In-store nutrition: an opportunity for food cos
over and above other sources, including qualified professionals,
according to a new FindSVP trend report. Some retailers are cashing
in with in-store educational initiatives, but could healthy food
manufacturers be doing more, asks Jess Halliday.
The report, entitled Food Retailers as Nutritional Advisers, says that information overload and conflicting reports on food and health mean consumers are overwhelmed by the food choices presented to them.
In FindSVP's survey of 1,000 consumers, 78 percent said they would trust nutritional advice provided by a food retailer.
Co-author Julie Chmielewski told NutraIngredients-USA.com that people have a tendency to trust retailers because they think the FDA would not let them get away with contravening the strict guidelines surrounding food.
But they are forgetting that, at the end of the day, retailers are in it to make money. If they can increase their margins by accommodating trends, then they will.
"Maybe people don't think it through as much as they should," said Chmielewski.
Retailers' efforts
But skepticism about objectives aside, some of the initiatives by retailers might just be helpful.
For example, VA-based Farm Fresh Supermarkets has installed kiosks providing information on reading food labels, vitamins, restricted diets and general health and wellness. Market Street of United Supermarkets has color-coded its shelves according to health attributes, such as low glycemic index, heart healthy and gluten free.
Others retailers are even consulting dieticians.
Chmielewski said that it has long been recognized that Americans do not turn first to physicians and dieticians for nutrition advice, so the trend does not necessarily mean these health care professionals are not doing their job.
Rather, she said, this has led to health care organizations partnering with food companies that offer healthy products to an effort to get their message heard, such as the American Heart Association's Food Certification Program, which endorses foods that pass a number of heart healthy nutritional checks.
On the label
Other avenues, too, are open to manufacturers to help educate consumers about nutrition and the ways in which their products can help.
Nutritional labels are still the main source of nutritional information on specific products, and their form is governed by the FDA. But as some people do not know how to glean information from them, food companies could draw attention to beneficial nutrient content in other places on the packaging.
Chmielewski also said that companies could change the wording on labels in line with the new food guidance system, MyPyramid.
For example, MyPyramid advocates a diet rich in wholegrains, which are an excellent source of fiber. However many consumers do not make the connection between wholegrains and fiber, so changing references to 'fiber' to 'wholegrain' could increase receptiveness.
Health claims approved by the FDA, which allow for wording on labels linking a foodstuff with prevention of a certain condition, can boost an entire category - such as last September's approval of the claim that long-chain omega-3 fatty acids may help reduce the risk of heart disease.
According to Productscan, omega-3 product launches in the first five months of this year numbered 109. If launches continue at the same rate for the next seven months, by year end the category will have grown 74 percent over 2004.
Before the store
Although the trend report focused on nutritional information at retail level, Chmielewski said that people trust a brand they recognize. We do not know how long it will be before people start responding to nutritional information sources before they get to the grocery store, she said, so companies could adopt a multi-pronged approach to reach out to a broader sector.
Two examples she gave of companies that are already doing just that are Yoplait and Stonyfield Farm.
Both issue an e-newsletter containing health and dietary information, while Stonyfield Farm also operated four daily 'blogs' on health topics that receive around 8,000 hits a months.
Where newspapers carry special offers, these could be linked in with related nutritional advice.
There may also be opportunities for companies to use cell phone technology to deliver nutrition advice, in the spirit of a new service called MyFoodPhone that allows people to send an image of their meal to a dietician for comment and analysis.
Chmielewski said such an initiative takes cell phone popularity one step further.
"The convenience aspect is very important. People are doing very targeted shopping these days."
Chmielewski's final word on getting the health message across to consumers: "Get creative with all of these methods".
