Aarkstore Enterprise asked:

Functional foods and beverages that provide a benefit to consumers can actually feel will be best placed to weather the global economic downturn, according to 10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health 2009. Each year since 1995, leading industry expert Mellentin has forecast and analyzed trends in food, nutrition and health. “This year is different,” he says. “The effect of a slowdown will be to reinforce the core trends and sweep away the fads.”

“In tough times the single most important factor consumers will take into account when choosing a functional food or drink will be whether it delivers a benefit they can feel,” says Mellentin. The importance of “feel the benefit” already underpinned many successful brands in the good times and it will become even more important when people are being more careful with their money. Each trend analysis in this report is written with recession in mind and in each Key Trend we suggest an approach that we believe can contribute to enduring success – or survival – in tough times. “Products that lack a quick and easy-to-feel effect could be in trouble,” Mellentin observes.

Mellentin’s 10 Key Trends for 2009 are:

Digestive health: the biggest trend

Feel the benefit: what consumers want most in recessionary times

Weight management: a bright future for foods that make you want to eat less

Energy: new markets waiting to be discovered

Naturally healthy and free-from: what everyone wants

Fruit: the future of functional foods

Kids nutrition: make parents’ lives easier

Healthy snacks for the “me” generations

Ultra-loyal consumers: niches to help brands ride the recession

Packaging innovation delivers premium prices

This year the report also includes 5 Micro-Trends. These are :

Movement

Omega-3

Skin and beauty

Mood food

Antioxidants

10 reasons to buy :

We focus on long-term trends, not fads

Each trend written with recession in mind, offering practical advice on surviving tough times

We show how brands around the world are already profiting from the trends

Independent and opinionated

20 years of experience to guide you through the rough years ahead

Based on 350-plus interviews with industry executives

Supported by supermarket sales data

Illustrated with a wealth of colour product images and data charts

A very affordable price which is why hundreds of companies large and small, in over 40 countries, buy 10 Key Trends every year

For more information, kindly visit :

http://www.aarkstore.com/reports/10-Key-Trends-in-Food-Nutrition-Health-2009-2135.html