Protein has become big business; some estimates put the size of the market above $50 billion globally.<\/p>\n
Irish companies like Glanbia are industry leaders in protein products.<\/p>\n
However, yesterday, Bank of America issued a warning to analysts that the protein market may be peaking as more and more companies enter it.<\/p>\n
Reporter Adam Maguire, from RT\u00c9’s Business desk, told Behind the Story about the scale of the protein business.<\/p>\n
“Back in 2016, globally, protein was thought to be worth somewhere around $15 billion \u2013 this year, there’s estimates that it\u2019s anything above $50 billion,” he explained.<\/p>\n
“So, there\u2019s huge, huge money is this \u2013 and Irish companies are really at the centre of that.”<\/p>\n
Sarah Keogh, a registered dietitian with Eatwell.ie, said protein is an important part of our diets but putting protein in some foods may be unnecessary.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve seen a lot of trends over the last 30 years, but this is one that I really like because it is looking at protein, which people could definitely look at increasing \u2013 particularly certain age groups as they get older,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I think by the time it\u2019s being put into popcorn and things like that, it\u2019s probably a little bit of an extreme.”<\/p>\n
Ms Keogh said while the trend could be “cooling off “slightly, “the need for protein is there”.<\/p>\n
She said some people have a misconception around the body\u2019s need for protein.<\/p>\n
“You actually need more protein in your 70s that you do in your 20s,” she explains.<\/p>\n
“I often joke that you see the young people in their 20s with their protein shakes and it\u2019s the 70-year-olds that need to be actually on them.”<\/p>\n
Snack ‘fall off\u2019<\/p>\n
Ms Keogh also said that GLP-1 weight-loss injections are also starting to affect food sales, with US supermarkets already seeing a drop in certain food products.<\/p>\n
“The big fall off is snacks, particularly in the United States, they\u2019re seeing a 10% reduction in some areas, in terms of crisps and snack foods and things like that,” she said.<\/p>\n
“What supermarkets are leaning into is what they call \u2018nutrient-dense meals\u2019 \u2013 that higher quality meal with a bigger focus on the actual nutrition.<\/p>\n
“The big ones are fibre, protein and then some fruit and veg as well.”<\/p>\n
You can listen to Behind the Story on the RT\u00c9 Listen app.<\/p>\n
You can also find episodes on Apple<\/a> and Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protein has become big business; some estimates put the size of the market above $50 billion globally. Irish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[134,111,139,556,69],"class_list":["post-618826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-health","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nutrition","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}