The heart of the debate

The future of heart health products is a moot point among those in the know. Some experts predict that the sector will continue to grow, while others believe that it may be nearing its limit. However, both camps agree that the new nutrition and health claims legislation is likely to affect the market in the future - and probably for the better.

Heart and circulatory disease is still the UK's biggest killer. Although the death rate is falling, Ellen Mason, spokeswoman for the British Heart Foundation, says increasing obesity in young people is causing concern. "Cardio-vascular disease is the major cause of death in this country - one in three men and one in four women will die from its effects," she adds.

At the moment, the figures for heart health foods look promising. A 2006 Datamonitor report on foods designed to tackle heart health valued the UK market at £125M, a figure in line with a previous prediction of £145M by 2007. According to market analyst Mintel, 175 new heart health products were launched in Europe last year. This is up from 160 the year before and the highest figure in the world. In North America the comparable launch figures were 123, compared to 49 in 2006, while in Asia Pacific, the levels were 121 and 67 respectively.

"Dairy is definitely the core category for functional foods in Europe," says David Jago, director of Mintel Global New Products Database. "However, wholegrain is increasingly moving into heart-health territory, particularly in breakfast cereals and biscuits.

"There are two clear consumer groups buying these products - a small group of people who know that they have high cholesterol or blood pressure, and a bigger group that opts for omega-3 or wholegrains because they just want generally better-for-you ingredients."

There is robust scientific evidence supporting the beneficial effect of certain ingredients on heart health. These can be split into those that lower cholesterol and the smaller, newer sector of those that claim to reduce blood pressure.

In cholesterol-lowering, the two key

ingredients are stanol esters (from plant sterols) used by brands such as Flora Pro.active and Benecol; and beta-glucans (the soluble fibre in whole oats), which fit well with bakery products and cereals. The latter area has been the focus for a lot of activity, with a multigrain version of Kellogg's iconic Cornflakes, Jordans' Multigrain Porridge and Oatiflakes from the Weetabix Company all launching recently. There are also fruits, such as pomegranates and cranberries, which are naturally high in anti-oxidants, and of course omega-3 fatty acids.

Blood pressure-lowering

The star player on the blood-pressure reducing team so far is dairy peptides, which can be used in beverages and cheeses, and it is this side of the category that is seeing most of the growth.

"The market has developed quite a bit - even in the last six months," says Kavan Ranasinghe, business line manager for food and ingredients at ingredients supplier DKSH. "Everybody is already in cholesterol reducing and it's blood pressure that's the really interesting area. There have been some really big launches. Danone has brought out Danaten in Spain and a lot of its ingredients have some blood pressure lowering effect."

Jago also agrees that fermented milk drink Danaten, which has been developed in collaboration with the Spanish Heart Foundation, is a name to watch. "It is available in two varieties at the moment. It's a big deal from a big brand and, even if it takes a small part of what Danone has done with Actimel, it will do well," he says.

According to Ranasinghe, there are other ingredients that can be harnessed to lower blood pressure. "Yoplait in Ireland has used potassium in a product called Essence," he says. "Potassium is cheaper and also reduces blood pressure, but it's harder to formulate without affecting the taste."

Restricted growth

Julian Mellentin, director of research organisation New Nutrition Business, questions Ranasinghe's optimism, arguing that heart health foods have largely failed when compared to the success of their digestive health counterparts.

"The Japanese functional foods market, which has been established for about 10 years, is dominated by digestive health products," he says. "They account for about 65% of the market, whereas cholesterol-lowering is about 1%. It's a simple question of consumer logic. Benecol and Flora Pro.activ may command 10% of the UK spreads market by value, but only 3% of the volume and that's because most people don't understand cholesterol and they don't know their own cholesterol level."

He is even more pessimistic about products aimed at lowering blood pressure, and says it's one medical benefit too many for the general public to grasp. "Blood pressure products are never going to succeed," he says. "Most cholesterol-lowering products have failed and most predictions for blood health have been proven wrong. People won't pay a premium for something they don't understand."

Mellentin cites the recent demise of Sirco - a drink aimed at helping to thin blood - from London-based nutritional products firm Provexis as evidence of consumer resistance. It reduced the aggregation of the blood platelets responsible for blood clots - the trigger for heart attacks and strokes.

"With heart health, the more you get medical, the more you turn off consumers," he says. "Sirco was very medicalised and attracted only a tiny audience - those who had a definite reason to buy it. It would have taken another 10 years to educate consumers generally about the concept of blood platelet aggregation."

Unilever has bought the rights to use tomato extract Fruitflow - the active ingredient in Sirco - in dairy products, but Mellentin points out that it has yet to launch a product.

Jago supports Mellentin's view that too strong a medical claim can act as a consumer turn-off. "Labelling the more generic products with too strong a claim or too medicinal-sounding a name, will actually scare consumers away," he says.

Both Jago and Mellentin believe that one area in which consumers can be motivated by heart health is juice, which makes softer claims. "People are interested in benefits that are easy and as natural as possible and juice fits that," says Mellentin. "Plant sterols and omega-3 sound like a chemistry set and people don't eat chemistry sets."

Nevertheless, the line-up of ingredients clamouring for a role in the latest health drive is growing. Provexis is running clinical trials on a second bioactive ingredient (an extract from a strain of 'super-broccoli') containing high levels of the anticarcinogen sulphoraphane, while Ocean Spray is helping manufacturers incorporate sweetened dried cranberries into a wider range of products from goat's cheese to panettone and Chinese mooncakes.

All of these suppliers claim to be fully prepared for the EU's Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation, which came into effect at the beginning of July, but existing products may suffer. The Food Standards Agency is collating a list of currently approved health claims to send to the European Commission, which will come up with a definitive list by January 2010, but companies wanting to make a health claim on-pack will now first have to prove it to the European Food Safety Authority.

Weaker claims that lack clinical evidence may have to be withdrawn and there are likely to be casualties. "There will definitely be fall-out as claims get challenged," says Jago. "Omega-3 has much heralded benefits, for example, but these depend on the dosage and most products don't state this."

Ranasinghe believes the outcome will be a boost for the functional foods market in the long-term. "Dairy peptides and beta-glucans in cereals are a safe bet," he says. "But there are some weaker ingredients with no definitive science behind them, which will get kicked out, and that will be good for everyone." FM