Food & Beverage News: Interview - Exciting times ahead for Nutraceuticals

With an increase in demand for nutritional or health foods, due to growing health awareness globally, health ingredients and nutraceuticals have seen numerous developments in the recent years.

Rapid growth is expected in food categories such as dietary supplements, convenience foods and fortified foods. In an exclusive e-mail interview Rashmi Uppal, technical marketing manager – foods, DSM Nutritional Products India Pvt. Ltd, expresses her views on the current trends and growth drivers of this industry. Excerpts:

What is the current size and growth rate of the nutraceuticals industry in India? What factors are driving the growth?
The nutraceutical industry in India is still in its infancy. However, the market is evolving and there are exciting times ahead. With increasing urbanisation and affluence leading to sedentary lifestyles, consumer preferences are rapidly changing. As the saying goes – “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of care.”

Consumers in their own way are looking at prophylactic means through their diets to keep themselves healthy and fit. In other words, with media's propagation, consumers are increasingly becoming aware of risks from lifestyle-related diseases and ailments in the wake of rising health care costs. All these factors are drivers for the growth of this sector. It is estimated that the nutraceutical, dietary supplement market together is around Rs 30 billion currently with a CAGR of > 15%.

What is the difference between nutraceuticals, dietary supplements and functional foods?
Recent scientific research has focused on food components that possess health benefits beyond traditional nutritional values. Scientists and food manufacturers have coined several terms to describe these physiologically active components and the foods that contain them. It is easy to be confused by the number of terms that are used, sometimes interchangeably in this rapidly emerging or evolving field.

There has been considerable ambiguity on the definitions for nutraceuticals, dietary supplements and functional foods. Regulators in the developed markets (such as the US-FDA, Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act – DSHEA 1994, FOSHU in Japan, Health Canada, etc) have attempted to define these terms and this has worked to different degrees for them in their respective markets.

Functional Food is a generic term for foods that have been linked to the health benefits and these may be enriched or fortified. Nutraceuticals is a broader term and is linked with holistic nutrition. They are recommended because they are known to prevent diseases. Dietary supplements are considered to treat deficiencies or specific conditions and are in a concentrated form. Neither nutraceuticals nor dietary supplements are enough by themselves. They have to be incorporated into our diet in a fashion that is complimentary to our basic nutrition.

What is the significance of health care and nutrition for the nation as a whole?
Health is clearly not the mere absence of disease. Good health confers on a nation a freedom from illness and the ability to realise its potential to the fullest. Health care covers not merely medical care but also all aspects of pro-preventative care. While health is a pillar to the nation's prosperity, nutrition is very integral to preventative health care.

If you look at our health indicators, the good news is that life expectancy has increased and infant mortality has decreased. The bad news is that as Indians live longer, chronic diseases related to aging and lifestyle are expected to take a greater toll. Significant per cent of the population have chronic deficiencies and are malnourished. Hence, food is no longer the only means to fulfill nutritional needs of society and solve the myriad health problems.

It is vital to have interventions in the form of nutraceuticals and make it a part of our preventive health care systems; for this all stakeholders – government, industry, academia from food, as well as health fields, need to pool in their efforts to have a national food policy and a national health policy that complement each other.

What are the current issues facing the industry?
There are various challenges that the industry faces today. Ours is a price-conscious / price-sensitive market; Indian consumers look for value propositions in all their purchases.

Nutraceuticals are typically on a higher platform in the value chain and this awareness has to be created by engaging the target groups appropriately. The next challenge is to have science-based/evidence-based products. The market today is flooded with an array of products, many of which make questionable and dubious claims. We need to create innovative products that are credible and tenable with sound claims.

The other challenge is that of the oft-cited regulatory status of these products. A clear definition and understanding of what constitutes nutraceuticals, dietary supplements and functional foods is a prerequisite to set the momentum for a comprehensive policy to regulate these products.

We are hopeful that the FSSAI along with all stakeholders will come up with a robust regulatory framework in the near future. The biggest challenge in this country is also that only a limited segment of the population has access to health and wellness products. For the vast majority, meeting basic nutritional needs is still a challenge and therefore the wellness concept takes a back seat.

How can we balance the pricing of health products so as to make them accessible to a common man?
Compared to conventional foods, nutraceuticals are in a higher price range and this is a hurdle to its widespread usage. Manufacturers have to make some changes or adjustments in their processes to reduce prices to cater to a larger target customer base. Having a local manufacturing facility is one of the ways to meet the price challenge. Also, the government has to give out some sops to encourage this sector and treat it as a sunrise industry.

Of course, efforts to increase awareness of benefits of nutraceuticals through product promotion, PR, education to increase its popularity and usage will also help in eventually bringing prices down.

What is the range of products offered by DSM? What lies in the pipeline?
DSM Nutritional Products is the leading supplier of vitamins, carotenoids and nutraceutical ingredients to the food and pharmaceutical industries, with a very strong global marketing and sales base.

What makes us unique is that we are the only integrated supplier of all these ingredients. These ingredients are sold as such or in tailor-made blends. We customise these blends according to our customers’ needs and are sold under the brand name of Quali® - Blends.

Our specialty nutraceutical ingredients include: Fabuless™, a lipid emulsion for weight management; resVida™, which is resveratrol, Teavigo®, a pure green tea extract; tensVida™ – a natural milk-derived tripeptide for maintaining healthy blood pressure, PeptoPro®, a hydrolyzed casein protein and recovery; geniVida™ - a naturally occurring isoflavone genistein and All-Q™ which is Co-enzyme Q10, a vitamin-like compound essential for production of energy.