Cardio health claims: If you can say it, you can sell it

When it comes to the heart-health segment, one of the great challenges is how to communicate a product's benefits to the consumer.

"We feel consumers are beginning to look for specific benefits in functional-food health categories they are familiar with, like cardiovascular health," said Jeremy Moore, director of marketing and strategic development at Stratum Nutrition of Missouri.

The company's research indicates that the broad-based claim 'supports heart health' is still powerful, but specific claims such as 'supports healthy cholesterol levels,' 'supports healthy blood pressure,' and 'supports healthy arteries' have "very strong consumer appeal and offer more differentiation in a market saturated with general cardiovascular health claims," Moore said.

"But both the FTC and FDA are making it very difficult to clearly communicate the benefits to consumers," he said, "even when there is good science supporting the market positioning."

Despite the claims issues, the use of the heart-health platform is as strong as ever. Innova Market Insights recently reported that 'heart-health' product launches nearly tripled over the past five years and accounted for nearly 1.5 percent of total food and drinks launches recorded over the 12-month period to the end of April 2010. This is up from less than 0.7 percent in 2005.

The US and Europe account for two-thirds of these launches. In terms of product types, bakery and cereals captured north of 25 percent, dairy products had 12 percent, ready meals and meal components had 10 percent, and soft drinks accounted for nine percent. Other sectors featuring significant numbers of heart-health launches included hot beverages; meat, fish and eggs; fruit and vegetable products; and soups, sauces and seasonings.