Foods such as vegetables, fruit and herbs appear ideally positioned to benefit from the current consumer trend towards natural products containing as few additives as possible. By Jonathan Thomas
All are recognised as having an important role to play in terms of better diets, especially in the post-pandemic world where health and nutrition continue to advance up the agenda. With Covid-19 mortality rates having been highest in countries where a comparatively large proportion of the population ranks as overweight or obese, more efforts from the world’s authorities can be expected to encourage people to up their intake of fruit and vegetables.
At present, large sections of the European population do not consume sufficient quantities of fresh produce according to the official guidelines. According to Eurostat, a third of consumers within the EU region do not eat any fruit or vegetables during a typical day, while only 12% consume the recommended five portions. Fresh produce appears to be more popular with women – for example, 15% of the female population in the EU eats five a day, compared with only 10% of males. The percentage of people eating the recommended amount is highest in countries such as Ireland (33%) and the Netherlands (30%), and lowest further east in Romania (2%) and Bulgaria (5%).
A greater desire for clean-label products without artificial ingredients and additives represents just one of the health trends impacting upon the global food industry at present. In the US, the 2022 version of the Food & Health Survey undertaken every year by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) found that almost 40% of consumers regularly purchased food and beverages promoted as ‘natural.’ Other key findings included the fact that environmental considerations affected food purchases for 39% of people, while 57% were concerned over levels of food waste. The IFIC survey also found that over half (52%) of respondents were following a specific diet or eating pattern in 2022, up from 39% the previous year. The main motivations for this lifestyle choice included the desire to follow a clean eating pattern and to be more mindful of calories consumed.
Global demand for vegetables (and, to a slightly lesser extent, fruit and herbs) should also derive some benefit from the growing percentage of the world’s population now following vegetarian and/or vegan diets. According to data from the German-based retailer Veganz, the number of vegans in Europe has increased from 1.3 million people in the middle of the previous decade to more than 2.6 million today. The vegan trend appears to be strongest in Western European countries such as Germany and the UK. The desire to pursue what is perceived as a healthier diet remains an important factor behind the increased prevalence of plant-based diets, as well as other reasons such as animal welfare concerns and environmental sustainability.
As further evidence of the reduced reliance on meat as part of the diet, data from the same source suggests that the number of so-called flexitarians (i.e. people consuming meat less frequently) is also on the rise. This consumer group currently accounts for almost a quarter (23%) of the European population, with health often cited as a reason for the lower frequency with which meat is being eaten. Of Europe’s flexitarians, 57% could envisage switching to a vegetarian diet at some point in the future, while 8% claimed to be considering becoming vegans. Plant-based foods can therefore be expected to further increase their share of diets at the expanse of meat within the next few years. Furthermore, the IFIC study found that almost a third of US consumers are now obtaining more protein from plant rather than animal sources.
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