Category Archives: Vitamins

Food Fortification Ingredients

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Fortified foods, cereal and milkFortified foods, such as iodized salt and vitamin-D fortified milk, originally addressed nutrient deficiencies in the general public. Some countries currently mandate the addition of folic acid to enriched flour to reduce the risk of neural tube birth defects. Most food fortification is voluntary but regulated by government entities in countries where the food is sold along with the European Food Safety Authority and the World Health Organization. The United States, for example, does not allow the fortification of fresh produce, meat, poultry or fish products. European countries do not allow fortification of unprocessed foods. Fortification of snack foods is also discouraged.

Food fortification ingredients include vitamins, minerals, probiotics, prebiotics, carbohydrates, proteins and amino acids. These added ingredients can be found in a wide variety of foods from juices, bread, and cereals to infant formula and pet food. Fortification indicates the addition of nutrients at levels higher than those naturally occurring in the food.

Today’s market size shows the value of food fortification ingredients in 2016 and 2025. The figure for 2025 is projected. The food fortification market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 14.5% between 2017 and 2025 as consumers increasingly look for foods that provide additional health benefits beyond basic nutrition, such as omega-3 fortified foods for heart health and probiotics for digestive health.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2016 and 2025 projected
Market size: $30.50 billion and $100.84 billion respectively
Sources: “2017 Global Food Fortification Ingredients – Market Size, Market Share, Application Analysis, Growth Trends, Key Players and Competitive Strategies (2015-2025) – ResearchAndMarkets.com,” Business Wire press release, February 23, 2018 available online here; “Food Fortification in Today’s World,” International Food Information Council Foundation, June 20, 2014, last updated December 29, 2015 available online here; “Food Fortification Ingredients Market Report 2017-2027,” Visiongain, June 15, 2017 available online here.
Image source: skeeze, “cereal-spoonful-strawberry-spoon-556786,” Pixabay, December 9, 2014 available online here.

Animal Feed Additives

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Food supplements are consumed, whether by humans or animals, to augment or improve in some way the nutritional value of the diet. Food additives in farming have been used for centuries, as anyone who has seen a salt-lick will appreciate. However, with the rise of corporate farming in livestock production—what are known as Animal Feeding Operations (AFOs)—the use of feed additives and the nature of those additives has changed greatly. Animal feed additives come in a variety of types, from vitamin supplements and amino acids to preservatives, emulsifiers and essential fatty acids.

Recently, one commonly used additive has been in the media spotlight; antibiotics. It is now common practice in the United States to add low doses of antibiotics to animal feed. Antibiotics are used to stimulate growth as well as to stave off the diseases bred by unnatural and unsanitary conditions. The use of antibiotics on livestock is so great in the United Sates that it is believed to account for 80%, by weight, of all antibiotic use. The business of providing a population with high volumes of low-cost meat is a very large business indeed. Raising livestock in more natural ways—as opposed to the assembly-line manner used by AFOs—takes longer and, as they say, time is money.

Today’s market size is the estimated global value of the animal feed additive market. These additives are most heavily used in North America and Asia-Pacific, regions that together account for more than 60% of the use of animal feed additives.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2012 and a forecast for 2018
Market size: $16.18 billion and $20.23 billion respectively
Source: “Animal Feed Additives Market Worth $20,233.2 Million by 2018,” PR Newswire, March 12, 2014, available online here.
Original source: MarketsandMarkets
Posted on March 17, 2014

Nutritional Supplements Market

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The market we’re presenting today is one that includes a large range of ingestible products, from vitamins and calcium pills to protein shakes, diet pills and energy drinks. The market is also referred to by various names, among them: nutritional supplements, dietary supplements, and simply, supplements. By whatever the name, this is a lucrative market and one that many people feel is less regulated than would be prudent. The federal guidelines regulating the ingredients used in the production of nutritional supplements are far less restrictive than those imposed on food and drink makers. Worth noting is the fact that federal requirements of pharmaceutical companies are even more restrictive than those regulating the food and drink industry. Nutritional supplements are not bound by the regulations for either of these industries—food and drink nor pharmaceuticals.

The supplements market has been growing steadily since the turn of the century and is expected to continue growing. Driving the growth are a number of factors. An older population looking to supplements to minimize the effects of aging is one such driver. The young, too, are using supplements heavily. Having grown up in a society that appears to approve of the use of chemicals to augment human capacities of all sorts, they turn to supplements to help build muscle, lose weight, and stay awake.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2011
Market size: $30 billion
Source: Natasha Singer and Peter Lattman, “Is the Seller to Blame,” The New York Times, March 17, 2013, page B1, available online here. Brittany McNamara, “Monster Energy Switches from Supplement to Beverage,” Nutrition Business Journal, February 14, 2013, available online here.
Original source: Nutrition Business Journal
Posted on March 20, 2013

Vitamin Sales

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Today’s market size comes from a report about U.S. vitamin purchases published by a consumer analytics firm. The report goes into some detail about where people make purchases of vitamins and how that has been changing over the past few years.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2012
Market size: $12.2 billion
Source: “Vitamin Market Survey Sees Buyer Deficiency,” Progressive Grocer, August 3, 2012, available online here.
Original source: TABS Group
Posted on August 20, 2012

Dietary Supplements

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There is a large market for dietary supplements in the United States. This market includes a wide variety of ingestible products designed to do things such as help you lose weight, increase sexual desire, increase muscle mass, reduce cholesterol, increase brain function, and others yet. Vitamins and multivitamins are part of this market but drugs that need and carry a Federal Drug Administration approval are not.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2005 and 2010
Market size: $21.3 and $28.1 billion respectively
Source: Natasha Singer, “Here’s to Your Health, So They Claim,” New York Times, Sunday Business, August 28, 2011, page 1, available online here.
Original source: Nutrition Business Journal

Vitamin Supplements

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Multivitamin tablets, powders and liquids dominate this category with 55% of the total vitamin supplement market. Vitamin B is the second largest category with 13% followed by vitamin C which represents 11% of the market.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2008
Market size: $8.5 billion
Source: National Foods Merchandiser, September 2009, page 22.
Original source: Nutrition Business Journal