The food industry can no longer ignore the convenient and healthy food market. It has fantastic growth and profit potential for those manufacturers, retailers and suppliers prepared to invest in providing a superior taste profile, top quality promotional and point-of-sale materials, and guaranteed availability in convenience stores and major multiples. In fact, just-food expects the on-the-go health food market to reach a value of US$74.9bn in the US and US$68bn in Europe by 2012.

This exclusive report is a valuable guide to the emerging convenient and healthy food industry. While the two megatrends - convenience and health - have dominated innovation and marketing for years, the relationship between the two has more recently developed in line with consumer demands for healthier options to slot into their time-poor lifestyles.

As awareness of the link between health and nutrition escalates, the industry is frantically reformulating existing products, and launching new, healthy variants to capture this interest ahead of the competition. First-to-market status is all-important, particularly in saturated categories such as bakery and cereals, which have an inherently healthy proposition, and are led by major, established and successful players.

This report assesses what constitutes a healthy and convenient product, how the two megatrends can work together, and puts forward key marketing and NPD opportunities to help the industry to optimise this potential. A proprietary consumer segmentation model offers insight into the various target audiences for convenient and healthy food and drink.

The study also considers successful new convenient and healthy product launches, the leading players in the market and best-practice NPD and marketing strategies from around the world.

Report coverage:

Following an executive summary and introduction, Chapter 2 asks: What constitutes a convenient or healthy product? The idea of 'marrying' these two megatrends is considered, along with the increasingly popular trend of 'health on-the-go'. In this chapter we also ask; 'are consumers becoming more, or less, confused about what constitutes a healthy diet?' and the best-practice marketing strategies for Flora pro-active, Danone's Actimel and Birds Eye Steamfresh are provided.

Chapter 3 concentrates on the next-generation innovation for the health and convenience market offering new product snapshots and NPD trends - including adult snacking, premiumisation, whole and natural and male verses female products. Also discussed is the importance of packaging and merchandising for new healthy, convenient products.

Chapter 4 focuses on health and convenience consumers and their eating habits. We look at both ends of the age scale - both child-friendly food and targeting senior consumers. This chapter also provides consumer segmentation and results of our consumer insight survey.

Chapter 5 profiles the major health and convenient food companies. This includes both the 10 leading global food and drink manufacturers - including Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Heinz - and the top 10 up-and-coming healthy and convenient food brands, including Health Valley Foods, Meridian Foods and Dean Foods.

Chapter 6 addresses opportunities and trends by category - nutritionally balanced ready meals, healthy snacks and meal replacement products - and by eating occasion, classified as breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also provided in this chapter are health on-the-go market forecasts to 2012.

Chapter 7 offers a conclusion of the report's findings.

Executive summary

Chapter 1

Chapter 2 Marrying the megatrends
What constitutes a convenient product?
What constitutes a healthy product?
Healthy regulation
The marriage of convenience and health
Health on-the-go
Nutrition mission
Healthy convenience manifesto
Reducing the confusion
Are consumers becoming more, or less, confused about what constitutes a healthy diet?
Best-practice strategies to reduce consumer confusion: websites
Flora proactiv
just-food opinion
Healthy convenience manifesto statement
Examples of product-related nutrition information
Example of health benefit claims
Main features
Danone’s Actimel
just-food opinion
Healthy convenience manifesto statement
Example of product-related nutrition information
Example of health benefit claims
Main features
Birds Eye SteamFresh
just-food opinion
Healthy convenience manifesto statement
Example of product-related nutrition information
Example of health benefit claims
Main features

Chapter 3 Next-generation innovation for the health and convenience market
Introduction
Healthy and convenient new product snapshots
Coffee shop branded RTD drinks made available in convenience stores
Hummus to go
Ski successfully meets demands for health and convenience in attempts to
revitalise the brand
Splendid all-in-one dipping snack
New product development trends
Super-convenience
Adult snacking
Better-for-you savoury snacks
Premiumisation
Whole and natural
New product highlight: whole and natural, healthy and convenient
Male versus female products
Meat snacks for the boys
Calorie-counting indulgence for the girls
The importance of packaging and merchandising for new healthy, convenient products

Chapter 4 Health and convenience consumers and their eating habits
Introduction
Child-friendly food
Case study: BabyDeli
Targeting senior consumers
Consumer segmentation
Convenience addicts
Simplexities
Hardcore health fans
Bit of both
Consumer insight
Do you class yourself as a healthy eater?
What sort of healthy food do you buy?
Is nutrition an important issue for you?
Which five foods do you think of as convenience food?
What sort of convenience food do you regularly buy?
When do you tend to eat convenience food?
When buying a convenient food how important are the following factors?
How often do you go to convenience stores?
Healthy and convenient product round-up

Chapter 5 Healthy and convenient food companies
Introduction
Leading global food and drink manufacturers’ activity
Coca-Cola
McDonald’s
PepsiCo
Nescafé (Nestlé)
Kellogg Company
Heinz
Wrigley
KFC
Pizza Hut
Ten top healthy and convenient food brands: ones to watch
Health Valley Foods (The Hain Celestial Group)
Horizon Organic (Dean Foods)
Yeo Valley
Organic Valley
Seeds of Change
Meridian Foods
Fresh Harvest Products
Innocent
Alpro (The Vandemoortele Group)
Morningstar Farms (Kellogg)

Chapter 6 Opportunities and trends by category and occasion
Introduction
Opportunities by occasion
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Healthy on-the-go market value to 2012
The ultimate health and convenience opportunity: high quality, nutritionally balanced ready meals
Healthy snacks will record strongest growth
Meal replacement products

Chapter 7 Conclusions

List of figures
Figure 1: Single-serve pots of fruit and jelly – healthy and convenient indulgence
Figure 2: Range of healthy on-the-go products
Figure 3: Eat Natural: the lazy approach to eating well and feeling good
Figure 4: Ski Up and Go
Figure 5: Philadelphia Splendips from Kraft Foods
Figure 6: Health and convenience from Ryvita
Figure 7: Age groups within focus group
Figure 8: When do you tend to eat convenience food?

List of tables
Table 1: Convenient and healthy food examples, by category
Table 2: Top 25 global companies – diet, nutrition and physical activity manifesto
Table 3: Recent convenient and healthy new product launches
Table 4: Value of the UK and US meat snacks markets, 2004-2012 (US$bn)
Table 5: Prevalence of overweight and obesity in children, all selected European countries
Table 6: Do you class yourself as a healthy eater?
Table 7: What sort of healthy food do you regularly buy?
Table 8: Is nutrition an important issue for you?
Table 9: Which foods do you think of as convenience food (ranked in order of popularity)?
Table 10: What sort of convenience food do you regularly buy (ranked in order of popularity)?
Table 11: When buying a convenient food, how important are the following factors?
Table 12: How often do you go to c-stores?
Table 13: Healthy and convenient product round-up
Table 14: Ranking of food and drink companies within Interbrand and Business Week’s 100 Top Global Brands for 2005
Table 15: Ten top healthy and convenient food brands: ones to watch
Table 16: Annual missed breakfast occasions, per capita, Europe and the US, 2004-2012
Table 17: Annual missed lunch occasions, per capita, Europe and the US, 2004-2012
Table 18: Takeaway and in-home convenience food market value, UK, 2004-2012 (GBPbn)
Table 19: Annual missed evening meal occasions, per capita, Europe and the US, 2004-2012
Table 20: Healthy on-the-go convenience foods market value, 2004-2012 (US$bn)
Table 21: Ready meals market values of major markets, 2004-2012 (US$m)
Table 22: Savoury snacks market value in Europe, by category, 2006 versus 2012 (US$m)
Table 23: Meal replacement market value, 2006 versus 2012 (US$m)