Jennifer Grebow

As awareness grows of gluten-related diseases and allergies, the gluten-free product market is expanding-albeit mostly in foods. Gluten-free cosmetics can still be difficult to find. And for those who need them, this can be frustrating.

Consumers are still buying supplements. This year, expect shoppers to continue focusing on immune health, gluten free, cognitive health, joint health, eye health, digestive health, and weight management. Below are a few ingredients the industry will be keeping its eye on.

Analysts predict no slowing down of probiotic growth. In September, Markets and Markets forecasted 12.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the global probiotics market until 2014, when total sales, it says, should reach $32.6 billion. Similarly, in October, Packaged Facts estimated that global probiotics sales will grow at 12% CAGR to exceed $22 billion by 2013.

Thanks to a wave of media publicity, resveratrol has become a star in the supplement aisle. It can be found in capsules and pills, but until recently, it had not made a lot of headway in functional foods.

As probiotics spread to more functional foods, the challenges of ensuring that bacteria can survive in various product forms are greater than ever.

Many agree that the sales potential for nutrition bars is still relatively untapped. In Mintel International's March assessment of the U.S. nutrition and energy bar market, only 14% of the respondents questioned reported using these products-a limited audience, which leaves much opportunity for growth, noted Mintel.

When the developers of the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) test created the method of measuring the antioxidant capacity of nutritional ingredients, it's difficult to say whether they could have imagined the marketing power it would come to hold.

Only three more years until the federal government's National Eye Institute (NIH; Bethesda, MD) releases the results of its landmark Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS2). The study-a multicenter, randomized, five-year trial involving 4000 participants-is expected to finish in December 2012.

You may think of Mars Inc. as the purveyor of some of your favorite chocolate candies-M&M'S, Snickers, Dove. With a new endeavor, however, the company has launched itself into the dietary supplements arena.

Unlike many other industries, the dietary supplements industry had a pretty good year.

In May, Datamonitor reported that growth of the nutricosmetics market may be slowing, perhaps due to the recession. Some consumers, the report said, may view beauty-from-within products as a luxury. While new beauty beverages continue to launch, other types of nutricosmetics may not fare as well, said Datamonitor, citing the failure of Danone's Essensis skin-nourishing yogurt as an example.

Much has been written about the new Smart Choices logo, which debuted this summer. The green icon, together with a statement about a product's calories per serving and servings per package, can now be found on the front labels of 500 food products from eight companies, including General Mills, ConAgra Foods, PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, Sun-Maid, Unilever, Tyson, and Kellogg Co.

U.S. kids are pretty fortunate. Children in the United States have relatively good access to nutritious foods. (Whether all children and their parents can afford healthy foods, live in areas where healthy foods are readily available, and make good nutrition choices are other issues that continue to be explored.) Compared with children in countries where clean water is hard to come by, however, U.S. children are in a better position than many.

It's now been a month or two since the CGMPs for medium-sized dietary supplement manufacturers were instated.

With so many nutritional products making an array of health claims, it can be difficult for customers to know which claims to trust. Marketers are always looking for ways to validate their products' claims. Co-branding a product's packaging with a branded ingredient logo is one way to lend a product credibility.

Americans, like most people, like eating snacks. According to the International Food Information Council's 2008 Food & Health Survey, nearly all Americans, or 94% of survey participants, eat at least one snack per day.

H1N1, the influenza virus formerly known as Swine Flu, has made its way around the globe, leaving a trail of frightened consumers. They want to know how to protect themselves and their families-and whether there are any products they can buy to help.