Affordable Nutrition for All
How much longer can the American consumer afford high food prices? According to Innova Market Insights, the number two food and beverage trend for 2023 is Affordable Nutrition (2). When broken down, consumers are looking for two things: 1) foods with high nutritional value at the right price, and 2) innovative products that make essential nutrition accessible and affordable. Today's consumers may feel as if healthy eating is out of reach, so ingredient suppliers and manufacturers alike should work together to bring consumers the highest quality product at a price that is within budget.
One of the largest increases in cost is the Cereal and Bakery category that saw a 16.1% increase from December 2021 to December 2022. The average cost of a loaf of bread a year ago was $1.53 and $2.09 for white and wheat bread respectively. Today the cost is $1.87 for white bread and $2.42 for wheat bread. The price of cookies has also increased ninety cents (3). The rise in finished goods cost can be attributed to the price of raw materials, supply chain issues, and the economic correction of a global pandemic.
Following a healthy diet becomes more difficult in the current economic climate, but creating nutritious food products is not out of reach. Nutrition is defined as the process of providing or obtaining the food necessary for health and growth, and according to the CDC following the USDA Dietary Guidelines a healthy dietary patten is associated with beneficial outcomes for all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer (5). Based on the table below, the American diet is lacking in many categories including total vegetables, fruits, whole grains, dairy, seafood, and nut, seeds, and soy products (6).
Consumers aged 60+ are the most likely to adhere to nutrition guidelines while consumers ages 14-18 are the least likely (6). Under consumption in these key categories means that consumers are lacking in essential macro and micronutrients like fiber, healthy fats, B vitamins, Vitamin D, calcium, folate, along with many others. As food innovators, there are many tools that can be utilized to help American consumers achieve healthy dietary pattens by creating healthy options in all places where foods and beverages are purchased.
Similar strategies can be utilized today across the processed food portfolio to both enhance nutrition and support lowering cost of goods. Manildra can provide wheat-based products that support enrichment of foods with key nutrients like fiber and protein with FiberGem® resistant wheat starch and GemPro® wheat proteins. Adding FiberGem to conventional formulas like bread, buns, and flour tortillas is an easy way to achieve dietary fiber claims and narrow nutrient gaps. Or adding wheat protein like GemPro Plus can help to provide additional protein to flatbreads while also improving dough rheology. Our portfolio of products can also support the optimization of whole grain consumption as whole grain breads tend to require additional support from products like Gem of the West vital wheat gluten, or GemPro HPG, to maintain volume and texture in baked bread. Manildra ingredients, like GemPro Nova, can also improve the affordability of goods by assisting with cost savings for animal-based proteins like eggs and dairy. Our GemPro proteins can provide both protein content and functional benefits that bakers derive from eggs and dairy at a lower cost.
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