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Nutrition & Health

Health & Nutrition: A Sector Overview

Canadians are actively taking steps to reach their goal of staying healthy by changing their diets, reducing stress and exercising regularly. In concert with these changes, consumers are searching for foods with additional health benefits and using natural health products (nutraceuticals) to combat common ailments or prevent and/or manage chronic disease.

Functional foods as defined by Health Canada (Ref.1) (1998) are similar in appearance to, or may be a conventional food, are consumed as part of a usual diet, and are demonstrated to have physiological benefits and/or reduce the risk of chronic disease beyond basic nutritional functions. Examples would be tomatoes with enhanced lycopene levels, and foods with added soluble fibre.

The natural health product definition (Ref.2) has two components: function and substance.

The function component refers to the natural health product definition capturing those substances that are manufactured, sold or represented for use in:

  1. Diagnosis, treatment, mitigation or prevention of a disease, disorder or abnormal physical state or its symptoms in humans;
  2. Restoring or correcting organic functions in humans; or
  3. Modifying organic functions in humans, such as modifying those functions in a manner that maintains or promotes health.

The substance refers to product available in a dosage form and can be comprised of the following.

  • A plant or a plant material, an alga, a bacterium, a fungus or a non-human animal material or their extracts
  • Vitamins, amino acids or essential fatty acids
  • Synthetic duplicates of any of the above
  • Minerals
  • Probiotics

Governments, the agri-food sector and the research community are enthusiastic about the potential for nutraceuticals and functional foods to improve citizens' health, help growers diversify, and contribute to increased sales of high-value products to niche markets (Ref.3). It is estimated that the current demand for these products in Canada is in the range of $1-2B Canadian (Ref.4).

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (Ref.5), in 2003, sponsored a survey of 576 companies that has provided first-ever information on Canadian companies engaged in activities related to functional foods and nutraceuticals, an emerging part of Canada's life sciences sector.

  • Canadian firms were most likely to be active in four areas: producing products or scaling up new products; manufacturing consumer products; scientific research and development; and wholesaling products.
  • About 17% of companies had revenues of $10 million or more related to sales of functional foods and nutraceuticals in 2002. More than one-half of all firms exported functional foods and/or nutraceuticals in 2002.
  • Just over three-quarters of those companies exporting shipped to the United States. Japan was the second most popular destination, followed by North and South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and/or New Zealand, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the People's Republic of China.
  • Export revenues for this relatively new sector have plenty of room for growth. About 11% of companies reported export revenues of more than $5 million relating to exports of functional foods and nutraceuticals. Another 18% reported revenues of between $1 million and $5 million, while the majority (70%) had revenues of less than $1 million.
  • About 27% of firms reported that the product area generating their highest revenues was "general well-being." Some 17% cited vascular or heart health products, and 11% said products related to the immune system.

Saskatchewan has a growing industry that produces both functional food ingredients and natural health products that are being exported globally. Estimates (Ref.6) project that Saskatchewan generates approximately $50-60 M CAD in annual sales, from about 30 companies. The product range is diverse and includes essential fatty acids and plant and animal extracts for sale in the functional food, natural health product, personal care and pet supplement/food markets.

1 Health Canada, 1998. Policy Paper on Nutraceuticals/Functional Foods and Health Claims on Foods.
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/food-aliment/ns-sc/ne-en/health_claims-allegations_sante/e_nutra-funct_foods.html#1

2 Health Canada, Natural Health Product Regulations
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hpfb-dgpsa/nhpd-dpsn/overview_nhp_regs_e.html#2

3 Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals.
http://www.agr.gc.ca/misb/fb-ba/nutra/index_e.php

4 Scott Wolfe Management. Potential Benefits of Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals to the Agri-Food Industry in Canada., March 2002.

5 Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. 2003. Functional Food and Nutraceutical Survey.
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/031006/d031006c.htm

6 Saskatchewan Nutraceutical Network. 2002. The Saskatchewan Industry

 

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Products / Markets

Nutraceuticals and functional foods represent the next generation of agricultural based growth industries for Saskatchewan, Canada and the world. In 2003, Nutrition Business Journal (NBJ) estimated the global nutrition market to be approximately $172 billion. Our province has the potential to assume a leading position in this emerging market due, in part, to our long history as a recognized producer of high quality agricultural products.

 

Technology

Saskatchewan maintains an exceptionally sophisticated infrastructure for science research and development, analytical and processing capacity, through to commercialization.

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Sector Information

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Last updated: 11/26/2008