What you need to know
The market for health foods is estimated to have grown by 4.3% to £773 million in 2019. Sales of health foods continue to grow on the back of the rising trend for health and wellbeing, with 52% of UK consumers trying to eat healthily most of the time in 2019. Nearly six in 10 shoppers consume health foods to improve general health but those with more specific health-related goals are drawn to certain categories.
In terms of new product development, speciality ingredients such as CBD offer substantial growth opportunities and the trend towards veganism is playing an increasingly important role in shoppers’ decision of which products to buy and from whom. Interestingly, whilst there are numerous rules which govern product labelling for allergies, there’s no legal definition of ‘vegetarian’ or ‘vegan’ either at UK or EU level when it comes to food. We think this is likely to change in light of the growth in consumption of vegan food and drink products.
Nevertheless, the competition from supermarkets and other non-specialists remains high as players attempt to capitalise on the growing demand for health foods with special offers, ‘healthy aisles’ and other changes to the stores, as well as free, professional and personalised advice in-store.
Products covered in this Report
This Report is focused on the specialist health food retailers, which are defined as retailers that specialise in selling predominantly food products that are marketed for their health benefits.
While not the main focus of the Report, other retailers that also sell those product categories usually found in health food shops, such as supermarkets and pharmacies, are included in the consumer section of this Report, but not in the market or leading retailers sections.
The definition of ‘health foods’ for the purposes of this Report is therefore based on those products that are generally expected to be sold through health food retailers including:
Dried fruit, nuts, seeds, bran
Vitamins or supplements
Fruit or herbal teas
High-protein products
Free-from foods
Pre-packaged raw food snacks
Sports nutrition products
Weight loss products
Herbal or homeopathic remedies.
