Dr Nikhil Kelkar, Director-Healthcare, Hexagon Nutrition, and executive committee member, HADSA, has said that malnutrition was the crucial and significant driver of the nutraceutical market and in India the market would be shaped by increasing home care usage of nutritional products and high birth rate.
Participating in a seminar on ’The Way Forward – Nutrition, Dietary Supplements and Nutraceuticals’ at Fi Hi India show in Mumbai, Dr Kelkar said the global clinical market was expected to grow to $50.9 billion this year from about $37.6 billion in the previous year and the infant nutrition market was $21.4 million, which was expecting a growth of 4.8 % this year.
Presenting his point of innovations and that something out of the box should be tried, C M Reddy, chief scientific officer, Innovertus Nutrition Technologies, asked why the infants can’t be given nutraceuticals in the form of chocolates. Nutraceuticals could be health builders for Indian people, he said. Regarding the foods, he added that a recent survey has said all foods that your mother ate was good for you.
There were adequate results and evidences to show that nutraceuticals could offer good health and there was a need to reduce illness through nutraceuticals, said Dr R B Smarta, Managing Director, Interlinks Marketing, and Secretary, HADSA.Chairing the session, Dr Vaibhav Kulkarni of Abbott and treasurer, HADSA, said only 30 people in the screening committee for Product Approval of FSSAI were to approve 13,000-15,000 applications and there were 30 million licences to be given which were pending. This would explain the load on the regulatory body, he said.
Referring to the Ayurvedic elements in the Act, he said he felt that FSSAI would remove Ayurvedic ingredients and products from the functional foods category.
Malnutrition crucial driver of nutra market
