Top Dietary Supplement Delivery Formats for Immune Health
What are the top dietary supplement delivery formats? Growth in today’s vitamin and dietary supplement market highlights an increase consumer focus on health, wellness and immunity. As proof, Innova reports that immune health was the number one claim in global supplements development in 2020, with 30% of total supplement launches carrying an immune health claim. This growth in new product development represented +10% CAGR from 2016-2020 (compared to 8% for all supplements).
While interest in immunity as a standalone benefit remains high, Kerry’s research reveals that around the world, consumers cite benefits, like support for healthy bones and joints, among others, as top reasons to purchase healthy lifestyle products.
Popular formats resonate
For consumers, vitamins and dietary supplements for immune health remain a popular delivery system for added health benefits based on their tailored health and wellness goals. For example, busy, on-the-go consumers look to supplements as an easy, time-saving solution to manage their health, while older adults seek nutritional supplements that offer healthy aging benefits. But one thing remains the same across all consumer groups, which is the demand for effective supplement products that can deliver the targeted health benefits aligned to their specific health and wellness goals. Within the category, dietary supplements containing value-added functional ingredients targeting immune health are disrupting the market and offer manufacturers the ability to differentiate their products.
With intensified focus on immune health, consumers are broadening their scope in the search for supplements. Innova forecasts that supplements will remain a top format, largely because of their powerful association with vitamins and minerals, which are key components of supplement products.
Trending formats include:
- Shots: The global functional shots market grew at a CAGR of around 10% between 2015 and 2020, stimulated by rising consumer demand for ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages.
- Sachets, Stick Packs and Powders: According to FMCG Gurus, in 2020, nearly 50% of consumers had purchased powder to add to shakes or beverages. As well, FMCG Gurus reports that although nearly 40% of North American consumers now say they use protein supplements in support of workouts and physical activity, 60% say they use them as “an everyday product to help get me through the day.”
- Gummy supplements: This popular format continues to experience growth with new product development increasing by a CAGR of 37% over the five years through 2020, according to Innova.
Clearly communicating benefits is key
As consumers become more aware of the multitude of benefits offered by a growing variety of products, clearly communicating an ingredient’s well-substantiated benefits is key to meeting demand. Kerry’s 2021 global
research shows that believability of claims and uniqueness of a product are important to consumers.
The research also shows consumers’ top considerations when evaluating an immune health product:
- Did my own research on ingredient and product benefits
- The benefits explained and supported on the packaging
- Have seen research or scientific data claims for the product
Formulating with a science-backed immune health ingredient with clear, substantiated claims that can be easily
paired with ingredients supporting complementary need states can be a recipe for creating differentiated products
that meet consumers’ personalized needs.