Summer 2001 Issue — Foreword

by Nick Hawker

Managing Director
Vitafoods International Ltd.

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Over the last few years many of the world's largest food and pharma multinationals have recognised that the nutraceuticals and functional food industry is major opportunity for growth and a very high-stakes game. The global nutrition market is currently estimated to be worth US$500 billion worldwide and has a current growth rate of 7% annually worldwide. This is expected to rise to a 10% growth over the next 3 years (Nutrition Business Journal). Companies are devoting vast financial resources to the industry. Inevitably, they are drawing up battle lines for controlling intellectual property, marketing channels and raw materials sourcing. Their commerical enthusiasm has been tempered only by the governmental initiatives to regulate the industry on both sides of the Atlantic, which will have far reaching impact on the future direction of product developement, as well as human health and welfare.

Marketing dynamics and drivers of the rapid growth in this sector include the demands of a rapidly aging population, the government's encouragement of individual action towards health-preservation, an educated consumer, technological and scientific advances, and a highly developed and extremely competitive pharmaceutical and food industry.

From my point of view the most important factor in the development of this new sector is the scientific discovery from which all other issues should follow. While nutritional deficiencies have long been linked to disease, empirical in vivo evidence is now being published in reputable peer-reviewed scientific journals that increasingly points to nutritional factors as central to the prevention and now astonishingly the actual treatment of an ever-widening range of diseases. This new evidence seems to represent the beginnings of a fundamental shift in the approach to future scientific research on disease prevention and treatment, and is likely to have broad implications for public health management in coming years.

Nick Hawker
Managing Director

Vitafoods International Ltd

http://www.vitafoods.co.uk

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