According to the recently released Nutrition Business Journal, 2009 U.S. Healthy Kids’ Market Overview, “The largest contributor to the healthy children’s market, as NBJ defines it, is the functional foods category, which holds a 76% share of the healthy kids’ market and was worth an estimated $7.7billion in 2008. According to NBJ’s estimates, 21% of the total U.S. functional food and beverage market is targeted toward kids.”

Childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes are on the rise. “Children and adolescents 17 and younger make up nearly a quarter of the U.S. population”. This combination offers an attractive proposition for those manufacturing products formulated for and/or marketed to this group. This includes anything from baby food to shampoo, chicken tenders to vitamins. And these products are being purchased at your local co-op to Whole Foods Market, Safeway and Costco.

This comprehensive report also includes:

· the effects of a down economy on this sector

· marketing to busy moms

· top product-development trends

· sweeteners in kid’s products

· advances in children’s supplement formulation

· how fear of chemicals is driving growth in healthy children’s market

· an interview with Ann cooper Smith on school nutrition

More information on the Nutrition Business Journal, 2009 U.S. Healthy Kids’ Market Overview can be found at: http://nutritionbusinessjournal.com/ . They are also offering a Healthy Kids Market web seminar on May 28, 2009.