Assessing global changing food patterns: A country-level analysis on the consumption of food products with health and wellness claims

Abstract The demand for healthier food as well as for more sustainable food has been growing worldwide. The extant literature does not present an overall balance in the global dissemination of food products with health and wellness claims. We estimated growth rates in 80 developed, emerging, and developing countries from 2006 to 2016, as well as their relationship with human development indicators. We assessed the effect of social and economic factors on both levels and growth rates of healthy and more sustainable food consumption, which has been growing faster in emerging countries than in the rest of the world. Developing, emerging, and developed countries showed different patterns of consumption of such products. Developed countries have experienced a slowdown in the consumption of healthy and more sustainable food. Some factors encompassed by HDI were relevant in explaining the increasing consumption of health and wellness food products, but countries with similar HDIs, demography, and income may present different levels and growth rates. This article contributes to a better understanding of the evolution of the consumption of food products with health and wellness claims on a country level, and its relationship with human development.