Functional Food and Drink Market before explosion

Figures from Euromonitor show that sales of functional foods and drinks are expected to continue their strong growth over the next three years. Specialist said the increase will be more than 30% between 2006-2011.

 The fortified food and beverage market
was worth an estimated $97 billion globally in 2006, according to
Euromonitor figures. The growing popularity of this lucrative sector
has led to increasing competition and the need for companies to find
the next big thing in terms of functional ingredients.
The trend
should therefore be towards the segmentation of the functional
product market with the introduction of ingredients which target
specific health conditions, their prevention or their treatment.
Omega-3 and glucosamine are two such ingredients and products
enriched with those are expected to be among the star products of
2008.

Omega-3 is already being used by the
food and drink industry, in milks and cereals for example.
Glucosamine, on the other hand, has so far been only marginally
exploited by the food and drink industry, in spite of its proven
arthritis-relieving effects and sales worth $1.8 billion in 2007,
compared to $2 billion for fish oils.