Functional foods first found a wide audience in Japan, and it is in the Japanese markets that many trends first emerge. The latest arena in which health-enhancing foods have risen to prominence is somewhat unusual, namely cooking oils. Three of Japan’s market leaders are battling it out to corner the market for cholesterol-lowering oils. Kate Rew reports.
The battle to sell health-enhancing products has entered unusual territory in Japan – namely the cooking oil market. Consumers in western countries are now used to seeing health claims attached to that other main source of fat in the diet, margarine. But since this usually ubiquitous vegetable-oil spread is relatively new in Japan, the food industry there has developed an alternative strategy.
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Three companies are now fighting to corner the market in oils, containing substances which tests suggest actually reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood.
One of the market leaders, the Kao Corporation, has just launched ‘Healthy Econa Cooking Oil for Lower Cholesterol,’ (the Japanese version of the name is rather less cumbersome), which contains 4 % plant sterol. This is important, because plant sterols, (and stanols), natural compounds found in all plants, are supposed to reduce the levels of ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol without affecting those of ‘good’ HDL cholesterol, when eaten in higher than usual amounts.
Studies have found that the effects started after two weeks of increasing the intake of sterols or stanols, and have continued as long as they were being consumed at that level.
As a result in November last year the Finnish company Raisio, the makers of Benecol, was allowed by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States to say that regular consumption of the margarine would reduce the levels of cholesterol in the blood. It contains extra high levels of stanols, which have been extracted from pine wood pulp.
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By GlobalDataKao has been selling Healthy Econa Cooking Oil since 1999; it is targeted at weight conscious consumers and contains diacylglycerol (DAG) which studies show prevents the build-up of fat deposits and prevents an increase in blood triglyceride levels.
Two other major players in the healthy cooking oil field in Japan are Ajinomoto, and Nisshin Oil Mills which at the beginning of March released a product, Balance Oil Choleste, a rice germ cooking oil, which is rich in plant sterol. The company claims that the product contains four and a half times as much vegetable sterol as regular soy oils. The target for first year of sales is ¥2bn.
In the same vein, Ajinomoto is targeting older consumers with its new product, Healthy Sarara, which contains four times as much vegetable sterol as the company’s previous products. The company conducted a survey, which concluded that while young consumers are generally more worried about fat than cholesterol, middle-aged people are more concerned about limiting their intake of cholesterol.
These new products have helped create a new market for ‘premium’ cooking oils in Japan, and although the overall market for cooking oils has been shrinking annually, (the size of the market for the tax year 2000 was estimated at somewhat less than ¥90bn (US$756m), down from around ¥100bn, (US$840m), in recent years), but the market for premium cooking oils grew by 50% last year to ¥13bn (US$109m).
In Europe and especially in the US, where coronary heart disease causes more deaths than any other disease, people monitor their cholesterol levels closely. Secretary General of the International Federation of Margarine Associations, Inneke Herreman, told just-food.com that margarines which reduce cholesterol levels in the blood are the newest trend in healthy products in the US and Europe. In addition to Benecol the other main product, which actively seeks to lower cholesterol levels is Unilever‘s Take Control, (outside the US, Take Control is marketed as Becel or Flora pro.activ).
Steve Milton, Director of Public Relations, Unilever North America, confirmed to just-food.com that, as in Japan, the main audience for their product, Take Control, which reduces blood cholesterol levels by 10-15%, is the middle-aged consumer concerned about heart disease. He said that global sales of Take Control, which was launched around 18 months ago in the States
and in Europe, stand at US$100m.
Although the big food corporations are using different products in different parts of the world, it seems that they are now adopting the same strategies for different age groups – low fat products are being targeted at younger age groups, while cholesterol-reducing oils and margarines are aimed squarely at the middle-aged consumers who are beginning to worry about heart disease.
By Kate Rew and Swineetha Dias Wickramanayake, just-food.com correspondents
