Food Products Evolution: Innovation Drivers and Market Trends

By Angela Tarabella

Modern awareness of nutrition issues can be understood correctly if considered the destination of a historic journey, the critical aspects and outcomes of which have led to the current situation. In fact, over time there have been changes to scientific knowledge, food availability and processing and preservation methods. Commercial exchange has increased considerably between the countries of the world – so much so that it has defined a completely different scenario to the past and has influenced food availability, distribution models, preservation methods and the composition of individual foodstuffs.

The products consumed on a daily basis throughout the world in industrialised countries have undergone review by the food industry, incorporating great aspects of innovation that make them highly different in their structure, content and even the packaging that protects and contains them.

After covering the subject of innovation in the food sector, this Brief of work willdiscuss the various first- and second-generation product categories distributed in Europe starting from the period of post-war reconstruction, in order to illustrate the reasons that led to their birth and development on the market. Specific examples are shown for each proposed class, including highlights of their properties, technologies, innovation potential, related regulations, and distinctive features.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Springer
• Release date: Jun 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9783319238111

Book preview

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

Angela TarabellaFood Products Evolution: Innovation Drivers and Market TrendsSpringerBriefs in Food, Health, and Nutritionhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23811-1_1

Introduction

Angela Tarabella¹  

(1)

Department of Economics and Management, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

Angela Tarabella

Email: [e-mail]

Modern awareness of nutrition issues can be understood correctly if considered the destination of a historic journey, the critical aspects and outcomes of which have led to the current situation. In fact, over time there have been changes to scientific knowledge, food availability and processing and preservation methods. Commercial exchange has increased considerably between the countries of the world – so much so that it has defined a completely different scenario to the past and has influenced food availability, distribution models, preservation methods and the composition of individual foodstuffs.

The products consumed on a daily basis throughout the world in industrialised countries have undergone review by the food industry, incorporating great aspects of innovation that make them highly different in their structure, content and even the packaging that protects and contains them. Innovation is one of the most important development drivers in the agro-food sector; we need only remember that in 2015, 35,585 new products were launched in Europe: a 9% increase compared to the previous year (Nielsen 2016). This indicates that the food sector’s innovation factor constitutes an essential element for success, especially when it not only produces a restyling of the old product, but a genuine ‘breakthrough innovation’ capable of presenting the old item with an entirely revamped appearance. The new food categories generate an increased economic return thanks to their ability to release purchasing dynamics from the automatic correlation between quality and price which characterises the choice of traditional products.

The evolution of food products also derives from the changed demands of consumers, who – based on market performance, widespread environmental pollution, food sector scandals and the longer average life expectancy and level of well-being – tend to have an increased awareness of organic products, food safety and nutritional quality.

It follows then that the conventional classification of food products into animal-based and plant-based, according to the exclusive or prevalent nutritional principle, or the main function carried out by the nutrient (carbohydrate, protein or fat), can no longer be considered comprehensive of all food types. Over time, others have been added that enrich the taxonomy, for instance the one that based on nutritional aspects divides foods into primary or essential, secondary or accessory and non-conventional. Primary or essential foods are those that must be present in order for a diet to be defined complete and balanced. They must be included to prevent deficiency in even one fundamental nutritional element. Nutrients that the body is not able to produce independently, and so must be consumed through diet, are considered essential. Secondary or accessory foods are not considered essential from a strictly nutritional perspective, but from the point of view of consumption, they satisfy sociological or psychological needs. Good examples of these include nerve stimulant substances, alcohol, artificial sweeteners, herbs and spices.

Lastly, non-conventional foods are the new-generation foods that spread following the growth in world population in order to resolve the imbalance between food availability and demand; typical examples are GMOs and novel foods.

The explosive increase of innovative products combined with the growing diffusion of foods originating from faraway countries with very different habits, undoubtedly leads to a transformation of consumption patterns, making it difficult for consumers to choose the best diet for their health and well-being. Furthermore, the food industry makes it more and more complex to decode the necessary information by using multiple messages on labels. We need only remind ourselves of the different characteristics of food products. ‘Search’ attributes are visible and verifiable before the act of purchase and include, for example, the shape, colour and price. Other characteristics are only visible post-purchase (‘experience’ attributes). Lastly, ‘credence’ attributes cannot be observed or verified before or after or with experience and include, for instance, the raw materials or processing method used (Tarabella and Burchi 2016). It follows that if companies do not disclose these characteristics, the consumer cannot access them in any way.

This is why food education, a consumer right recognised by the European Economic Community as of 1972, remains the most effective tool to help consumers make informed choices.

After covering the subject of innovation in the food sector, this volume of work – the result of collaboration between several researchers from the sector – will discuss the various first- and second-generation product categories distributed in Italy starting from the period of post-war reconstruction, in order to illustrate the reasons that led to their birth and development on the market. The second chapter analyses the world’s most widespread eating patterns with particular reference to food pyramids and guides, to identify how foodstuffs ought to be consumed and how often.

The third chapter of this work focuses on the role of technological innovation and examines the drivers that determined its development, in light of the fact that the food industry is recognised as having one of the highest levels of innovation. The fourth chapter analyses the evolution of organic agriculture products, which have been regulated by the European Union since 1991. They have become increasingly widespread throughout the world, guaranteeing better food quality in terms of the use and content of synthetic chemicals. The fifth chapter analyses products with PDO, PGI and TSG certifications, which are used to emphasise a product’s properties that derive from its strict connection with the territory of origin.

Chapter 6 focuses on the new models of farming production attributable to precision agriculture, which, with increased probability, will spread internationally in order to allow greater farming productivity with less waste of environmental resources thanks to the use of more evolved technologies.

Chapter 7 examines products with the denomination ‘light’, which form a valid alternative to the consumption of conventional foodstuffs belonging to the same category. It highlights their characteristics and production methods, pricing and labelling, and the repercussions on purchasing and consumption choices.

Chapter 8 analyses ‘gluten free’ products, which are widely available on the market not only for individuals with illnesses related to gluten consumption, but even more so by those who, albeit in a perfect state of health, attribute a higher degree of salubrity and health effectiveness to these products. Lastly, the final and ninth chapter examines functional products, which include a growing number of food items with health properties and the ability to contribute to the consumer’s health and well-being.

An analysis of the most consumed food categories in the world may constitute a starting point for scientific debate intended to improve product quality, with the sole aim of protecting the health and well-being of consumers.

References

Nielsen. (2016, December). Nielsen breakthrough innovation report, European edition.

Tarabella, A., & Burchi, B. (2016). Aware food choices: Bridging the gap between consumer knowledge about nutritional requirements and nutritional information. Cham: Springer.Crossref

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

Angela TarabellaFood Products Evolution: Innovation Drivers and Market TrendsSpringerBriefs in Food, Health, and Nutritionhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23811-1_2

Food Guides

Angela Tarabella¹   and Angela Apicella¹

(1)

Department of Economics and Management, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

Angela Tarabella

Email: [e-mail]

Abstract

Consumers are often confused by the information and advice continuously offered by the various sources on nutrition and healthy lifestyles, sometimes even by the details on food labels about the composition of nutrients (carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals). The information is based on historical moments that affect food availability and messages that accompany the sale, as for example the current trend to consume gluten-free products by people suffering from celiac disease and people consuming gluten-free products by fad. Conversely, in the Italian post-war period, many advertising posters offered gluten-added pasta to help balance a low-nutrient diet. Nowadays, this poster (Fig. 1) may seem paradoxical but it was the result of an Italian historical era, with a completely different food availability. Just remember that, according to the first data available from FAO in 1961, the Kcal per capita daily available amounted to 2958 and the protein availability were equal to 82.54 grams per day per person. In 2013 the Kcal availability rose to 3579 registering an increase of 21% and protein availability increased to 108.51 grams per day per person, registering a 31% increase attesting a greater distribution of both availabilities among the population in order to ensure the extinction of structural and contingent forms of hunger.

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Fig. 1

Advertising of gluten-added pasta (a) and gluten-free pasta (b). (Source: a www.​barilla.​it; b www.​buitoni.​it)

In order to understand nutrition in future years, several factors must be taken into account: the internationalization of food as well as the need to satisfy food availability in developing countries, food sustainability and the protection of each individual’s health. Therefore, we can distinguish two fundamental concepts, food security, intended as the need to guarantee populations’ sufficient access to food availability, associated to the quantitative disproportion between North and South in the world, defined by FAO as a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Based on this definition, four food security dimensions can be identified: food availability, economic and physical access to food, food utilization and stability over time, and food security, to be interpreted as the need to ensure the non-toxicity of foodstuffs along the entire production chain where chemical, physical or biological hazards may occur, a problem that is mostly registered in globalized food contexts.

Foodstuff Classification

In recent years, food products have undergone a major reformulation to meet the demands of consumers who are increasingly demanding and attentive to nutritional, symbolic, evocative and healthy contents. The food industry has gradually changed supply and created highly innovative products with excellent quality results. Just remember all the gluten-free or lactose-free products made to meet the needs of people with obstructed metabolic activity when digesting certain substances. As a result, a comprehensive review of the general food taxonomy was required, given the increase in nutrition information from highly respected medical and pharmaceutical sources. If the traditional classification provided for the division of food into homogeneous classes, today this division should not be considered comprehensive because it cannot include all the food innovations of recent years. The traditional classification divided the products into 7 categories including: fresh and preserved meat, seafood products, eggs; milk and derivatives; cereals and derivatives, tubers; dried legumes; fat and condiment oil; vegetables and fruit sources of vitamin A; vegetables and fruit sources of vitamin C (Vannozzi and Leandro 2009). The many innovations in the food sector, from ‘free from’ to ‘vegan’, from international products to local specialties do not allow us to place all foods in conventional classes. There is a general consensus on the importance of food nomenclature and its respective description. The preparation of reliable data on food requires a precise identification of the different types of food. Even good quality data can be a source of error if they come from foods that are not clearly defined (Polacchi 1987). Therefore, we propose an analysis of the nutrition information and food pyramids, in order to properly place the products based on the real needs of the body, regardless of their classification.

Food Guides: History, Evolution and International Models

In order to disseminate simple and understandable nutritional information, scientific societies, such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have produced and updated the basic food dietary guidelines (FBDGs) since 1992 (FAO/WHO 1992, 1996; WHO/FAO 1998). The guidelines are designed to provide general indications of what the population should consume in terms of food and nutrients. They are written in a language easily understandable to the general public and illustrations addressing the basic problems of public health, such as chronic non-communicable diseases, providing a basic framework for planning meals or daily menus, in order to obtain a healthy and balanced diet that is consistent with an appropriate social and economic lifestyle (Montagnese et al. 2015). The Food Guides, composed of food groups as we know them, do not appear in the official publications of the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) until 1916. Caroline L. Hunt, Nutrition Specialist at the Bureau of Home Economics, is generally credited as the creator of the first food guide. In this guide, foodstuffs were classified into five macro-groups: milk and meat, cereals, vegetables and fruits, fats and fatty foodstuffs, sugars and sugary foodstuffs. The criteria of food grouping were based on what was known at the time about nutritional needs and their composition. The quantities of food were listed in family units and offered in the form of menus and recipes. In 1916, Hunt published the booklet Food for Young Children, dedicated to child nutrition, while the following year, based on Hunt’s studies, the first official guide for general groups of population was published, with the title How to Select Foods (Hunt 1917). In the early 1930s, the economic ties of the great American depression even influenced the development of food guides, turning them into the necessary advice on how to choose foods from a nutritional, but also economic point of view. In 1933, Hazel K. Stiebeling, a food economist from the USDA’s Household Economics Bureau, created a buying guide to help people choose food in order to balance their diet (Stiebeling and Ward 1933). It comes in the form of food plans for families in relation to the different levels of economic availability of the same, defining the amount of food to be purchased and used in a week, divided into four ranges of expenditure, to meet the nutritional needs of men, women and children of different ages. These family food plans were illustrated with 12 large groups of foods: milk, potatoes and sweet potatoes, dried beans, peas and walnuts, tomatoes and citrus fruits, green and yellow leafy vegetables, other vegetables and fruit, eggs, lean meat, poultry and fish, flour and cereals, butter and other fats, sugars. In this way, it was recognized that some groups of foods, such as those based on cereals, potatoes and dried beans, could integrate other groups of foods while maintaining a relatively low purchase cost for the period and, therefore, being accessible to all segments of the population. The optimum composition of expenditure from nutritional and economic point of view is an important goal to achieve for every family, but over the years the economic dimension has gradually lost importance in favour of the exclusive nutritional value. In 1943, the Basic Seven food guide was released in the form of a flyer from the National Wartime Nutrition Guide (USDA 1943). The guide included the following food groups: (1) green and yellow vegetables; (2) oranges, tomatoes and grapefruit; (3) potatoes, other vegetables and fruits; (4) milk and dairy products; (5) foods based on meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dried peas and beans; (6) bread, flour and cereals; (7) butter and fortified margarine. Rather than the number of portions of the food groups, this guide had the task of suggesting alternative choices of food groups in case of limited supplies during the war. With the end of the war in 1946, the Basic Seven was revised and published in the US Food Guide. This guide divided the different categories of foods into recommended portions, suggesting their daily portions. Basic Seven has been widely used for many years, but its complexity and lack of specificity over portions have led to the need for successive simplifications. A new food guide containing four groups of food was published in 1956, as part of the Essentials of an Adequate Diet by the USDA (Page and Phipard 1956). The guide was later published in the form of a flyer with the title of Food for Fitness: A Daily Food Guide (USDA 1958). The food guide outlined in these publications became known as the Basic Four, where a minimum number of portions of four food groups was recommended: (e.g. two portions of dairy products, two portions of meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dried beans and nuts, four portions of fruit and vegetables and four servings of wheat products). In 1979, the USDA presented the Hassle-Free Guide to a Better Diet in a colourful booklet titled Food (USDA 1980), whose indications were very similar to the Basic Four, since even the description of the formation of a daily diet had the same number of portions for the group of milk, meat, fruit and vegetables and wheat products, to which a fifth food group was added, consisting of fats, sweets and alcohol. This different food group contained foods that provided a lot of calories and few nutrients in comparison to the other four but took into account the process of industrialization and the spread of an increasingly large number of foods