key.”

IRI Multioutlet point-of-sale (POS) data enhanced by SPINS Product Attribution Quad. Week Ending March 22, 2020 and April 19, 2020.

Hartman Reports. “Functional Food & Beverage and Supplements 2020.” April 2020. 

Mintel report. “Natural and organic food shopping: Incl impact of COVID-19 – US, July 2020.” July 2020. 

How have natural and functional food shopping habits and priorities changed during the pandemic?

How has COVID-19 impacted the natural and functional food industries?

’s editors, with input from our editorial advisory board, surveyed the landscape of natural products industry excellence in 2020, four leaders stood out for achievements that not only elevated their own businesses but that will likely positively and significantly influence the natural product, dietary supplement, and food and beverage industries in the years ahead.

Our industry leader this year is Ocean Spray, who after petitioning FDA for a cranberry health claim in 2017 finally saw the fruits of its labor realized when in July of this year, FDA indicated that it will exercise enforcement discretion for a qualified health claim linking select cranberry products with a reduced risk of recurrent urinary tract infections. This new qualified health claim will not only benefit Ocean Spray and the rest of the cranberry market but will also be a valuable touchstone for cranberry consumers, new and old, searching for validated health support.

Our winner in the retail brand/product category is CV Sciences, who in 2020 set the stage for how a hemp-derived-CBD company can not only position itself for mainstream success but also charter a new course outside of the CBD category itself—an important path that CBD companies may need to head down as the CBD market becomes increasingly crowded.

In the supplier category, we are awarding Gencor for the headway it’s made in carving out its own stake in the palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) market. Armed with heavy investment in research and development, and putting the full weight of scientific substantiation behind its own branded ingredient, the company will play a leading role in raising the credibility of PEA and drawing industry and consumer attention to PEA, an ingredient with so many promising benefits across the health and wellness spectrum.

Finally, our service provider of the year is Alkemist Labs, who is not only standing tall among larger labs but who in the past year also exemplified its ingenuity and forward-thinking with a consumer-friendly certificate of analysis that will ultimately raise the level of transparency along the supply chain, all the way down to the consumer. The need for best-in-class quality control and transparency has never been higher in this industry, and Alkemist is playing a leading role in showing the industry one way to achieve it.

I hope you will congratulate me in saluting all four of this year’s winners. We hope you’ll agree with us that these companies not only represent excellence but the pursuit of a better path forward for the natural products industry.

In Nutritional Outlook’s 2020 Best of the Industry Awards, we recognize individuals, groups, and companies whose initiatives today are helping to shape, for the better, the state of the dietary supplement and natural products industry.

Nutritional Outlook’s 2020 Best of the Industry Award Winners

Cranberries have long enjoyed a rare perch, embraced by natural-channel shoppers and mainstream customers alike as a natural health remedy. In the U.S., use of the polyphenol-rich American cranberry species 

 dates back centuries to when Native Americans used cranberries for medicinal purposes and sailors used cranberries to prevent scurvy.

 centuries, cranberries have been studied for their health-promoting phytochemical constituents—one of the most researched being A-type proanthocyanidins (PACs) and their ability to prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs).

While consumer lore has long touted the benefits of drinking cranberry juice for helping to ward off UTIs, scientists are working to substantiate that belief. The conclusions drawn from cranberry studies vary

, and new human clinical trials continually add to the literature. In 2020, the health legitimacy of cranberries got a definitive, dramatic lift in the U.S. in the form of a landmark qualified health claim. Spearheading this feat was the company who put cranberry products on the retail map: Ocean Spray (Lakeville, MA).

 that moving forward it will exercise enforcement discretion for product claims linking a reduced risk of recurrent UTIs in healthy women with consumption of cranberry juice beverages containing at least 27% cranberry juice—such as many commercially available cranberry cocktails in the supermarket—as well as consumption of dietary supplements containing at least 500 mg of cranberry fruit powder (100% fruit).

“The FDA’s announcement of a qualified health claim is fantastic news for Ocean Spray,” says Christina Khoo, director of emerging science, nutrition, and regulatory affairs for Ocean Spray. “Cranberries are one of only a handful of ingredients to obtain this stamp of approval from the FDA since 2003 when qualified health claims were instituted as part of the Consumer Health Information for Better Nutrition Initiative.” This FDA initiative aims to “provide more and better information to consumers about the health and nutritional benefits of their products”—including through qualified health claims.

A qualified health claim does not rise to the full strength of an FDA authorized health claim. While both types of claims describe the relationship between a substance and a disease or health-related condition, authorized health claims are allowed to simply state “that a food or food component may reduce the risk of a disease or a health-related condition.”

 By contrast, qualified health claims are claims deemed by FDA to be “supported by scientific evidence, but do not meet the more rigorous ‘significant scientific agreement’ standard required for an authorized health claim.” Instead, qualified claims must include “qualifying language to accurately communicate to consumers the level of scientific evidence supporting the claim.”

FDA does not “approve” qualified health claims, but companies can petition the agency to exercise enforcement discretion when a qualified health claim is used on packaging and in marketing. FDA will review the petition and then, if its opinion of the claim is positive, issue a letter to the company indicating that it will not object to the qualified claim when used, as long as its usage meets the agency’s requirements. This is what FDA did in the case of Ocean Spray. On September 8, 2017, Ocean Spray initially submitted a petition to FDA for an authorized health claim linking cranberries to prevention of UTIs. In February 2018, FDA instead filed the petition as a qualified health claim and in July 2020 said it would exercise enforcement discretion over the qualified health claim.

Even as a qualified health claim, this claim is a milestone achievement. “Cranberries are now the only food with an approved qualified health claim for reducing an infectious disease, UTIs,” says Khoo.

She also points out that a qualified health claim is superior to the structure/function claims more common in the food and supplements markets. “A structure/function claim explains how a nutrient might help improve a normal structure or function of the body (e.g., “calcium helps build strong bones”). The qualified health claim FDA has announced permits Ocean Spray to say a bit more by informing consumers that the scientific evidence, while still characterized by FDA as limited and inconsistent, demonstrates that covered cranberry products ‘may help reduce the risk of recurrent UTIs in healthy women.’”

She continues: “The qualified health claim is a huge achievement for Ocean Spray and for cranberries. We are proud that the cumulative research conducted over many years allowed us to have the first qualified health claim for a food to help address combating an infectious disease.”

With this new qualified health claim in hand, cranberry beverages that meet FDA’s content threshold requirement can feature a product claim like: “Limited and inconsistent scientific evidence shows that by consuming one serving (8 oz) each day of a cranberry juice beverage, healthy women who have had a urinary tract infection (UTI) may reduce their risk of recurrent UTI.” For cranberry supplements, the claim would look something like: “Limited scientific evidence shows that by consuming 500 mg each day of cranberry dietary supplement, healthy women who have had a urinary tract infection (UTI) may reduce their risk of recurrent UTI.” Notably, FDA says these claims are not allowed on other conventional foods made from or containing cranberries such as dried cranberries or cranberry sauce.

When asked if Ocean Spray was disappointed that FDA did not award an authorized claim, Khoo says no. “We are not disappointed that a full, authorized health claim was not provided. Nutrition research on food is hard to do as we typically cannot control food intake or other environmental influences. We are proud that the cumulative research conducted over many years by qualified researchers conducting well-designed studies allows us to have the first qualified health claim for a food to help address a recurring infection. It is great recognition of the benefits of this superfruit and the bioactive components such as polyphenols and phenolic acids that are present in abundance in this fruit.”

The health claim points to how cranberries have influenced—and will continue to influence—the urinary tract health landscape. For instance, says Khoo, “It is likely that there will be more studies on cranberries, and there should be, as the issue of antibiotic resistance continues to grow.” Antibiotics are commonly prescribed by medical practitioners for UTI treatment, and cranberries can play a bigger role as a natural preventative. By doing so, they may also help address rising healthcare costs. Khoo notes that the World Health Organization reports UTI-related healthcare costs eclipse $1 billion annually.

Most importantly, cranberries can make a difference to consumer health. While “our internal experts would be the first to state that cranberry products are not a treatment for UTI,” says Khoo, when it comes those who suffer the common problem of recurrent UTIs “if cranberry products can help increase the time between episodes or prevent it altogether, it would be incredibly beneficial and improve the quality of life for them.”

Research on cranberries and their UTI benefits continues to emerge, directly and indirectly helped along by Ocean Spray. For instance, one of the studies substantiating the company’s health claim petition was Ocean Spray’s own large-scale clinical trial published in the 

 in 2016 that found that drinking 8 oz of cranberry juice daily reduced the occurrence of UTIs by nearly 40% in women with recurring UTIs.

 The two-year, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter study was conducted in 373 women and described by Ocean Spray as the “single largest clinical trial on cranberries of its kind.”

“With that trial published in 2016, the team at Ocean Spray started the process of submission, first by doing a thorough review of the literature with a systematic review, and then putting the dossier together,” says Khoo, who led the team. Even after the petition was submitted in September 2017 and Ocean Spray waited for FDA to do its review, at least two other positive meta-analyses on cranberries and UTIs were published, meaning the science on cranberry is even stronger now than when Ocean Spray first submitted its petition.

The reason FDA may have lowered the claim’s status to qualified status makes sense to Khoo, she says. While there have been many studies worldwide on cranberries and UTIs—and with Ocean Spray helping to provide its products and placebo beverages for ongoing trials—study protocols and materials across the spectrum of research varies, she says. “Over the years, some trials were conducted with double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized design with enough sample sizes, but others were not, and different products were being used that were not supplied by Ocean Spray. Hence, there was an array of results.”

Ultimately, the health claim win for Ocean Spray will not only strengthen the loyalty of the brand’s existing customers but also help the company capture new ones. Ocean Spray’s marketing and corporate communication teams are now deciding how to best leverage the claim in packaging and marketing. The claim can be used on many of Ocean Spray’s juices and juice cocktails, as well as Ocean Spray Cranberry + Health Juice Drinks.

The company credits many for paving the way to the health claim, including contract research organization Biofortis Research (a Mérieux NutriSciences Company), who helped assemble the scientific dossier for the petition, and attorney Sarah Roller, partner at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, who aided the submission process. “First and foremost,” says Khoo, “we would like to acknowledge our grower owners for their continued support of the research on cranberries. We’d also like to acknowledge all the researchers at various universities and institutes who dedicate their time in this field and have continued to study the benefits of cranberries…”

“It is important to note that this research on cranberries will benefit the cranberry industry,” Khoo adds. And thanks to Ocean Spray, the new qualified health claim will benefit the entire cranberry market.

Blumberg JB et al. “Cranberries and their bioactive constituents in human health.” 

Cranberry Marketing Committee webpage. “About Cranberries.” Accessed November 25, 2020.

Zuger A. “Reputation of a Berry Is Difficult to Confirm.” 

FDA letter re: Health Claim Petition—Consumption of Cranberry Products and Reduced Risk of Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection in Healthy Women (Docket No. FDA-2018-Q-0739). Issued July 21, 2020. Accessed 

FDA website. Consumer Health Information for Better Nutrition Initiative: Task Force Final Report. Issued July 10, 2003.

FDA website. Authorized Health Claims that Meet the Significant Scientific Agreement (SSA) Standard.

Maki KC et al. “Consumption of a cranberry juice beverage lowered the number of clinical urinary tract infection episodes in women with a recent history of urinary tract infection.” 

Ocean Spray press release. “Landmark Study Suggests Cranberries Can Decrease Use of Antibiotics.” Issued June 14, 2016.

The company’s landmark cranberry health claim win will benefit consumers and the industry at large.

Nutritional Outlook’s 2020 Best of the Industry Awards, Industry Leader: Ocean Spray

Most mainstream consumers are not widely familiar with the dietary ingredient palmitoylethanolamide (PEA)—

. Chances are good, however, they might in the years ahead. PEA offers wide-reaching health benefits for humans, with a long history of scientific study to prove it.

Consumers who don’t know PEA might be surprised to learn that PEA has actually been on the research radar for quite a while. Interest in what later would be identified as PEA began prior to the 1940s when researchers realized that feeding dried egg yolk to children suffering from hemolytic streptococcal infection helped prevent them from developing rheumatic fever.

 In 1954, those same researchers discovered that a lipid fraction in egg yolk had anti-inflammatory properties and that similar anti-inflammatory fractions were present in peanut oil and soy lecithin.

 In 1957, researchers identified this lipid fraction as palmitoylethanolamide (PEA).

 Over the next decades, through animal and human clinical studies, scientists learned more about the anti-inflammatory activities and numerous health benefits of PEA.

The company is carving out its own stake in the PEA market in a big way: with heavy investment in research and development.

Nutritional Outlook Vol. 23 No. 10

Making children and parents happy in the children’s food aisle

Upcycling makes ingredient development more sustainable

Can sustainability survive COVID-19?

Today’s meal replacements are revolutionizing

How has COVID-19 impacted the natural and functional food industries?

Nutritional Outlook’s 2020 Best of the Industry Award Winners

Nutritional Outlook’s 2020 Best of the Industry Awards, Industry Leader: Ocean Spray

Nutritional Outlook’s 2020 Best of the Industry Awards, Ingredient Supplier: Gencor

Nutritional Outlook’s 2020 Best of the Industry Awards, Service Provider: Alkemist Labs

Nutritional Outlook’s 2020 Best of the Industry Awards, Retail Brand & Product: CV Sciences

Astaferm Infographic

Lessons from 2020’s most notable advertising disputes: Natural products edition