New Zealand-based dairy player Fonterra is targeting the health and well-being market with the release of its new nutrition solutions brand Nutiani, unveiled at this year’s Food Ingredients Europe (FiE) show in Paris, France.

Fonterra recently announced a unio with Nestlé to study a means of reducing dairy farm emissions. This announcement of Fonterra’s step into the lucrative nutrition sector marks further progress of the company into a space of wellness and sustainability.

Nutiani is showcasing its portfolio of ingredients comprising probiotics, phospholipids and lactoferrin, with brand experts on stand to explain how they can support health and well-being needs in medical and lifestyle nutrition. 

Alex Williams, marketing manager for Fonterra Europe, speaks to FoodIngredientsFirst from the show floor.

“With Nutiani, our brand works across inner, physical and mental well-being. So our concepts and innovations on the stand at the show include ingredients that support those health benefits,” she explains.

Targeted nutrition
Williams stresses that Nutiani’s products provide targeted health benefits for consumers.

“We have chocolate that has probiotics and lactoferrin in it, so it’s got benefits for immunity and digestion. And we also mix powders and bars and energy drinks, including phospholipids, or probiotics,” Williams states.

“Our team can work with customers to adapt and customize these concepts to include certain ingredients or to position after certain health benefits.”

A dairy giant with global reach, Fonterra’s new nutrition brand Nutrini begins with access to a vast network.Trend analysis 
These products are developed to cater to trending consumer needs, Williams underscores.

“Fonterra commissioned a market study with Ipsos. We wanted to understand consumers’ desire for health and well-being products. So we carried it across seven countries, with 5,000 consumers online,” she says.

“What we saw from that was that consumers, by household, are concerned about their health. They are looking to manage it proactively and are turning to nutrition as one of the key ways to manage their health. But a lot of them are struggling to do so.”

Nutiani plans to position itself as a nutrition company that can meet these modern consumer demands.

“Eight in ten European consumers cannot manage their health how they want to. There are a few driving factors behind that: 20% struggle with busy lifestyles. So we can try and fill that gap,” Williams notes.

“Consumers want nutritional products to manage their health and nutrition, but their busy lifestyles forbid that. So if we can help customers find solutions that many have on-the-go convenient formats and also have all those health benefits, that would be a win.” 

Williams believes that modern customers are less trusting and will seek evidence for on label-claims.

“One of the other things that came through was consumers don’t necessarily trust everything they see about products on the market,” she says.

With Nutiani, we’ve got evidence to support the health claims. So we can build products that consumers can trust, ingredients they are excited about, and more likely to purchase.”  

Well-being management
Nutiani is targeting the top ten trending customer concerns for well-being management.

Another interesting trend was when we asked the consumers what well-being areas they would try to manage, Williams adds. 

 On a list of their top ten, the top three for European consumers were overall mood, sleep and cognition. 

“So we see those trends, how consumers care about both the physical and the mental and the connection between the two,” she says. 

Current and future concerns
Nutiani plans to tap into consumers’ ongoing concerns with immunity and wellness after COVID-19 and target rising trends in women’s health.

She explains that COVID-19 was still among Health Center Resource research’s top three consumer concerns and 85% of European consumers want to manage their health to relieve major illnesses. 

“One of the key reasons is that they want to live longer, healthier lives. Consumers are more worried about immunity, post-COVID, not just to prevent disease but also for a good life and a longer life,” flags Williams. 

Williams also spotlights women’s health by responding to questions regarding rising trends at FiE.

“We keep hearing a lot about women’s health,” she outlines. “How we want to approach it is that women’s needs during their lifecycle differ. So, for example, with menstruation-related anemia, lactoferrin can help with iron absorption. When you are trying to have a child, there are benefits around our probiotics and gestational diabetes or preventing postnatal depression.” 

“Women’s health is a big trend. But maybe one piece we’ll see missing is recognizing that the needs differ for women across the life stages,” Williams summarizes.