The high-profile war on sugar continues to rage, with the Department of Health’s sugar swap app campaign the latest assault. This has shaped consumers’ opinions on what constitutes healthy eating, with sugar overtaking fat as the number one health foe. However, while L/N/R (Low/No/Reduced) sugar NPD (New Product Development) has risen, still only 5% of food launches carried this claim in 2015. While there are many product categories which are naturally low in sugar so would have no need to flag this up on packaging, this still looks to be an area that warrants more attention. Given widespread mistrust towards artificial sweeteners, natural sweeteners such as stevia can play an important role going forward in this respect. Boding well for this, the majority of consumers want to see more products featuring these ingredients.

Efforts to lose weight are commonplace, particularly among women. This is a reflection of the obesity epidemic as well as prolific media coverage on all issues relating to diets, body image and size. However, consumers’ aim looks to be on achieving a balanced diet, within which unhealthy foods have a place. This also leads to widespread question marks over the need for light or diet foods. Meanwhile there is strong demand for highly nutritious food, these seen to offer added value. This is reflected in the trend for superfoods, with these continuing to shape NPD.

This report looks at consumers’ attitudes and behaviours related to healthy eating, as well as attributes sought from healthy food. The report also explores related issues such as the prevalence of dieting, calorie consumption and consumers’ openness to various initiatives which could help to improve the nation’s health.

The Launch Activity and Innovation section analyses data from Mintel’s GNPD (Global New Products Database) focusing on launches featuring functional, minus and/or plus claims. A more detailed discussion of these terms can be found at the beginning of the section.