Trend tracker: The latest APAC consumer and market insights for the supplement and functional food industries

China's probiotic market: Huge interest in products for weight management — Lumina Intelligence data

When it comes to consumer engagement and approval, probiotic products with weight management benefits top the list​ in China, according new data revealed by Lumina Intelligence.

It shows that products making weight claims have five times the number of reviews as other probiotic products.

Launched this week, Lumina Intelligence, part of William Reed, provides insights of high-growth food and nutrition markets, with the probiotics sector being the topic of its first report.

It provides data on a raft of markets, but we have honed in on China, where sales growth is rocketing.

We recently revealed that nearly half of all APAC probiotic sales are coming from the country, with its market size tipped to grow from US$8bn today to $15bn by 2025.

Japanese and French nutricosmetics among the most popular brands at this year's Tmall Super Brand Day

Japanese and French nutricosmetics products proved the best performers​ during Tmall's annual Super Brand Day sales event.

The three-day event which ended on Sep 3 was held in conjunction with international brands including Swisse, Floreve, Biocyte and Esthe Pro Labo.

Tmall said the event had ended on a blast. Sales accumulated during the event was the second highest in the last twelve months.

Sales reaped on the first day of the event was also higher than this year’s “618” dragon boat festival.

Following the Super Brand Day, Tmall published a report that summarised consumption trends.

India's supplements and functional food strategy: Five tips for growth as consumer interest rises and regulations mature

With India's supplements sector targeting US$10bn sales by 2025, five industry experts have outlined how they believe firms can best tap into rising consumer interest in health and wellness.

The market in the country is also currently high with optimism on the back of new and evolving regulations, designed to help the industry achieve gold-class global standings.

And at this week's FI and HI India pre-connect conference in Delhi, local market experts set out their stalls for what the industry needed to do next to make further advances.

Here are five of the top recommendations.​

Kerry talks up APAC immunity and digestive opportunities for BC30 and Wellmune

Kerry believes that clear evidence of growing consumer demand​ for probiotics, immunity and protein products across APAC will stand the firm in good stead for regional sales success for its functional branded ingredients, not least the patented probiotic strain GanedenBC30, which it acquired when it bought Ganeden late last year.

GanedenBC30, a spore former, has clinical data to support digestive, immunity and protein utilisation benefits, and is found in more than 900 food and beverage products globally.

The Ganeden acquisition came three years after Kerry also bought Wellmune from Biothera Inc. Derived from the cell wall of proprietary baker's yeast, the evidence suggests that Wellmune 'primes' the innate immune system.

With these deals in mind, it is not surprising that Kerry is keen to extol the virtue of branded functional ingredients, arguing that they help increase consumer understanding and recognition.

Japan convenience stores set up nutrition advice services amid competition from pharmacies

Japanese convenience chain Lawson is dedicating a corner of its store to offering free-of-charge nutrition advice​ to consumers.

Its newly opened Sendagi-Shinobazudori store in Tokyo store offers nutrition advice desk, OTC drug sales, and a dispensing pharmacy, providing a suite of healthcare services within a convenience store. The store commenced operation on August 1.

There are currently 17 Lawson convenience stores that incorporate “nursing care and nutrition counselling desk”​ which provide free-of-charge nutrition advice services.

Lawson is not the only convenience store to offer nutrition and healthcare advice in Japan. Competitor Family Mart is also providing such services.