U.S. consumer sales of functional foods and beverages inched up 2.7% to $37.4 billion in 2009, according to Nutrition Business Journal’s latest functional food and beverage market estimates. Although any growth during the current economic downturn can be viewed as a positive, the slowdown in sales expansion last year was significant for the functional food and beverage category.

NBJ provided a detailed overview of its 2009 U.S. functional food and beverage estimates during the 2010 Functional Food and Beverage Web Seminar.

Along with diving into the numbers, NBJ Editor Carlotta Mast and NBJ Research Manager Carla Ooyen explored how the economic downturn affected the functional category and analyzed emerging product developments and regulatory issues affecting functional foods and beverages. Jeff Hilton, co-founder and president of Integrated Marketing Group, joined the conversation to discuss the issues and trends that would help shape the functional food and beverage market in 2010 and beyond.  Ivan Wasserman, partner at Esquire, Manatt Phelps and Phillips, provided an update on what was happening with functional food and beverage regulations and FDA/FTC enforcement of label claims.

“With signs of economic recovery surfacing every day, the U.S. functional food and beverage market is expected to experience an upswing in sales growth over the next several years,” said Carlotta Mast, NBJ’s editor and the primary author of the 2010 Functional Food and Beverage Issue (which published in February). “But with the increased flexing of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory enforcement muscles, the growing skepticism of shoppers over hyped-up label claims, and manufacturers more closely scrutinizing functional ingredients over both cost and science, the industry will also likely face some significant challenges in the near future as it works to win over larger numbers of consumers and provide real functional nutrition benefits to an American population in desperate need of health and wellness.”

Listen to this Web Seminar and Receive:

• An analysis of the size and growth of the U.S. functional foods and beverage market by product category and sales channel
• Discussion of how the economic downturn affected functional food and beverage sales and what retailers and manufacturers are doing to cope
• An analysis of results from NBJ’s 2010 Functional Food and Beverage Survey
• A review of the European Union’s health claims rules and how they will affect the global functional food and beverage market
• Discussion of how stepped up regulatory enforcement by the FDA and FTC is affecting the U.S. functional food and beverage market
• An analysis of current functional product formulation and discussion of the mounting pressure on manufacturers to include efficacious ingredient amounts in their foods and beverages