The impact of obesity on food buying habits is only the beginning of the influence health concerns will have on food companies an international conference was told, with the relationship between consumers and the food they eat to become far more personal.
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Stephanie French, managing director of nutrition strategy consultants Harlequin Plus told the Obesity Europe Conference in Brussels: “Concern about combating obesity is just the start. People are going to be coming under pressure to take responsibility for their own health. Increasingly doctors will refuse treatment to those whose lifestyle has led to health problems. We’ve already seen hip and knee surgery refused to the obese in some places in the UK.
“Developments in nutrigenomics will give people information about their susceptibility to health problems,” she said. “They will also have access to personalised information helping them to manage their diet to minimise their risk of developing those problems.”
She added that the trend in every sector of the economy is towards a more personalised service with products designed to fit each individual’s needs and the same trend is coming to food.
“People will get advice to suit them personally, whether directly from nutritionists and other health professionals, or through computer based expert systems,” she said. “Those systems already exist in basic forms and their use is set to become widespread over the next few years.
“Already there are systems which pass information on the formulation of food products direct to consumers through their mobile phones,” she said. “Those phones will also be used increasingly to obtain information direct from the internet. That means that a consumer in a supermarket aisle will have access to much more information than in the past and, more importantly, information that will be more focused to their individual needs. Children, in particular, will learn about food this way, which will mean that current issues about traditional labelling and advertising will be less important going forward.”
French added that she believed the current emphasis for information on packaging is a distraction. “First and foremost food companies need to make sure they have the right products,” she said. “They need to think about nutrient density. They need to think about satiety, producing products which make people feel well fed, without overloading them with calories. Also, they need to think about the role the nutrients in their food products play in the health of the consumer and how that nutrient content can be maximised.”
“To satisfy the demands of consumers food needs to become much cleverer,” she concluded. “That means food companies need to become cleverer about how they produce that food. Now is the time for them to get thinking about it.”
