With FDA’s New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) Notification Guidance set to make its mark on the U.S. nutraceutical landscape this year, three industry studies are projecting steady growth for the nutraceutical ingredient market in 2012 and beyond.
 
“World Nutraceutical Ingredients to 2015,” a report from The Freedonia Group, Cleveland OH, expects world demand for nutraceutical ingredients to increase 7.2% annually to $23.7 billion in 2015, driven by substances with clinically confirmed health benefits and broad applications in foods, beverages, dietary supplements and adult and pediatric nutritional preparations all providing the best growth opportunities. 
 
The report specified nutrients, including proteins, fibers and various specialized functional additives, would remain the top-selling group of nutraceutical ingredients. “Proteins will post the fastest gains as food and beverage makers throughout the world introduce new high value-added nutritional preparations,” the firm found, and noted functional additives and fiber nutrients would also fare well in the global marketplace.
 
Freedonia said naturally derived substances, consisting of herbal and botanical extracts and animal- and marine-based derivatives, would command the fastest growth among the three major groups of nutraceutical ingredients. And in the realm of vitamins and minerals, world demand as it pertained to nutraceutical applications was forecast to reach $6 billion in 2015, up 6.2% annually from 2010.
 
Global trends in nutraceutical ingredients set to shape market growth included developing regions achieving much faster growth in both consumption and production than developed regions. “Increasing economic prosperity will enable countries, such as the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, as well as Mexico, Poland and South Korea, to expand and diversify their food and beverage, processing and pharmaceutical industries,” the firm stated. “Based on projected investment levels in these industries and rising consumer incomes, China will evolve into the largest global producer and consumer of nutraceutical ingredients by 2020, surpassing the United States and Western Europe.”
 
Because of maturing markets, the supply and demand of nutraceutical ingredients in the developed countries will increase more slowly than the average pace of the developing world, Freedonia said. Nonetheless, food, beverage and drug makers in the developed economies will continue to pursue opportunities in conventional and specialty nutritional products and natural medicines. As a result, they will remain major customers for nutraceutical ingredients.
 
Global Business Intelligence (GBI) Research’s “Nutraceuticals Market to 2017 – Food Additives such as Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Probiotics, Soy and Energy Drinks to Perform Strongly” report also indicated that the global nutraceuticals market would grow at a healthy rate from 2010 through 2017.       
 
GBI researchers estimated the 2010 global nutraceuticals market to be worth $128.6 billion, after increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4% during 2002 through 2010. They projected the market will swell to about $180.1 billion by 2017, after growing at a CAGR of 4.9% from 2010 through 2017. GBI attributed the growth rates to an increase in the elderly population, the affluence of the working population and increasing awareness of, and preference for, preventive medicine. These factors are expected to be the major factors responsible for stimulating market growth in the top seven countries of the U.S., Japan the U.K., Spain, Italy Germany and France.

Finally, one segment-specific report projected growth in the omega 3 segment of the nutraceutical ingredient market. Frost and Sullivan’s “Global Analysis of the Marine and Algae Omega-3 Ingredients Market” placed global market value for marine and algae EPA and DHA omega 3 ingredients at $1,447.5 million in 2009, and projected growth at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12% from 2010 to 2015. Likewise, global unit shipments were measured at 85,673 metric tons in 2009 and were projected for a “likely” CAGR growth of 11.5% from 2010 to 2015.
 
Furthermore, Frost and Sullivan said the global market for omega 3s was “in the growth stage of its product lifecycle” and expected “product innovations and possible market disruptions” during the forecast period.
 
For more information about GBI Research’s “Nutraceuticals Market to 2017 – Food Additives such as Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Probiotics, Soy and Energy Drinks to Perform Strongly” report click here.
 
For more information about Frost and Sullivan’s “Global Analysis of the Marine and Algae Omega-3 Ingredients Market” report click here.
 
For more information about The Freedonia Group’s“World Nutraceutical Ingredients” report click here.