FDBusiness.com

Global sales of food and drink additives reached $27.4 billion in 2010, according to Leatherhead Food Research’s new report ‘The Global Food Additives Market’. Although the market as a whole grew by more than 4% per year, growth rates varied widely between sectors.

The best performing sectors include enzymes, acidulants and hydrocolloids, although much of this growth can be attributed to increasing world prices as increased raw material and energy costs feed through the system. At the other end of the scale some of the lowest growth rates have been experienced by the preservatives and sweeteners sectors, which have suffered in the move away from using artificial additives and ingredients.

Growing demand for low fat, salt and sugar products as well as functional health benefit products, is driving demand for a host of additives including emulsifiers, hydrocolloids, sweeteners, vitamins and minerals, soya ingredients, omega-3 fatty acids, probiotics, prebiotics and plant stanol esters. Growing consumer demand for ‘natural’ food and drink products is putting growing pressure on additive suppliers to develop ingredients from natural sources. This is a particularly significant feature of the flavours and colours categories, where natural products are rapidly gaining share over synthetics.

The global additives market has not been immune to the effects of the global economic downturn. However, waning consumer demand in developed economies such as North America and Europe has been offset by economic resilience and rising consumption levels in other parts of the world such as Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Nevertheless, as the economic recovery struggles to take off, a period of relatively modest growth is forecast for the world food additives market over the next few years.

Some of the better-performing sectors are likely to include natural flavours and colours, food hydrocolloids, enzymes and some of the functional food ingredients. However, much of the future growth in demand for food additives will be heavily influenced by factors such as the global economic situation and the resulting impact upon consumption levels, the regulatory environment and what is taking place within the global food and drinks industry.

The trend towards natural and/or additive-free food and drinks is expected to continue in the short-term, largely due to increasing consumer concern over artificial ingredients. For similar reasons, demand for food and drinks positioned on some form of health and wellness platform is expected to remain fairly high. Visit www.leatherheadfood.com/global-food-additives for more details.