The rapid advances in science and technology, increasing healthcare costs, fast changing lifestyle, ageing population and rising interest in attaining wellness through diet are fuelling the interest in nutraceuticals. Today it is one of the fastest growing segments of the food industry and is already becoming a crucial part of the diet. With the growing popularity among consumers, the nutraceutical market is expected to double in the coming years.
The growing consumer awareness about the relation between diet and health have increased the demand for information about the products. Presently, there is a substantial pressure from consumers globally for ‘natural’ ingredients and food products. As consumers are demanding healthy food products, companies are forced to invest heavily in developing healthy products with the focus on increasing the development and consumption of wholesome products. Wellness stores are slowly creating awareness among the customers about ‘wholesome’ products. This trend will continue to gain momentum said GS Krishnan, Regional President-India, Novozymes South Asia.
The market size for nutraceutical and health ingredients is around Rs. 3,000 crore. The sector registers an annual growth rate of 25 percent. The considerable growth of this segment has lured several pharma companies including GSK, Piramal, Abbot, Ranbaxy among others to jump into to the bandwagon.
Leading players in the country include Herbalife, British Biologicals, Abbot Nutrition, Amway, Nestle Nutrition, Ranbaxy Global Consumer Healthcare, Pristine Organics , Sami Labs, Biogen Phytotec Extracts, Green Chem, Yakult Danone, Parrys, DSM Nutrition, Naturelle India , Zeon Life sciences.
Trends in consumption pattern
According to Ajay Khanna, country head, Herbalife India , there is an increasing awareness about importance of good health and balanced nutrition across various age groups. People are searching for ways to live a healthy life and we are glad of the opportunity to offer them Herbalife products to help them meet their wellness goals. Ajay Khanna is the key speaker at the 8th Nutra India Summit being held in Mumbai from March 13 to 16.
There is no doubt on the promising prospects of nutraceutical and health ingredients. In fact, treatment modalities in the coming years will be personalized medicines. The intent is more for prevention than cure; the medical community shall focus more on diagnosis than therapy. This is where nutrition will find its way in all our foods. There is already the emergence of fortified foods, said Dr. S. Shrinivasan, Vice – President, Medreich Limited, Bangalore.
Regulatory framework for Nutraceuticals
The regulation has evolved with the release of Food Safety and Standardization Act 2006 and is in effect now. The licensing authority definition of functional food is not clear for the industry. For e.g. one of the definitions for functional food as in Section 22 (1) (a) (ii) minerals or vitamins or proteins or metals or their compounds or amino acids (in amounts not exceeding the Recommended Daily Allowance for Indians) or enzymes (within permissible limits) however is mentioned. Similarly Section 22 (1) (b) (i) indicates that a product labelled as a ‘Food for special dietary uses or functional foods or nutraceuticals or health supplements or similar such foods’. Such products does not include a drug as defined in clause (b) and ayurvedic, siddha and unani drugs as defined in clauses (a) and (h) of section 3 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and rules made there under. This contradiction has questioned the incorporation of physiological requirement of vitamins and minerals in convenient dosage forms bypassing the NPPA / D & C act, in the dietary supplements, said Dr. Shrinivasan.
“In addition to the legislative issues, there are other challenges envisaged, like, to effectively communicate a specific health benefit, educating the consumers, building the consumer loyalty, developing innovative products to increase the market share, aggressive marketing etc.”
“Therefore it is essential to be conscious that some variations can occur in natural materials, clinical results may not be as precise as drugs, IPR protection for active material has limitation but not for new application,” said Dr. Shrinivasan.
Herbalife product category consists of food supplements and food for special dietary uses to which certain regulations are being issued by the FSSAI, said Khanna.
Growth prospects in India
It is natural that people’s focus is shifting to a positive approach for prevention of diseases to stay healthy, said Dr. Vijayalakshmi. D, Professor, Food Science and Nutrition, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru.
Herbalife has witnessed a substantial growth in India for the past several years given the increased demand for its products. All Herbalife inner and outer nutrition products are a source of good nutrition. They include protein shakes, vitamins and health supplements, energy drinks and skin and hair care products.
" In line with our mission to bring the gift of good nutrition to global communities, we wanted to ensure that products are readily available to as many Indian consumers as possible to help them meet their nutrition needs.
We wanted to empower youths in smaller cities and towns with the Herbalife business opportunities to help them become entrepreneurs", said Khanna.
Emerging manufacturing and R&D hub
We are evaluating our opportunities and trying to see what works well for India, said Khanna
Going by the developments in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology space, there is no doubt that India can be made a research and development hub for nutraceuticals and health ingredients, said V Hariharan, CEO and Managing Director, Phytotech Extracts Pvt Ltd.
There is scientific acumen, access to educated talent and cost-effectiveness in research which companies in the US and EU can capitalize , said R Rajendran, MD, Green Chem.
Dr Narendra Narain, President of Brazilian Society of Food Science and Technology who is also a speaker at the 8th Nutra India Summit, Mumbai said that there is need for a South-South collaboration. Although in the food area,we are producing similar commodities in our countries ,yet the scope of collaboration is immense through Brazil-India Society in each country and the forum organized by countries such as ‘Brazil-India-South Africa’ and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China).
On the possibilities of launching Indian nutraceuticals and traditional Indian herbal products including the ayurvedic products into the Brazilian market, Dr. Narain said that the scope is tremendous. However, there should be an excellent marketing promotion for the selected Ayurvedic medicines. Some representatives in mega-cities need to be chosen for the promotional activity in Brazil, he added.
HPCDC to introduce DNA-based bar code tech in IP 2014
The Herbal Products & Crude Drugs Committee, (HPCDC) which is part of the scientific body of Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission that evaluated the DNA-based bar code techniques to authenticate sample of herbs for their botanical identity is likely to introduce the techniques is Indian Pharmacopoeia 2014.
In addition to necroscopy, microscopy and Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) based profiling of herbs, a DNA based testing is introduced. However, the DNA based testing is kept as an option and would depend on experience gained on. After some times a final decision will be taken to see if it could be mandated or not, said Dr. DB Anantha Narayana Director, Chairman, (HPCDC) of the Scientific Committee of Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission.
The Commission is also interested to evaluate use of image analysis techniques to derive unique identification technology even for herbs in powder form. The industry is moving towards use of ready powdered raw herbs to reduce the method of grinding in the manufacturing plants to avoid dust and other contaminants.
This technique according to Dr. Narayana would be equivalent to a simple infra-red spectrometry used for chemical compounds, if developed properly, using many aspects of herbs.
“There are a number of parameters in raw herbs/powders which can be used in the identification process. Microcomputers are also used as an aid in drug microscopy for over 100 plants of western origin. Today’s computer assisted techniques are available based on image analysis for chromosomal aberration testing, mineralogical & metallurgical studies in alloys and the same needs to be adopted for herbs too,” said Dr. Narayana.