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in the second part of a series on the european market for health and wellness foods and drinks, nutraingredients.com tales a look at consumer behaviour in finland, norway, russia, the uk and ireland. the information below is taken from a series of health and wellness reports published by the market researcher euromonitor in july 2010. finland the economic downturn had quite an impact on health and wellness foods in finland, particularly for drinks, which recorded a “large decline” in sales.

dairy, bakery and beverages account for 72.9 percent of functional foods in the world’s biggest markets with energy/mood enhancement, gut health and heart health the dominant claims, according to a leatherhead food international report. in 2009 figures, dairy accounted for $8.702bn globally, bakery $5.18bn excluding japan, and beverages $2.825bn not including energy and mood drinks.

do functional foods work? watching recent actions by scientific agencies, regulators and industry players themselves of late, one might be forgiven for thinking that the functional foods dream is falling a little short of the reality. we’re talking about the biggest food companies in the world being told the claims that help sell some of their foods are deceptive and misleading.

ingredients supplier beneo has conducted research into the functional beverage market in spain which pointed to particularly strong consumer demand for products giving energy that can be scientifically substantiated. company market research manager christian niederauer said: “although the focus groups were held at a variety of times and with different target groups, the feedback was unanimous - mental alertness as well as prolonged and balanced energy were the benefits most required from spanish consumers’ functional drinks.

a dietician for the british heart foundation has said the body would not routinely recommend functional food and drinks for health benefits.the comments to just-food come on the back of a report by market intelligence firm key note on wednesday (23 june) that revealed the uk functional food and drinks market is expected to continue to grow over the next five years, but at a slowing rate. the report found that the major issue in food and drink development and manufacturing remains health, boosted by the threat posed by the rising level of obesity.

recently approved under the eu sweeteners directive, neotame could be used to mask the strong taste of vitamins and minerals in functional foods - as well as more traditional uses in sweet foods, according to its european distributor. neotame is said to be around 8000 times sweeter than sugar and 30 to 60 times sweeter than aspartame (depending on the application), but to have a sugar-like taste and no calories.

the royal irish academy (ria) elected paul ross, the head of food research at teagasc for admission today (4pm, friday, 28 may 2010) in recognition of his academic achievement. this is the academy’s 225th admission of new members since it was founded in 1785. paul ross was among only 24 academics on the island of ireland to achieve this highest academic distinction. professor nicholas canny, president of the ria, said that this group ‘is as accomplished and as academically diverse as any cohort elected since our founding members signed the roll in1785’.

a new initiative to identify dairy bioactive ingredients has yielded 30 peptides that could be used to develop new functional food and beverage ingredients. the programme, undertaken by food for health ireland (fhi), uses bioinformatics to increase the probability of identifying bioactive milk peptides with health-enhancing properties. the “intelligent milk mining” scheme could help reduce the risk involved with identifying successful bioactive ingredients, according to fhi, which is a new partnership between irish dairy processors and research organisations.

limagrain céréales ingrédients (lci) is highlighting the clean label credentials of its functional flours that can be used to help address some of the challenges faced by cake and pastry manufacturers. lci’s range of products provides clean label alternatives to achieving what it describes as “three important cake making objectives”. they are controlling the dough rheology, keeping the cake soft, and suspending added ingredients, according to anne lionnet, marketing manager for bakery at lci.