ARLINGTON, Va. — Building on burgeoning consumer interest in the link between health and nutrition, the grocery industry aims to raise its profile as a destination for a broad and expanding range of products and services that support customers’ well-being. Executives at FMI – The Food Industry Association recently examined the trend during a briefing about the group’s “2024 Report on Food Industry Contributions to Health & Well-being.”

“Healthy eating has really gained momentum as a key priority for consumers in the last several years, which, in part, has contributed to health and well-being strategies increasingly becoming more of a core pillar and a major positive for food retailers,” said Steve Markenson, the association’s vice president of research and insights. “To provide some context on the consumer side of things, FMI’s ‘Power of Health and Well-being 2023’ report found that 31% of shoppers said that they put a lot of effort into selecting nutritious and healthy food options. And when you drill down into the data a little more, specifically to households with kids, the number of people who put a lot of effort into healthy options jumped to 41%.

“The industry also continues to do everything possible to meet customers where they are, especially when it comes to nutrition, health and well-being. In fact, about 70% of all companies in our survey [CPG suppliers as well as retailers] currently operate with established nutrition and health and well-being strategies both for customers and for their employees. That percentage is even higher, at 84%, when we look at just food retailers.”

FMI members are manifesting their commitment to health and wellness in a variety of ways, including nutrition guidance, consumer education, pharmacy care, in-store clinics and product reformulation. Registered dietitians are integral to implementing the strategy. Eighty-two percent of the respondents to the survey that served as the basis for the new FMI report indicated that they employ dietitians, and over half of those companies included them in leadership roles.

“Registered dietitians really are instrumental to these health and well-being initiatives,” noted Crystal Register, FMI’s senior director of health and well-being, who is herself an RDN. “Increasingly, we see that registered dietitians have a seat at the leadership table for many of the companies in the food industry. This gives registered dietitian nutritionists the opportunity to play key roles when it comes to overall strategy. They hold positions that cover the breadth of nutrition strategy in general, of marketing, communication efforts, regulatory and labeling issues, food safety, e-commerce, and digital merchandising.”

Dietitians, together with other health care professionals employed by supermarket operators (a group that includes a growing number of physicians, nurse practitioners and registered nurses), are helping craft the food industry’s approach to health and wellness. “We’re seeing a general health and well-being leadership surface up to the top,” said Register. “And other executives, in human resources, pharmacy and even the entire C-suite, now are all increasingly involved in shaping health and well-being opportunities across responding food industry companies.”

Efforts to expand supermarkets’ reach in such promising areas as food as medicine, and identify and address gaps in care, are affected by government policy. FMI engages in an ongoing dialogue with legislators and regulators to ensure a business environment that is good for members — and their customers.

Jennifer Hatcher, the association’s chief public policy officer and senior vice president of government and member relations, talked about FMI’s contributions to influencing the agenda in the nation’s capital. Among the notable developments she cited are the pending launch of the USDA’s Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer program, which, when school is out of session, will provide $40 per child every month for nutritional support; advances in payment access devices for the SNAP and WIC programs; and introduction of the Medical Nutrition Therapy Act.

“The bipartisan MNT Act increases access to counseling by registered dietitian nutritionists for Medicare beneficiaries, to help prevent and delay and manage a number of chronic disease and diet-related medical conditions,” Hatcher said. “The grocery store is a natural and ideal hub to provide that nutrition counseling and nutrition to customers in the same place where they’re buying their food products, as well as their medications.”

A recent initiative demonstrates the power of food industry/government cooperation in moving the needle on health and wellness. At the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health in September 2022, FMI and its members established a goal of delivering more than 100 million evidence-based messages about good nutrition to consumers. In meeting and surpassing that objective, the industry has better equipped Americans to look after their families and helped position food stores as one of the first places to turn for nutrition, health and wellness needs.