Emerging opportunities to address menopausal symptoms [Interview]

For years, solutions for menopausal symptoms within the food supplement space have felt like a niche market, characterised by a gap in innovation, as well as missed opportunities to communicate sufficiently with women on the topic. Products have tended to be hidden on shelves and have not reflected the image that women have of themselves, or their experience.

“This is supported by the data,” says Benjamin Milhau, regional marketing lead at IFF Health. “When we looked at the Mintel GNPD database, we found that menopause supplements made up barely one per cent of all supplements launched in the EMEA region between 2013 and 2022. This is a severely underserved market segment.”

Specific solutions for different life experiences

In order to investigate further, IFF Health partnered with GenM, a UK-based organisation that is leading a group of companies committed to changing the menopause experience. Groundbreaking market research was conducted by GenM in the UK in 2020. This found that women felt overlooked by brands, and often were unaware that the symptoms they were experiencing could be related to the menopause.

However, Milhau believes that things have started to change over the last few years. Consumers are very much driving this, with a growing interest in finding specific solutions for women’s health issues. This ties into the overall trend of supporting lifelong wellbeing and healthy ageing.

“The industry has also begun to realise that we go through different stages throughout our lives, and that solutions need to meet the consumer at each step in her evolving journey,” he says. “The menopause is clearly one of these. This has resulted in a paradigm shift within the supplements industry in terms of image, awareness and product offering.”

Understanding the market and specific consumer needs

Milhau believes that IFF Health is ahead of the curve here. “We started a women’s health campaign about three years ago, and a key part of this broad concept was about being ready for menopause,” he says.

IFF Health became the first supplement ingredient company to join GenM. “We learned a lot from this partnership,” he says. “This was a game changer for us in terms of our approach and the unique insights we gathered, and really helped us to understand the market and specific consumer needs.”

Based on this, IFF Health has created and developed new product concepts backed by clinical studies on menopausal women, designed to inspire brands and address direct consumer needs. The concepts created have been awarded the MTick logo, created by GenM for menopausal-friendly products.

A unique opportunity for brands

While products with the MTick logo are currently being sold in the UK, Milhau believes that the concept will continue to develop and expand into other countries.

“The UK is a great example of how the supplement market is evolving,” he says. “If you look at the market now, nearly all the major players are targeting menopause, from national brands to private labels. There is much more visibility on this issue, along with online resources and information. GenM has been a major contributor to this.”

Indeed, while the UK is leading in terms of innovation, product development and awareness, the menopause is increasingly becoming a mainstream issue across Europe. “Our main message at Vitafoods will be that change is coming,” says Milhau. “This presents a unique opportunity for brands to be part of this movement in transformation of the menopausal experience.”

IFF is a Gold Conference sponsor under the ‘Healthy Ageing, Longevity, and Metabolic Health’ theme. In their presentation on menopause and the supplement market, a key focus will be on how the landscape has been evolving in Europe, and how IFF Health and GenM are supporting both customers and consumers in this segment.