20 Key Health Ingredients: What Consumers Say on Social Media

Methodology

A broad sample: A sample of 20 healthy ingredients was chosen. It includes a mix of science-based ingredients that can make health claims and those that rely more on a ‘health halo’ than science.

The ingredients include:

• Some that are now well-established, well-known to consumers and widely used in products – such as almonds and blueberries.
• Some that are said to be up-and-coming – such as turmeric (curcumin), pea protein and matcha.
• Some that advertising executives and branding agencies get excited about, forecasting big opportunities – such as charcoal and birch water.

How health ingredients are viewed on social media:

For the sample of 20 ingredients, a social media snapshot was created. This compared, among other things:

• The level of attention in the month of July 2018 compared to the month of July 2017
• The health benefits discussed (see collagen example on right)
• Which hashtags and images were the most popular
• What food ideas and recipes people were sharing

Big picture: How the ingredients were discussed in global media (defined as online news and media platforms, blogs, forums, as well as social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram) was looked at. When  ‘mentions’ is talked about in this report, it means food-related discussion in English, on all the online global media channels.