Probiotics “eat directly”, another new opportunity for category!

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the gradual formation of probiotic consumption habits means greater market space. Penetration into more daily and fragmented consumption scenarios, direct drinking probiotics brings new opportunities.

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Text: Megan  

Source: foodaily daily food (ID: foodaily)

In the past five or six years, China’s Probiotic industry has developed rapidly at an average growth rate of more than 15%. As one of the fastest growing fields, probiotics have broken through the functional raw materials themselves and are active in various categories. But at the same time, with the improvement of the public’s awareness of probiotic efficacy and science, issues such as survival, tolerance and effectiveness have gradually attracted the attention of consumers.

 

So, how should probiotics continue to iterate to activate a larger market? With the development of consumers’ eating habits, how can probiotics solve more convenient and high-frequency consumption demands? Will it be a good choice to focus on probiotics and penetrate into different scenes and categories?  

Probiotics, mixed with wind and water

 

Starting from intestinal health, probiotics began to extend their tentacles to different fields and get the pick of consumers

 

As one of the annual business hotspots of foodaily’s daily food in 2021 – probiotics advance, the protagonist halo shapes a new category. Foodaily believes that probiotics are expected to break through the functional raw materials themselves and shape a new category cognition. In the past year, we have indeed observed the lively promotion of probiotic related products.

 

In addition to Yili, Mengniu and other companies have launched probiotic products. Last year, Nestle launched its high-end organic dietary nutritional supplement brand “garden of life”“   Introduce the Chinese market and launch a series of new immune products; In addition, by entering the field of probiotics, the cutting-edge brand wonderlab has created the second popular single product, which has become the top brand of tmall probiotics within 2 months after listing

 

Source: wonderlab

 

In terms of market scale, with the gradual increase of consumers’ attention to gastrointestinal health, the global probiotic market is developing rapidly. Euromonitor International data show that the global probiotic market is worth about 40 billion euros (about 300 billion yuan) in 2019. The scale of China’s Probiotic market has increased from 48.6 billion yuan in 2015 to about 85 billion yuan in 2020, with a compound growth rate of 11.83%, which further reflects that probiotics is a potential incremental market.

 

From the application field of probiotics, the data of China Health Care Association show that 78% of probiotics are used in dairy industry, which is the best carrier of probiotics. At the same time, they are also widely used in granules (8.6%) and health products (5.5%).

 

At present, the market space of dairy products and health products is still very large. However, breaking the restrictions of fermented dairy products, while observing global innovation, foodaily found that fruit and vegetable juice fermented by probiotics, ready to drink vinegar, pickles, plant-based yogurt and other categories have emerged one after another, and probiotic + categories such as snacks, breakfast cereals and soft candy have also entered our vision.

 

Source: the cultured snacking Co.

At the same time, since Pasteur discovered Lactobacillus in 1857, the efficacy of probiotics is closely bound up with the intestinal health. However, with the research on the types and efficacy of probiotics, the probiotic function has broken through the intestinal health, emotional regulation, female reproductive health, oral care, skin care, diabetes and so on have attracted the attention and favor. This brings the possibility of activating a larger probiotic market.

 

Large market space, large consumer demand and large market growth, but the voice of doubt will become louder and louder. With the continuous improvement of consumers’ awareness of prebiotic efficacy, especially young consumers who pay attention to science and technology, they are changing from simply focusing on the number of probiotics to focusing on more professional effectiveness.

 

Therefore, although the consumption base market of probiotics has initially taken shape, we still see that there are consumption pain points to be solved. How can probiotics solve consumers’ doubts about survival rate and enhance probiotic efficacy? When eating probiotics has gradually become a consumption habit, how can we tap more convenient and daily consumption scenarios, adapt to the current fast-paced lifestyle, seize this rapid growth period and activate greater market space?

 

When consumption habits are formed and consumption frequency increases,

Probiotics “eat directly” has become necessary

 

When observing global innovative products, we found that “direct drinking powder” appeared in the field of brewing powder to provide consumers with a more convenient and effective way of eating and create a better consumption experience, especially probiotic products and dietary supplements.

 

For example, in the second year after its establishment, the sales of care / of, an overseas personal nutritional supplement brand, increased seven times over the previous year. A large part of its sales came from the contribution of customized direct drink powder products, which covered four series: energy supplement, immune enhancement, digestion and sleep.

 

Source: care / of

 

In addition, foodaily learned that direct drinking probiotic solid drinks have emerged in the field of probiotics in the domestic market. At the same time, through the support of innovative technical solutions, it can ensure high activity and high stability in the production process.

 

Source: Zhiyi

 

There are new technologies behind the birth of new species, and the emergence of new technologies indicates a new category dividend

 

Innovative technologies can often subvert a category by better solving consumption pain points. Behind the emergence of direct drinking probiotics, we also noticed the emergence of innovative technologies.

 

Foodaily learned that behind the direct drinking probiotics is the innovative technical solution of “probiotic direct drinking powder containing sugar free jumping sugar” developed by ODM / OEM supplier Hengmei, and won the “innovative technology award” of the third Isee innovation award this year (initiated by foodaily daily food).

As an innovative enterprise, Hengmei has continuously developed for one or two years. What kind of consumption pain point has Hengmei gained insight into? What kind of new species do you want to create through the development of new technologies this time?

 

Probiotics are popular, but there is still much room for improvement in efficacy and consumer experience

 

At present, capsules, tablet candy, solid drinks and drops are the main forms of probiotic products on the market.

Although the capsule can well ensure the bacterial activity, it needs to register a health brand in China. At the same time, it will give consumers the feeling of taking medicine, and the experience is not good enough; At least 50% of the strains will die due to the pressure when pressing candy tablets; When eating solid drinks, the water temperature needs to be controlled at about 50 ℃, otherwise it will lead to the inactivation of probiotics; The bacteria in the drops will undergo metabolism and decay, and the carrier oil will increase the burden on the intestine and affect the intestinal absorption.

 

With the development of consumers’ probiotic eating habits, the above forms are not ideal in convenience and consumption experience, and will also directly or indirectly affect the effectiveness of products.

 

Having insight into the market trend and pain points, in order to help the industry open a larger probiotic market, Hengmei Tiao sugar direct drinking probiotics has made innovative solutions for the above pain points:

 

• Microcapsule embedding technology was used to ensure the activity of bacteria;
• In order to improve the sense of eating experience, Tiao sugar direct drinking probiotics has realized the instant performance and taste. It can be taken orally directly without brewing, which changes the taste of the current sticky tooth life of probiotic powder;
• In order to enhance flavor and interest, healthy sugar free patented jump candy is added, combined with healthy ingredients such as mint and fruit powder to give the product a unique experience of cool, instant and interesting jump;
• Optimize the sugar substitute solution and use sugar alcohol as the base to truly achieve 0 sugar.

 

Picture: Hengmei official

 

There is no doubt that this provides technical support for the penetration of probiotics into higher frequency consumption scenes. According to foodaily, the product has been put into ODM / OEM production. The product can be customized according to different groups and different functional directions, such as children’s probiotics, adult intestinal probiotics, women’s private probiotics, oral care and other new directions.

 

In addition to the innovative scenes of intestinal health and female reproductive health, in the communication with Hengmei, we noticed that with the support of the new technology of direct drinking probiotics, the food industry has more imagination to enter the track of oral care.

 

In addition to intestinal health and female health,

Direct drinking probiotics will bring fire to the track that attracts 5 billion gold in half a year?

 

The explosive constitution of probiotics is obvious to all. As it continues to expand and explore into various categories, the track of oral care is worth unlocking.

 

As early as a few years ago, the 2016 white paper on China’s oral health trend pointed out that after integrating the background sales data of Nielsen and tmall, as well as the development track and data model of oral care market in other developed countries, China’s oral health market covering oral care, prevention and treatment is expected to exceed 500 billion yuan in the next 15 years.

 

According to the statistics of arterial network, in the first half of this year, a total of 33 financing cases occurred in the oral market, with a financing amount of more than 5 billion yuan, reaching the highest in history, including the fields of medical treatment and personal care《 The latest trend report of the oral care industry in 2020 shows that in 2020, almost all oral care ushered in growth, mainly reflected in the price upgrading of core categories, the transfer of some traditional categories to upgraded categories, and the consumption upgrading also brought new categories and new model opportunities. In addition, through big data, it is found that removing tartar, yellowing, bad breath and solving gingival bleeding are the four basic needs of oral care.

 

The accelerated penetration of the mouthwash market suggests that a new care habit to help consumers solve oral bacteria is rising.

 

Photo source: Sammi

 

  In such a hot track, how can the food industry get a share?

 

For oral care, the category of mouthwash can be benchmarked

 

First of all, there is no doubt that there is a great demand. Solving halitosis is almost everyone’s demand. Relevant data show that about one in every two people has bad breath.

 

Secondly, the category of mouthwash is worthy of attention and reference. Compared with toothpastes with a fixed frequency of use, mouthwash is used more frequently, and deep users even use it more than 5 times a day. It is worth mentioning that in consumption scenarios, mouthwash is suitable for a variety of scenarios such as after dinner, before going to bed, before dating and before a meeting, which also makes people of different ages possible to become users. Thinking of the food industry, drinking probiotics directly can also meet the same demands as mouthwash.

 

How to solve the problem of breath is to return to the root cause of halitosis. Relevant studies show that about 80% ~ 90% of breath is related to oral diseases, and the direct source is some bacteria in the mouth, which decomposes food residues and produces volatile sulfide (VSCS) – which is also the main component of breath. In addition to covering up, improving the oral flora environment is a very effective method.

 

Photo source: clove doctor

 

For example, the half mouthwash products mentioned above are characterized by probiotic elements, and even adopt probiotic elements corresponding to the body of Yakult bottle in the packaging design, create the style of alcohol-free formula and beverage in taste, and strengthen the core memory points in terms of packaging and taste. Its practice seems to learn from the characteristics of the application of probiotics in the field of food and beverage.

 

With probiotics as the core, the food industry can still create corresponding products as oral care solutions. Taking the innovative technology of Hengmei oral probiotic direct drinking powder as an example, the product can inhibit Porphyromonas gingivalis in the mouth by adding customized composite probiotics specially developed to improve oral problems, so as to improve the oral flora environment and fundamentally solve oral problems such as oral odor.

 

In addition, the technical features of oral probiotic direct drinking powder, such as direct oral administration, viable bacteria rate, adding healthy sugar free patented jumping sugar, as well as easy to tear and other convenient packaging design, can also effectively deal with the high-frequency use scenarios of after dinner and dating to solve the problem of breath anytime and anywhere. In the food industry, we look forward to seeing oral care rush with probiotics.

 

Summary

 

The report on China’s awareness of probiotic consumption (2020) shows that fermented dairy products are the preferred probiotic products for consumers, but probiotic drinks and probiotic health food are also favored. In addition, the survey shows that 74% of consumers recognize the intestinal health benefits of probiotics and expect more efficacy of probiotics.

 

With the market education of consumers, probiotics already have a certain potential energy. With consumers’ attention to health and, the imagination space of probiotics is becoming larger, which not only reflects that probiotics are marching into subdivided groups such as children, women and the elderly, but also reflects that they are penetrating into more daily and fragmented consumption scenes. Therefore, the field of probiotics still has great mining value and is shaping a new category cognition.

 

It will be a good choice to step on the general trend of health, focus on probiotics and make use of the category dividends brought by new technologies to penetrate different functions, different scenes, different people and different categories.

 

Head picture source: Yixiang new tonic

reference material:

[1] “Half of oral FMCG brands” completed nearly 400 million yuan of round B financing, pointing to millions of terminal outlets in thousands of cities “, new consumer think tank, July 19, 2021;

[2]  《 Half a year’s gold absorption exceeded 5 billion, Sequoia Huaxing’s longitude and latitude bytes were arranged one after another, and the oral track was in a mess “, arterial network, July 26, 2021;

[3]  《 There is an embarrassment that he doesn’t know he has bad breath, “doctor clove, May 21

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