Healthy food claims are skyrocketing when it comes to new products. Mintel’s Global New Products Database found 13.5% of new products launched in 2015 made organic claims, up from 10% in 2014 and products with non-GMO claims were even more popular. 7.2% of new products made vegan claims. What about top retailers? In 2016, Switzerland’s Migros announced plans to increase the number of its own label vegetarian and vegan-certified products it offers by 30%. Currently Migros offers over 100 vegetarian products and more than 250 vegan-certified products on its shelves. The retailer has also received the approval of the European Vegetarian Union and its products were given the “V-Label” which certifies they are true vegetarian products. In Italy, Conad for example has just launched its Verso Natura line of vegetarian, organic and all natural products. In addition to Edeka’s Bio & Vegan line and Carrefour’s Veggie line of own label products, retailers have looked for new ways to bring out vegetarian and vegan private label products as well as organic, gluten free and either free-from or all natural lines. Lidl has its “My Best Veggie” line. In the United Kingdom, Tesco has expanded the number of its chilled vegetarian meals as sales of those products grew 20% over the past year. 
OUTSIDE EUROPE – Even drug chains like Germany’s Dm-drogerie has added DmBio private label organic products in both food and non-food categories and in the United States retailer CVS has gluten-free, organic and vegetarian products under its own label. Kroger’s Simple Truth private label brand in the United States has become so popular it has become a ‘billion dollar brand’ reaching US$ 1.5 billion in annual sales in 2016. Aldi US released its organic Simply Nature line of organic products and found success due to their wide variety of products and their low cost, while the retail giant Walmart has expanded its Great Value line to include organic and gluten-free products and expects to add more products in the coming years.
TRADE SHOWS – The growing popularity and demand for these new products can be seen at trade shows. For example, at the Private Label Manufacturers Association’s private label trade show in Chicago last November, a large variety of Italian vegan, vegetarian, organic and gluten-free products could be found throughout the show. Over 200 companies had organic, gluten-free, and vegan and vegetarian products on display.
