“Better For You” is a category used to described health and wellness products popularized by the North America and Western Europe weight management and weight loss fads like the “South Beach” and “Atkins” diets as well as concerted public authority campaigns in these countries in favour of healthy eating habits to stop the obesity pandemic.

The category includes food and beverage products where the amount of a substance considered to be less healthy (such as fat, sugar, salt, carbohydrates) has been actively reduced or removed during the production process

In 2005, global Better For You (BFY) sales in this category was estimated at US$108.9 billion, with health beverage and food supplements sales achieving respectively 11% and 8% annual growth.

Canadians, as educated consumers, have shown strong demand for Better For You products in an attempt to follow healthier lifestyles. According to AC Nielson research, the number of products listed as “better for you” in Canada doubled the new labelling standards from Health Canada came into effect in 2003, which allows for health claims to be displayed on product labels. This is currently a successful and predictably long-staying trend as companies develop new BFY options and nutritionally improved staple food products such as naturally healthier olive oil and whole grain bread.

BFY snack foods are strong performers in the Canadian market, with reduced-fat items outpacing sales of conventional products. Reduced-fat biscuits, sweet and savoury snacks, as well as extruded snacks, such as flavoured rice crisps and soy crisps, are strong performers at retail grocery stores across the country. In particular, the major sweet and savoury snack producer Frito-Lay Canada, boosted sales of BFY products when its reduced-fat “Baked” Lay’ s and Tostitos were introduced to the market. Reduced-fat products are also popular for staple food items such as milk, oils and fats, as well as in convenience products such as frozen and chilled ready-meals. For instance, despite a decrease in per capita consumption of milk, reduced-fat milk sales grew 4% in 2006, and reduced-fat yogurt represented over a third of all retail sales of yogurt in Canada.

Healthier oils and fats is a major trend affecting Canadian consumers as the population has become more educated about health problems associated with the high-fat content of traditional products. Over half of all retail sales of spreadable oils and fats are from reduced-fat, reduced-salt, or reduced combination BFY products, as well as naturally healthy olive oil spreads. This success can mainly be attributed to Unilever Canada‘ s aggressive marketing of its ‘Becel’ brand as a healthy alternative to butter. Sales of naturally healthy olive oil are strong, with higher priced imported “extra virgin” varieties boosting sales values.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Learn the Art of Selecting Fresh Herbs for Your daily
• Food Safety Tips for the Holidays
• Toxic Toys - No Concern to Canada
• Low Calorie Vegetables: 100 Calories or Less
• Use of alternative medicine use up in U.S., survey says
• Time to learn the fine art of healthy snacking
• PepsiCo buys Lethbridge-based seed snack maker Spitz International

Technorati Tags: Atkins Diet, Better for You, Business, Canada, Canada Health Beverages, Canada Wellness Drinks, Canada Wellness Supplements, Frito-Lay Canada, Grocery store, Health, Health Canada, Olive oil, Snack food, South Beach Diet, Weight Loss, Weight management products

Related Websites

• Beans, Beans They're Good For Your…Wallet! The following guest post is by Forest, from the frugal living blog Frugal Zeitgeist. Forest spent the last couple years living in Montreal, Canada, but currently lives in Cairo, Egypt, where he works full time online as a graphic designer and a blogger.  If you are not following his blog, you are......
• Timed Grocery Shopping - Saving Money By Getting In And Out Quickly I've written in the past how I save money by cooking most of our meals at home.  To do all that cooking, I have to stock up on items from the grocery store.  I really do not like grocery shopping.  In fact, it is my least favorite task.  However, since......
• Book Review: The Whole Grain Diet Miracle By Dr. Lisa Hark and Dr. Darwin Deen Even though carbs get a bad rap, it’s commonly accepted that if you do have to eat them, whole grains are the way to go. There are many benefits to having a diet rich in whole grains, and this book from Drs. Lisa Hark and Darwin Deen offers a plan......
• Are Carbs Really That Bad? Out of every food on earth, in the past few years, there has been no other food as demonized as the ones that contain carbs. There are so many fad diets that focus on completely removing carbs from your life - but is this a smart solution? The simple answer......
• What Do You Know About The Atkins Diet? A lot of people who hear about the Atkins diet think you are going to starve yourself and never eat any of your favorite food ever again. They think you are saying goodbye to your favorite dessert, and be eating bars forever. If you have looked at cookbooks at your......

Tags: Atkins Diet, Better for You, Business, Canada, Canada Health Beverages, Canada Wellness Drinks, Canada Wellness Supplements, Frito-Lay Canada, Grocery store, Health, Health Canada, Olive oil, Snack food, South Beach Diet, Weight Loss, Weight management products

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 6:19 am and is filed under Canada biofood suppliers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.