Impact
Bridging the gap between food and medical nutrition
Objective
To better understand the medical nutrition market and its innovation opportunities for a confidential client.
Approach
We leveraged our codified research methodologies to explore the medical nutrition market, including its size, segmentation, key players, unmet consumer needs, and rules to entry.
Impact
As a result of our work, our client has a better understanding of their unique position in the market. They have confidence in how their current capability and expertise can be leveraged as a competitive advantage across a roadmap of innovation priorities and projects for the future.
The relationship between food and health is evolving rapidly as consumers increasingly understand and value the role nutrition plays in their overall health and wellness. This has created a critical and interdisciplinary opportunity at the intersection of the food, medical nutrition, and supplement industries. RTI Innovation Advisors is helping clients navigate this complex, rapidly evolving landscape by providing strategic insights, scientific rigor, and market understanding companies need to future-proof their portfolios and seize new opportunities.
The Rise in Opportunities Across Medical Nutrition
Further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers are becoming increasingly curious about the role nutrition plays in their overall health and wellness. More often, consumers are seeking nutrition solutions that go beyond providing basic nutrition by addressing aspects of their overall health and wellness.
This heightened interest has created a host of opportunities across the medical nutrition space for both medical nutrition companies and food and beverage companies alike. But what is medical nutrition?
What is Medical Nutrition?
Medical nutrition is a broad, evolving category encompassing foods and supplements that are nutritionally tailored for disease prevention or management. While some medical foods are formulated for a specific disease state, the increased consumer interest in health and wellness represents broader opportunities for medical nutrition to encompass health-promoting foods more generally. In this way, the next generation of medical foods have potential to appeal to a broader demographic that is looking to support their health across multiple body systems. Some recent examples of familiar foods that have been renovated to meet consumer demand for health and wellness support include higher protein pastas, condiments with hidden vegetables, or alcohol alternatives that provide hydration benefits.
Reimagining Food and Beverage Portfolios for Health and Wellness
Established players in the food and beverage industries are reimaging their portfolios to include ways for existing brands to align with the market, while new players from start-ups to wellness brands, are pushing forward to introduce novel products with targeted health and wellness benefits.
Companies are striving to meet increasing consumer demands for products that have health and wellness benefits tailored to the specific needs of their demographic, while also being supported by scientific claims. To succeed in this space, companies must innovate around options that retain the familiarity of food products, plus deliver unique health and wellness benefits.
Leveraging Research and Market Insights to Drive Innovation
To address this issue, we leveraged our proven research methodologies; worked with our client to explore opportunities in the medical nutrition market; and gave teams a better understanding of the size, segmentation, key players, unmet consumer needs, and rules to entry. These insights armed our client with confidence in how their team’s current capabilities and expertise can be leveraged to drive value and become a leader in the market.
Key Considerations for Entering the Medical Nutrition Market
Based on our work, we identified the following factors for consideration as companies explore opportunities across the medical nutrition market:
- There is skepticism around the use of foods for treating conditions. Our experts expressed concerns for the level of evidence needed to prove food as a treatment for disease. Historically, medical foods and nutritional supplements have defined medical nutrition and have been used reactively to treat specific conditions or events, like surgery.
- This skepticism has led to opportunities for prevention of disease with nutritionally tailored conventional foods. While there is skepticism around food as treatment, our experts note opportunity in maximizing a healthy diet for disease prevention. New start-ups and federal programs are emerging to understand how conventional food and beverage products can be used in the prevention and management of disease.
Partnering with RTI Innovation Advisors for Medical Nutrition Innovation
Our work exploring the medical nutrition market is grounded in scientific rigor and a data-driven understanding of evolving consumer preferences, allowing us to guide companies through identification of new opportunities, validating new ideas, and de-risking innovation strategy. For the past two decades, we have helped innovation, research and development, and new product development teams access emerging technologies that lead to breakthrough products in the food, medical technology, and consumer products sectors.
RTI Innovation Advisors work closely with our clients to build a robust understanding of the market, its key players, and the unmet needs of consumers. Whether it’s repositioning existing brands for the medical nutrition market or developing entirely new product lines, our team equips businesses with the tools and knowledge to thrive in this changing landscape.
