How F&B is reformulating to make nutrition more affordable

Global obesity numbers are skyrocketing, with the World Health Organization (WHO) stating that one in eight people are now obese. Coupled with that, the numbers of people suffering with malnutrition, as a result of poor diet, are also rising. “Malnutrition refers to deficiencies or excesses in nutrient intake, imbalance of essential nutrients or impaired nutrient utilisation. The double burden of malnutrition consists of both undernutrition and overweight and obesity, said a spokesperson for the WHO. But cost remains a major barrier for consumers in the buying healthy foods and beverages. “Cost is becoming an increasing concern - and barrier - for European consumers to access sustainable and healthy food,” said Giulia Riedo, agriculture and sustainable food officer, at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Furthermore, figures from Our World in Data show that three billion people globally cannot afford a healthy diet. It cites the current affordability of a ‘calorie sufficient’ diet versus the high cost of a healthy, nutritious one. And this concern is not just being felt by health and environmental organisations, but by brands too. “The diets we are consuming today are not sustainable for human health,” said Marianne O’Shea, vice president of Global Health & Nutrition Sciences of PepsiCo, at Future Food-Tech in London. “We need to make very significant changes.” What’s more, consumer demand for healthier foods is growing. “Healthy eating is on the rise,” said a spokesperson for consultancy firm, Gray. “Consumer concerns about gluten, dairy, sugar and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are driving this trend.” This means that as well as helping to improve the health of consumers, there is also a huge opportunity for food and beverage to boost sales. So, how is industry addressing the issue of affordability and what more can be done? How is food and beverage making healthy foods and beverages affordable? Reformulation is the word of the moment and food and beverage is doing it in abundance, particularly when it comes to making healthy foods more accessible to consumers. “Food reformulation can contribute to ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all,” said a spokesperson for the WHO. And brands are listening, with everyone from The Kraft Heinz Company to PepsiCo getting involved in the affordable health-food movement. “The science is really clear about added sugar, saturated fats and sodium,” says PepsiCo’s O’Shea. “And if we do nothing else in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, we need to act now and reformulate those nutrients.” Beyond this, brands are reformulating to add vital nutrients to their ranges, creating what is sometimes referred to as functional foods and beverages. This is proving popular with consumers as it allows them to enjoy the same products they always have, but with the added benefit of being healthier. “We need to meet consumers where they are, with the foods they’re consuming,” says PepsiCo’s O’Shea. “Most of us are creatures of habit. We don’t like big changes and it’s often not feasible for us to make many changes to our diet. So, when we tackle existing foods that are being consumed at scale, and improve them, we can really have an enormous impact.” This is also a win for manufacturers as they don’t risk losing consumers to other more healthy alternatives. Having said that, reformulation to cut HFSS and add functional ingredients is a complex and costly process. “If you are in the food industry, you know how tricky reformulation is,” says Sara de Pelsmaeker, health & wellbeing director at Puratos. “It becomes a more expensive product. You have issues with texture and with taste.” As a result, many larger manufacturers are using this as an opportunity to support smaller brands, which might be less well equipped to reformulate products. “An opportunity we have as a large food company, where we touch a billion consumers a day, is that we can help improve their diets and share the learnings with food companies that may not have the resources we have to start this reformulation journey,” says PepsiCo’s O’Shea. What more can be done to make healthy foods affordable? The push to make healthy, nutritious foods and beverages more affordable is not just coming from the brands themselves, but from governing bodies, encouraging them to make a change. “Regulators are encouraging brands to reformulate products to make them healthier through nutritional labelling schemes, including non-HFSS and Nutri-Score,” Lin Peterse, category development manager for Tate & Lyle, told FoodNavigator. But many in the industry say government help is needed in order to implement these regulations. “Incentives need to be built into the market if we’re ever going to get a healthy and sustainable food system,” says Greg Garrett, executive director of Access To Nutrition Initiative (ATNI). And when it comes to what consumers want, research by consultancy firm, Gray, found healthy drinks, snacks and ready-to-go meals to be especially popular. This is a result of busy lifestyles and hectic schedules, leaving people time poor but still wanting healthy options available to them.