We Are What We Eat

Shoppers are willing to pay more for healthier products but they can be sometimes confused by what is available.

Well being

Host Edgar Elzerman discusses with Emma Coles, Co-Founder and Partner of Food Smart Advisors, how retailers and suppliers can make a difference in the search for a healthier lifestyle. Few years ago Emma had health problems and realised that her lifestyle could be better. Lifestyle has a huge influence on the people’s financial and personal life, lots of problems can be prevented that is why Emma tries to do everything possible.

There are many barriers to having a healthier lifestyle. We make about 200 food chices every day and they depend on what’s available and what stores are available and how things are marketed to us. Food is linked to tradition, culture, habits and prices. Healthy food is often more expensive and become even more expensive. Unfortunately in the Netherlands the fruits and vegetables VAT has been just increased. This is a huge oportunity for retailers and manufacturers to make healthier food affordable and accessible for all.

Good food has to be delicious, has to be enjoyable but also what matters is the nutrients. There is a huge opportunity for retailers and manufacturers to be more transparent.

Sometimes when you try to reduce the sugar in a product you can come up with a new product idea. When they did a sugar reduction with Albert Heijn, they created a 100% peanut butter and put it on the shelves and it became a grat success.

The global food industry is a 7 trillion Euro business whith lots of interests. It is difficult to companies to change when financially it is not encuraged. The changes are driven by customers, they are really beginning to understand the impact food has on their lives. More and more researches are showing that food is related to your health. There are many companies recognising opportunities too and offer different products.

Innovating and testing

Emma is working with the governement and NGOs on diabetes program and sees every day people are changing their habbits and how much energy and health they get. Nowadays retailers take more responsability, taking steps for restricting marketing to children and help parents to feed their children well.

Interestingly some of the discounters are moving ahead in healthy assortment. They have a big advantage having a smaller product range, being more flexible and making changes easier. Online is also interesting as online competitors are coming up with far more healthy focused offering.

It is far more risky to get into hospital if you are metabolicly unhealthy. There was a research done in the USA which shows that 65% of hospitalisation in the US would have been avoided if the people were metabolically healthier. We are talking about testing, vaccining but not about huge opportunity of healthy food.

Strong PL program is a huge opportunity for the retailers. Particularly big, international manufacturers with global, iconic brands can not be flexible. But retailers with PL can change products, try things, and have better products. Retailers and brands both try to innovate but a lot of innovation come up from the PL. It used to be PL copying national brands but that is not the case any more. It is very important for PL suppliers to know where they do stand with the nutrient profile of their products. First step is understanding how they perform. Then they have to decide where they want to go using healthy criteria. You need to understand the trend and changes going on in health. The consumer is looking at the latest research, looking for solutions for those challenges. Companies must anticipate what consumers will looking for. So innovating, trying and testing is the way to go.