Healthy Ageing Conference: Silvers Market is at a Tipping Point

11 Dec 2014 --- The 3rd Healthy Ageing 2014 was held from 3-5 December 2014 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This meeting is part of the Healthy Ageing Platform, where experts from retail, medical nutrition, food, supplement industries, patient organisations and investors, share their insights into this market. The experts agreed that huge opportunities exist in the healthy ageing market if products are market correctly and taste well; and now is the time to act on them.

A broad range of topics related to Healthy Ageing where discussed ranging from requirements necessary to keep elderly independent and well nourished; how to move from dietary supplements to functional food; how a good diet can improve quality of life; how to market your healthy food to the right market segments; the European partnerships for Healthy Ageing and products currently on the market.

Healthy ageing is about a shift in paradigm from a challenge and burden, to an opportunity in terms of societal, intellectual benefits and assets, looking at it in a pro-active care and improved functioning, according to Mr. Jorge Antunes, Acting Head of unit innovation for Health and Consumers of DG SANCO of the European Commission.

In Europe, the debate on ageing is changing and for the first time it is possible to target seniors directly, according to Benno van Mersbergen, Business development manager at FrieslandCampina Ingredients. Two interesting product examples are Meritene Activ, the shelf-stable dairy drink of Nestlé and the Best Ager line of the German sport nutrition brand, AllStars. Meritene Activ targets grandfathers and elderly people, while the Best Ager products are developed for the silver generation visiting sports clubs.

Keeping elderly independent can save on health care cost, estimated at 120 billion euro across Europe (1), according to Ms. Sarah Newton, Commercial and Business Development Director at Abbott Nutrition International in Europe. Governments and health care systems can introduce mandatory routine screening for malnutrition and its risk factors, using a relatively simple screening tool such as MUST (developed by BAPEN). Each year 53 million people die of non-communicable diseases like heart strokes, diabetes etc. Proper diet can prevent 75% of heart strokes; for cancers, diet can prevent about 30%.

What are the barriers for moving forward? Adopting healthy diet and lifestyle habits, complemented with modern medical care, reforming the health sector and a systematic well-integrated portfolio of initiatives delivered at scale is needed to address the opportunity.
 
The annual Healthy Ageing meeting is part of the Healthy Ageing Platform, organised by Bridge2Food. The objectives of the Healthy Ageing platform are to accelerate innovation, shape new partnerships and networks between different links in the food, medical and supplement industries.

“It is fantastic to see that there is so much interest and drive at food companies to move ahead and offer different solutions for different age-groups,” adds Gerard Klein Essink, Director at Bridge2Food. “Segmenting ‘silver’ consumers based on needs and demands is key to further success, without jeopardising a mainstream positioning.”