A new report from the US-based Nutrition Business Journal has shown that consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about improving their health through supplements or food, but at the same time most have only a rudimentary knowledge of nutrition.
The report, Consumer Research in the Nutrition Industry II, is based on more than 30 consumer surveys carried out by NBJ, shows that the long-term trends for dietary supplements and organic, natural and functional foods remain positive, but that this trend is constantly under threat from the lack of consumer education about nutritional science, brands and regulations.
Without an improvement in the level of consumer education about nutritional products, the report claims, they will remain vulnerable to "misconceptions, misinformation and the best-funded entrenched interests".
The NBJ report said that 70 per cent of American adults could be characterised as supplement users, with 4.3 per cent of them classified as heavy users making an average of five purchases or spending about $43 per month. Some 32 per cent of them are regular users, making between one and two purchases a month or spending around $11 per month. Occasional users make a purchase about once every two months and rare users only once every five months.
The NBJ said that what was perhaps the most interesting was the data on who was not taking supplements. Some 45 per cent of those questioned do not take vitamins, while 70 per cent do not take herbal supplements, 75 per cent do not take minerals, 85 per cent do not take speciality supplements and 95 per cent do not use sports supplements.
The numbers of rare and occasional users are also high, leaving a vast majority of sales in a small minority of the population for every category with the exception of multivitamins, the report said.