THE REVOLUTION OF FUNCTIONAL FOOD: A MARKET ANALYSIS

Consumers are changing their food preferences in favor of healthier foods that have a beneficial effect on health and that embrace sustainable consumption patterns. To meet the demand of modern consumers, the food sector is undergoing a major revolution as more and more new products are appearing on the market. This trend has encouraged the food industry to develop a new category of food products, which is 'functional foods’, characterized by the presence of one or more bioactive compounds having beneficial effects on the body. Therefore, functional foods represent a technological progress offering an important strategy to combat nutritional deficiency and diet-related diseases thanks to the presence of one or more bioactive compounds, can provide a benefit to the body. To distinguish such products and highlight their beneficial effect, claims are made on the product packaging about nutritional indication and about potential disease risk reduction. Such claims increase consumers’ awareness about the benefit of these products hence can influence the consumer’s purchasing decisions. The aim of this work is to analyse the market size of 'Health and Wellness' foods, and in particular 'Functional Foods', over the last four years (2019-2022), using Euromonitor's database. A worldwide analysis has been carried out to identify the geographical areas with the greatest market activity and the European countries with the greatest economic importance. The analysis of the different food categories and the fortifications of greatest interest for the functional food market has provided an overview of the market for these foods.