A new report from market researcher Packaged Facts forecasts that products featuring functional ingredients, such as Omega-3 fatty acids, exotic pseudograins and antioxidants, will continue to flood the grocery market going forward.
 
According to the report – Ingredients Affecting Health and Wellness: Innovations and Trends to Watch in 2007 – functional foods containing the most advanced innovations in supplemental nutrients or the latest in flavour technologies are gaining momentum and meeting the health and wellness demands of consumers.
 
According to the report, the key challenges for food producers in 2007 will be to avoid creating consumer confusion resulting from the growing quantity and specificity of scientific information available, to enhance credibility by leveraging sound science, and to create compellingly positioned products so that consumers can purchase with confidence.
 
“Five years ago few people would have thought that we’d be reporting on the advent of cellulose, bamboo, and cottonseed as fibre alternatives,” notes Don Montuori, the publisher of Packaged Facts. “But today’s more holistic and scientific approach to wellness is opening up diverse opportunities for developing food and beverage ingredients from both common and exotic sources that have not been readily tapped, making the growth potential in this market very dynamic.”