**Selling the health benefits of enriched 'phoods'**
A
The introduction of iodine to Morton Salt in 1924 was instrumental in eradicating a dangerous thyroid condition called goiter from the U.S. population. It was also the first time a food company purposely added a medically beneficial ingredient to food to help market that product. Eighty years later, the food industry is intensively researching all kinds of other healthful ingredients it hopes to use to help sell otherwise everyday foods. Functional foods, or 'phoods' as they're sometimes called to connote the intersection of food and pharmaceuticals, have been trickling into supermarkets over the past several years — think of calcium-enhanced orange juice and cholesterol-lowering margarine, for example. But they met with mixed success at first because consumers didn't know or care enough about the new ingredients.
B
Now, though, consumers' growing awareness of health and nutrition, and new regulatory rulings that will make it easier for manufacturers to make health claims on packaging, are re-energizing the 'phood' business. Once again, food companies see functional foods as a way to boost sales in otherwise stagnant categories. "It's definitely a big part of the future of food," said an editor of a recent giant Mintel International Group Ltd. "We expect the [functional foods business] to grow about 5 percent annually for the next 5 years, which is twice as fast as the overall food market is going to be growing." Another trend that's boosting the food marketing industry, fully half of the 75 new products one major food company introduced last year were functional foods, the company said. That's up from 15 percent of its new products the previous year.
C
Many of these products have added vitamins and minerals, such as a new juice drink that provides 100 percent of a child's daily vitamin C requirement, and a smoothie boosted with calcium. Lutein, linked to vision health, is now added to prune juice. Soy protein, which can help prevent heart disease, is being added to new breakfast cereals. Major food giants are actively unveiling products overseas, including yogurt with probiotic bacteria, to aid digestion. These nutritionally centered products make up just 8 percent of company sales but account for 20 percent of its research budget, according to company spokesman Hans-Jorgen Renk.
D
"There's a lot of research and development going on into what kinds of products people want, what kinds of products we can produce to meet
