Ensure mental wellbeing by de-stressing
Ensure mental wellbeing
by de-stressing
Functional ingredients
Although the possibilities vary from country to country because of the regulatory aspects of some of these ingredients, there are opportunities everywhere to tap into natural functional food & beverage products for relaxation.
Why mental wellbeing is a hot topic now?
Under our sub-trend “De-stress”, we have identified mental wellbeing as one of three main needs among consumers within our health trend “Forever Young”. For more details on forever young and all three sub-trends, check out our last trendblog article.
The global COVID-19 pandemic and all the restrictions it brings to our lives make the holistic approach towards health beyond physical health vital. Many consumers experience feelings of anxiety, loneliness or stress while trying to keep themselves and their loved ones healthy at the same time. That is why consumers now look for solutions to help them calm down and relax more so than ever.
What consumers look for in "De-Stress"
Many consumers regularly experience feelings of stress and want to improve their mental wellbeing. The main areas consumers look out for and want to improve concerning “de-stress” are sleep, calming down or relaxation and mood foods.
There are several methods consumers use to better their sleep which range from improving their work-life-balance, exercising more or changing their diet. Having a good night’s sleep is also a natural way to boost your immune system. With the current COVID-19 pandemic, consumers care more about their immune system than before. Some food companies have reflected this in their advertising. For example Dutch Mill Thailand reminds consumers in their facebook post about the holistic health approach to strengthen their immune system.
How food & beverage products can help us to "De-Stress"
When it comes to food and beverage products, there are many opportunities for relaxing or calming properties to tap into this need to de-stress. Many of them embrace a holistic health approach, which often stem from traditional or ancient medicines like TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) or Ayurveda among others.
Bringing De-Stress to the next level in indulgent applications
We have already mentioned mood foods in this article. While it might be tempting for consumers to indulge in a big bag of chips or cookies, it might create a feeling of guilt in the end and even more stress. That is why healthy mood-boosting foods is the right way to go. Introducing healthy elements to more indulgent categories allows the consumer to indulge without the guilt. Combining functionality with the ingredients mentioned above for relaxation and better sleep and adding them to indulgent products can introduce another dimension to those products without compromising on taste and pleasure. We can fortify a wide range of applications such as ice cream (both water- and dairy-based), desserts, drinking or spoonable yogurts as well as beverages.
Feeling inspired?
Our AGRANA Fruit experts in new product development and innovation in our 18 R&D centers located globally are equipped with extensive know-how on the use of different ingredients for relaxation purposes for use in our fruit and brown flavor preparations. Our preparations can be used as a delivery system for fortification of functional ingredients. We are the right partner to help you develop the next fortified dairy, ice cream or beverage product that satisfies current consumer needs without adding complexity to your existing processes.
