March 2022 Industry Highlights

Ajay: 00:03

Hello and welcome to the Vitafoods Insights March Industry Highlights. I’m Ajay Paul, Graduate Fellow at Vitafoods. Today we’re showcasing some of the key highlights across Vitafoods and the nutraceutical industry, offering a little context on how it might accelerate your product ideation and go to market strategy. We will kick things off with our Vitafoods Insights Virtual Asia event, drawing from three experts on the topics of Beauty from Within, APAC trends for 2022, and Immune Health. We will then dive into CBD, our thematic topic for March, and reflect on key points presented in the panel discussion and podcast episode. We will then take a trip across the pond to Expo West in Anaheim, taking a look at the dietary supplement industry in China. Finally, we will feature two important days in March, International Women’s Day and World Obesity Day which will conclude our highlights and provide insight into why these topics are critical to understand for the nutraceutical industry. First up is our Vitafoods Virtual Expo Asia event. The Virtual Expo ran from March 21st to 24th this year with over 25 experts from across the nutraceutical industry providing insightful presentations as well as engaging in lively panel discussions with our audience. The event featured content across five key themes: Digestive Health, Beauty from Within, Immune Health, Functional Food and Beverage, and Cognitive Health. On the first day of the event, Shikhar Aggarwal, senior director at Frost and Sullivan discussed Beauty from Within trends and insights. During his presentation, he discusses and compared the top geographic markets in this category.

Shikhar: 01:33

Asia is the biggest contributor, in terms of demand, almost 32% of this 5 billion is coming from Asia alone and followed closely by Europe with 28% of the market and then North America making 22%, and rest of the world where middle east is quite a big section of this at 18%. The Asia market is currently around 1.6 billion we expect it to grow at about 7.2% over the next 5 years.

Ajay: 02:01

Starting off our second day of the virtual expo, Fellicia Kristianti, Insight and Innovation Analyst at Innova Market Insights, discussed the top ten APAC Trends for 2022. The first trend she discusses is plant-based foods and the top reasons an individual would consider plant-based alternatives:

Fellicia: 02:17

When we asked consumers for what reason they consider plant- based alternatives from 2020 to 2021, still it is because of healthiness. The second one would be that its better form the planet, it brings variety to my diet, and it tastes better. As we know that in Asia Pacific especially, flavour taste is key.

Ajay: 02:37

Also, during our day 2 panel discussion focusing on immune health, Ramesh Krish Kumar, the CEO and food scientist at Asmara Singapore discusses how to achieve a normal, healthy immune function. He mentions a high fibre, high variety, low processed, low sugar, and low red meat, balanced and colourful diet as some factors which can contribute to this. He also talks about the importance of mood-enhancing nutrition to support immune health:

Ramesh: 03:02

Mood being one of the important thing, it will improve our mental health and also our stress levels, that it be true mindfulness practices or mindfulness cognition, therapy methods, and also with nutrition being in the picture, you now making sure our diet is rich in things like magnesium, omega 3, incorporating saffron, turmeric, ginger and ashwagandha. These types of ingredients could have a direct impact on our stress levels.

Ajay: 03:35

Another mood alternating product is CBD which was our thematic topic of focus for March. Vitafoods published a podcast, report, and panel discussion on this topic. Kicking off the podcast episode, Heather Granato, vice president of content at Vitafoods notes how the endocannabinoid system, or ECS, helps regulate and control many bodily functions including cognition, inflammation, immune response, and emotional health. She continues, citing a figure from Grand View Research which values the CBD market and connects it to ECS:

Heather: 04:03

Grand View Research put the global CBD market at 2.8 billion USD in 2020, with projected growth to 13.4 billion USD by 2028. Companies are developing products to address health issues such as sleep, pain and mental health—all of which appear tied to the ECS.

Ajay: 04:22

During the panel discussion, Jennifer Cooper, the Director at Leadpoint Solutions explored the endocannabinoid system, emphasizing the important role it plays in health and wellness even though it was the last system to be discovered, only being identified in the late 1980s.

Jennifer: 04:36

There is a lot of different ways to interact with the endocannabinoid system, that’s what makes all these entourage compounds important, and we do really get hung up on CBD and some of the other Phytocannabinoids that are going to have challenges from a regulatory standpoint, not just in Europe, but in the United States and other places in the world, but there is a lot of ways to crack this nut.

Ajay: 05:01

Jumping across the pond, from March 8th to 12th, Natural Products Expo West took place in Anaheim, California, which serves as the largest natural, organic, and healthy products event in the United States. This event helps attendees network, spot trends, and learn from experts across the natural products industry. During the event, Jeff Crowther, the Executive Director of HPA-China presented on China’s dietary supplement industry, including the regulatory aspects and ingredients.

Jeff: 05:27

Why is China a good market to still attempt? Huge consumer base, consumption is still growing, eCommerce is still growing like neck break speed really big there and as you will see later in the presentation China is a very hard market to get into and the regulatory aspects of getting approvals and registrations, so cross border eCommerce is really the way most companies are approaching the China markets so that’s awesome. And domestic brands, we're seeing a lot more domestic companies coming out with ingredients as well as finished products which was not the case when I was first in China in 2000 - 2004 time frame. So, it's really nice to see a lot more domestic companies which will build a bigger market and a much more balanced market with those competitors in there. And the regulations are moving at a snail's pace. I mean, they move very slowly.

Ajay: 06:17

Next, we will discuss two important days in March, International Women’s Day and World Obesity Day. The theme for this year's International Women’s Day on March 8th is “gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow” as announced by UN Women. This theme was chosen to “recognise the contribution of women and girls all over the world who are leading the charge on climate change adaption, mitigation, and response, to build a more sustainable future for all.” In recognition of this day, the United Nations hosted their International Women’s Day event virtually. The event features UN senior officials, activists, government representatives and experts from around the world to discuss the timely theme. During the live event, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim the President of the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad discussed the pivotal role women play for our environment and nutrition:

Hindou: 07:05

We take care of our forests, of our savannahs, of our coral reefs, because of indigenous women, nature is our pharmacy for our children, it is our supermarket to feed our families.

Ajay: 07:19

Our final topic of discussion for this episode is World Obesity Day which takes place on March 4th and is convened by the World Obesity Federation, advocating for a cross-sector response to the obesity crisis. This day of awareness receives contributions from hundreds of individuals, organisations and alliances as well as engaging hundreds of thousands of individuals worldwide. According to their website, ”800 million people are currently living with obesity” and “childhood obesity is expected to increase by 60% over the next decade, reaching 250 million by 2030.” By 2025 they estimate this will cost over $1 trillion in medical expenses. Research in the area of obesity prevention has shown that continuous ingestion of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) can promote fat utilization during moderate-intensity exercise in recreational athletes and during low-intensity activities in normal-weight individuals. In a recent article published in Nutrients, researchers investigated the effects of 2g of daily ingestion of MCTs across a two-week period on energy metabolism, during low-intensity physical activity in people with a body mass index (BMI) between 25-30kg/m2. The 29 participants that completed the study were between the ages of 35-65, were non-smokers, had an alcohol intake of less than 30g/day and were from Japan. The results showed that continuous ingestion of MCTs significantly increased the fat oxidation rate and significantly decreased the respiratory exchange ratio during low-intensity activity in sedentary individuals. Furthermore, in comparison to the control group, the energy expenditure rate during physical activity was not significantly different but the carbohydrate oxidation rate had significantly decreased. The researchers conclude that the “MCTs enhance fat burning by preferentially utilizing fat as an energy substrate during low-intensity physical activity in those classified as obese by Japanese standards. Furthermore, the results showed that MCTs have an enhanced fat-burning effect when 2g are ingested daily.” As you can see, there were a lot of key events concerning the nutraceutical industry during March. Thanks again for joining me, and don’t forget to check the show notes that will allow you to link to the information discussed in today’s podcast. The Vitafoods Insights Industry Highlights podcast happens monthly, so be sure to stay tuned, subscribe and even suggest to a friend.