The hot topic for the food industry in the last few months has centred on BREXIT and how it will affect UK food manufacturing businesses.  I think everyone is tiring of the ‘B word’. Nonetheless, it still merits discussion – but that’s for another blog.

Perhaps second to that has been the sugar tax news and this will increase as we draw closer to its introduction.

For obvious reasons both the above have been met with trepidation from certain sections, but in the background there has been a quiet revolution happening that could be a huge positive for the development of the UK food market.

Enter Joe Wicks, AKA The Body Coach.

Now, like BREXIT, some of you may be getting sick of hearing about this guy. His ‘Lean in 15’ approach to nutrition and training has been a huge hit. People have lost weight and got fit by cooking healthy food quickly and training for short, high-intense periods.

He is everywhere – social media, TV, radio, books.

Like him or not you can’t argue with what he has achieved; but it’s what he is doing for the UK food industry that has peaked my interest.

He has almost 2.5m likes on his Facebook Page and his recipe videos are seen by countless people on a daily basis – all promoting healthy eating and providing easy to follow recipes.

It has given a new lease of life to those who took the easy option of a bad diet because they felt healthy cooking takes too long. People are now becoming more conscious about what they put in their bodies.

Now we are seeing a growing trend within food manufacturing. Organic food sales have increased dramatically, the first ‘free-from’ factory has opened in the UK and you’ll struggle to visit any supermarket that doesn’t stock a variety of healthy, low-calorie ready-meals.

Generally it is being reported that health & wellness is becoming a big driver when it comes to what people put in their shopping baskets.

OK, I am not saying The Body Coach is only reason for this. He has not inadvertently become some sort of food manufacturing ‘Messiah’.

But, along with several others, he has helped popularise clean eating and, in turn, this is positively impacting certain areas of the food production industry i.e. dieting meals, fresh fruit and veg, free-from, nutrition supplements etc.

Think about how many food and diet programs have been on our TV’s since the New Year. Eating well and keeping fit is becoming more mainstream and it will be interesting to see how food manufacturers react in order to capitalise.

[Image source: The Mirror]