food Marketing & Technology 3/2021

Ingredients
Fat and Oils: Targeting the Positive
Nutrition Trend
Consumers are taking a proactive approach to health maintenance and are actively looking to improve their
diets. Whilst doing this, they are taking a broader approach to what constitutes healthy eating and drinking.
Indeed, focus is no longer associated just on avoidance and moderation but instead, ensuring that they have
ingredients in their diets that offer a health boost beyond basic nutrition. This is something that the fats and
oils industry needs to respond to, educating consumers about how “good” fats are something that can help
address issues such as heart health and immunity
Over the last twelve months, consumers
have become more conscious about
their health. For instance, in 2020 a
total of 57% of consumers said that
they deemed themselves vulnerable to
disease and illness – compared to 38%
who said this a year before. At the
same time, satisfaction with immune
health declined from 54% to 49% over
the same period. This is due to the
impact of the pandemic. Originally,
concerns about the virus was about
vulnerability to it, especially when less
was known about how deadly it was.
However over the last twelve months,
consumers have had chance to reevaluate
and have taken a broader
approach to health, recognizing that
even if they were not necessarily
vulnerable to problems arising from
COVID-19, they were at risk of other
long-term health problems. This is
due to consumers recognizing that
their dietary habits are not as healthy
as they could be. As such, they are
wanting to take a proactive approach
to health maintenance – with 76%
saying that they plan to eat and drink
more healthily over the last twelve
months.
As consumers take a proactive
approach to health maintenance, they
are focusing more on the concept of
positive nutrition. This means that
consumers are not associating dieting
with avoidance and moderation in
order to lose weight but instead,
believing that if they adopt a well
balanced diet, they will be able to
improve all aspects of their health. The
focus on this means that ingredientled
claims are becoming more
influential on purchasing behavior,
with consumers wanting to see active
ingredient and claims on products
that offer a health boost beyond basic
nutrition. Although it is important
to not over-estimate consumer
awareness of fats, they do recognize
that some in moderation and part of
a balanced diet can have a positive
impact on health. For instance, 42% of
consumers associate monounsaturated
fats with having a positive impact
on health, whilst 39% say this for
polyunsaturated fat. Meanwhile, 47%
of consumers say that they are prone
to looking for these ingredients on
product packaging. Over the last
couple of decades, sugar has replaced
fat as the number one dietary evil in
the eyes of the consumer, and this
research shows that consumers believe
that fats, in moderation, can have a
positive impact on health.
“Good” fats such as monounsaturated
fats and polyunsaturated fats can have
a variety of benefits, such as helping
aid with weight loss, improving heart
health and boosting overall immunity.
These areas of health are important to
consumers. For instance, FMCG Gurus
research shows that in 2020, a total of
70% of consumers say that they have
looked to make changes to their diets
and lifestyles to improve their immune
health – compared to 53% who said
this a year earlier. Meanwhile, 65% in
the same year said that they wanted
to improve their heart health. Finally,
in 2021, a total of 34% of consumers
said that they were on a diet to lose
weight (around a ten percent increase
compared to when the survey was
run three years earlier). The focus on
health maintenance reflects the extent
that COVID-19 has had on consumer
attitudes to health, as more focus is
placed on disease maintenance than
ever before.
Given that many consumers believe
that there will be future waves of
the virus and one in five believe that
it is something that will impact on
daily lives for several years, increased
concern about vulnerability to disease
will remain for some time. At the
same, it is important to recognize that
even before the pandemic, consumers
were not conscious about their health,
and were focusing on trying to stay
fit and active until as late in life as
possible. This is something that the
fat and oils industry needs to respond
to, educating consumers about the
benefits of products and highlighting
the benefits these ingredients have
when consumed in moderation and as
part of a balanced diet. At the same
time, it is important that brands are
not seen to be making exaggerated
or misleading claims around these
benefits.
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food Marketing & Technology • June 2021
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