HealthFocus has carried out the first health and nutrition survey on a global basis, involving 16,500 interviewees in 30 countries, aged 18 to 70 years and the primary grocery shoppers for their households.
The survey has been carried out in even-numbered years in the United States since 1990, but in other markets just two surveys have taken place to date - in 2001 and 2003.
In the United States, the latest figures showed that ten percent of participants said they always base their grocery decisions on health concerns, while 59 percent sometimes do, 25 percent sometimes do and 6 percent rarely or never do.
When asked the same question, 11 percent of Western European shoppers answered 'always', 11 percent 'often', 34 percent sometimes and 15 percent 'rarely or never'.
Whilst Gilbert said that the differences between markets are very clear, there are also some surprising commonalities.
Across all markets she noted that heart disease and cancer are the most common health concerns. Tiredness, stress and being overweight are also issues that consumers grapple with no matter where in the world they live, and they are inclined to look for answers in brands that they recognise as offering better tasting, nutritional and natural qualities.
"Understanding these common priorities will be the key to success," said Gilbert.
Taste is king
From the global data, Gilbert has come up with a 'to do list' for companies looking to launch functional food products. And at the very top of this list, is taste - gone are the days when people expect something that is good for them to be unpleasant.
"For consumers today taste is king and pleasure is queen," she said. "If you don't get the taste right it doesn't matter what else you do."
Key to this trend is the aging population. The baby boom generation that is now reaching middle age is very markedly different from the older age-group of twenty years ago. Rather than going quietly into old age satisfied with their lot, they feel they have reached what Gilbert calls the "age of entitlement": they want natural products and convenience; healthy and great tasting food; and they think they are entitled to be fat and fit, if they so wish.
This wish to have it all straddles all consumer industries not just foods and, given their prevalence and spending power, the wise company will do everything it can to cater to their whim.
The desire to look good is another powerful factor influencing grocery-buyers - both middle aged and otherwise. If faced with a choice between a product that can help prevent aging and one that can help ward off cardiovascular disease, many consumers will be drawn to the appearance-based benefits over the health-based.
This trend is driving cross over between the food and cosmetics industries through products widely known as cosmeceuticals and, according to Gilbert, we have so far seen only the beginning of this:
"We will see more and more competition from cosmetics companies coming into the food and beverage industry."
An individual approach
Gilbert also drew attention to the growing trend towards nutritional individualisation. Three quarters of all consumers believe that they nutritional needs are different from everyone else's, she said, and food companies should be careful of offering "one size fits all" nutritional advice.
The challenge is how to bring products to market to be appealing to one group, but without alienating other potential users - that is, to be gender specific without being gender exclusive.
It is a delicate balance that has been achieved by Kellogg with Special K cereal, for example, which is aimed primarily at women but with its benefits for the entire family soundly cited.
But while it is easy to load cereals with a wide range of added nutrients without changing the fact that it is, fundamentally still cereal, not all foodstuffs offer the same elasticity, warned Gilbert.
There comes a point when adding nutrients to milk, for example, when it can no longer reasonably be marketed as milk. Companies should be wary of pushing one product's functionality too far, thereby pushing away consumers who want to maintain a sense of normality but still eat healthily.
Communicating with the consumer
Another way that companies can make functional foods more appealing is by using terms that consumers already perceived to be good for them. When confronted with products containing lycopene in the form of tomato, omega 3 in the form of fish oil or beta glucan in the form of oats, consumers are more likely to be lured by the everyday ingredients they understand to be good for them.
Thus tomatoes, fish and oats carry more clout than scientific-sounding ingredients that may not, despite increasing airing in the media, have fully entered the consumer consciousness as beneficial to health.
In a world where consumers already have a lot to worry about, especially in the face of food safety scares and concerns over integrity, using simple, non-scientific language that is appropriate to a particular market may help allay their fears.
For example Danone has achieved far greater success in the United States since rebranding its Actimel probiotic product as Danactiv, since it was initially marketed as containing good bacteria. But since bacteria are perceived as intrinsically bad in the US and the idea of good bacteria was completely new, it was too much of a leap of faith to expect consumers to believe the company's claims.
But while gaining the consumer's trust and drawing them to try a product is an important first step, encouraging them to make repeat purchases comes back to the question of taste.
"If taste is missing, the consumer is missing too," concluded Gilbert.
"It is the consumer who will decide whether a product is successful in the marketplace, and the most successful companies consider the consumer very early on in the development process."