Food & Beverage News: Overview - Nutraceuticals ? What’s it, asks India!

We asked four educated young people for what according to them was a nutraceutical? The replies that followed were: “Well...something natural ....,” “ummm... I don’t know....,” “that gives energy...” and “something that provides minerals to a product.”

Well, when the appellate authorities in the country are struggling to know what nutraceutical actually is, the struggle of the respondents to explain it theoretically was anticipated.

The term nutraceutical was coined in the 1990's by Dr Stephen DeFelice. He defined nutraceutical as: “A nutraceutical is any substance that is a food or a part of a food and provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease.

Affluence, affordability, awareness and accessibilty are the factors that define consumption of nutraceuticals in any country. With India's major chunk of population striving to win daily bread and butter, it can be predicted that a number of years will have to pass before nutraceuticals become a common name in the country.

In the global nutraceuticals market of $117 billion (Rs 148 billion), India's share is less than one per cent and is estimated to be around Rs 44 billion in size. US bags the largest share with 36 per cent share in consumption. China remains the largest producer of nutraceuticals.

However, India's growth rate for consumption of nutraceuticals is surprisingly at the rate of 18% for the last three years, functional foods and beverages being the driving forces. The global industry though grew at 7% CAGR. According to Narsimha Rao K from Parry Nutraceuticals, China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan were the leading Asian countries where the awareness and consumption of nutraceuticals were high. In India people are unaware about preventive health care measures. The potential Indian market for nutraceuticals is estimated to be at least two to four times than the current market size ( between INR 89 billion and INR 172 billion).

Functional foods constitute 23.9%, functional beverages 6% and dietary supplements 14%, presently.

The dilemma over defining nutraceuticals continue. While some countries define nutraceuticals based on segments it constitutes, others define it based on benefits its provides to the consumers.

The Indian definition lists down the ingredients that a product should have, and it also specifies general properties of nutraceuticals. Traditional medicines though have been excluded from the definition. Says Dr V Prakash of the Central Food Technology Research Institute, ”There is nothing like a strong definition. In fact one should add many other parameters here. The definition of nutraceuticals is complete nutrition. Dietary supplements are indispensable as it can provide beyond the basic vitamins, minerals and proteins required to function the body. But nutraceuticals are recommended for disease prevention. Nutraceuticals do not work in kilograms. Dietary supplements are targeted to treat deficiencies or control specific deficiencies. When these are being addressed the person has to have the basic nutrition. Nutraceuticals and Dietary supplements are not-for-stand alone consumption, but need to complement each other along with basic nutrition.”

According to sources, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will define nutraceuticals, functional and dietary supplements separately. Nutraceuticals are generally sold as OTC (over-the-counter) product.

Many players like Alkem Laboratories, Plethico, Divi's Laboratories, Mission Vivacare, GNC, Vitabiotics and Robert Schwartz have announced aggressive expansion plans.

Where functional food is concerned, Marico is experimenting with healthy and functional foods under the Saffola brand. The company's portfolio currently includes a low-sodium salt, an atta mix, besides the cooking oil. Rice is one more product Marico is aiming to add to the list.
Avesthagen, a leading health care biotechnology company, has also brought a range of functional healthy breakfast range on the retail shelves, under the brand Good Earth. The Good Earth range comprises muesli, muesli bars, and whole wheat crackers (including Teestar Crackers for pre-diabetics).

Britannia has introduced NutriChoice 5 Grain biscuits made from 5 healthy cereals, viz: oats, corn, ragi, rice and wheat. These help reduce cholesterol, promote heart health, are a good source of both calcium and fibre, are low in fat, and provide wholesome energy, claims the company.

Tata chemicals launched Tata-lite in 2007 and became leader within first year of its launch in the niche low sodium salt segment. Also, Agro Tech Foods Llimited with its tag-line of "healthy oil for healthy people" has launched a whole range of healthy oil products under the brand name Sundrop.

Amul, the dairy giant of India, has launched various products in the dairy and ice-cream market. Its probiotic ice-cream for diabetics and sugar-conscious consumers is the first in the functional ice-cream market in India. Amul-lite which is low fat, low cholesterol butter spread also caters to consumers seeking wellness solution in the spread segment.

Regulatory framework is currently a challenge to overcome for the nutraceuticals industry. The Government of India has set up 8 committees to study the issues related to the Indian nutraceuticals market and hopes to announce the first ever policy framework by December 2009, Dr Suvrathan, chairman of FSSAI, had announced in Spetember. A separate panel has been formed under the Food Safety and Standards Authority Act,2006, under the chairmanship of Dr V Prakash that would bring out more clarity to the sector. However, the sources say that the policy framework scheduled to be released in the month of December has been delayed and at least one more year would be needed before a policy on the same actually comes into force.

The FSSA Act itself has not been implemented even after three years of its formulation and the panels constituted have not been able to achieve much.

Even if the rules are laid down, resources available to enforce the same are insufficient in terms of the number of food safety officers and laboratories in India.

Four Central food laboratories have been established under the PFA Act, which work as appellate labs. The two labs viz (i) Food Research and Standardisation Laboratory, Ghaziabad and (ii) Central Food Lab., Kolkata, are under the administrative control of the directorate general of health services and other two viz. (i) Central Food Lab, Pune and (ii) Central Food Laboratory, Mysore, are under the administrative control of the Government of Maharashtra and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India, respectively. There are 250 sample testing labs in the country. Each sample from a processing unit or retail outlet can be monitored only once in 4 years and these labs can handle only 25 samples on a daily basis.

Therefore, there is very limited check on the safety, efficacy and quality of the products, leading to increased risks to the consumers.

The safety officers and inspectors are also understaffed. The current 0.18 million food processing units in India can be monitored only once in two years, which is much below international norms. Each officer can handle only 4 inspections per month for the required quality. The 7 million retail outlets can be monitored only once in 12 years, and each officer can only handle 25 inspections per month.

Prices of nutraceuticals are high, as compared to the traditional food items.

The price of a pack of 30 Revital tablets costs a consumer RS 150, a one kg bottle of Dabur Chyawanprash costs Rs 200, a half kg of Herbal Life comes to Rs 1360.

Where a kg of regular salt costs Rs 11, a low sodium variant of the salt would cost at least 73% high. Tata Lite salt costs Rs 18, which is low in sodium. Nutrient fortified mix of atta costs 139% more than the regular atta that comes for RS 18. The cost of energy drinks over chilled beverages is 350% higher. The price range is high compared to the middle class spending budget.

The misleading advertisement is another area of concern. Says Rashmi Uppal, technical marketing manager – foods, DSM Nutritional 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.”

However, Narsimha Rao defends. He feels that because of the low awareness about the benefits of nutraceuticals in the country the manufacturers sometimes go overboard in advertising their products in order to enthuse the audience. The advertisement code as drafted by the FSSAI will probably control the overdoing by the industry where ads are concerned.

Meanwhile, manufacturers need to develop consumer-focused products for different targeted segments. The need is to build up credibility by adhering to the rules and regulations laid down to govern manufacture, distribution and sale of nutraceutical products. Also, a need to work on the pricing system to target larger consumer base.