No.3099
Market of Foods for Long-Term Care, Elderly, and Special Medical Purposes in Japan: Key Research Findings 2022
Stable Expansion Projected to Continue for Both Processed Foods and Prepared Meals in Domestic Market of Foods for Long-Term Care, Elderly, and Special Medical Purposes
Yano Research Institute (the President, Takashi Mizukoshi) has carried out a survey on the domestic market of processed foods and prepared meals (meal service for hospitals and facilities, home meal delivery service including delivery of bento) for long-term care, elderly, and special medical purposes, and found out the trends by segment, the trends by market players, and future outlook.
Market Overview
For FY2021, the market of processed foods for long-term care, elderly, and special medical purposes is estimated to have grown to 102.9% of the previous fiscal year to 188,600 million yen (based on the shipment value at manufacturers), and the market of prepared meals to 101.4% to 1,480,400 million yen (based on the end price at meal services and meal delivery services).
In detail, for the market of foods for long-term care, processed foods account for 127,800 million yen (103.4% on year-on-year basis) and prepared meals for 552,600 million yen (101.2%); for the market of foods for elderly, processed foods represent 25,400 million yen (102.0%) and prepared meals 346,100 million yen (104.8%); and for the market of foods for special medical purposes, processed foods amounts to 35,400 million yen (101.7%) and prepared meals to 581,700 million yen (99.7%). Despite the spread of the pandemic, the market has grown in 5 categories except for the prepared meals for foods for special medical purposes.
Noteworthy Topics
Demand for Home Delivery Services Growing Stably for Frozen Bento and Ready-to-Eat Foods
The “frozen food home delivery service” that delivers frozen bento and ready-to-eat foods is under the spotlight. Since the service providers that used to deliver ambient and chilled foods are reinforcing delivery of frozen foods, the market size is expected to expand further hereafter.
Frozen meal delivery benefits both suppliers and demanders. Delivery services can streamline business operation by delivering frozen products, which may reduce their cost of delivery. For demanders (users), convenience increases by stockpiling foods through bulk buying, instead of staying home to wait for delivery every day.
Expansion of the market is driven further as a bad reputation of frozen foods as unhealthy diminished, which has increased the number of people that do not hesitate to eat frozen foods.
In addition to the foods for elderly, product variety of frozen foods has increased for foods for long-term care and special medical purposes (texture modified foods). The market size of frozen delivery meals is forecasted to mark a double-digit growth hereafter.
Future Outlook
Against the background of aging society and the prevalence of lifestyle diseases, the market of foods for long-term care, elderly, and special medical purposes is projected to continue expanding for years to come. Nevertheless, changes in government policies and lifestyle of elderly people are expected to drive a shift in the place where elderly people live, i.e., shift from hospital to long-term care facilities, and shift from long-term care facilities to home.
As a result, the demand is expected to rise among elderly people of a single household and of a couple household, for having nutritious, tasty, and safe meals without spending so much time and effort on shopping and cooking.
By FY2026, the market of foods for long-term care, elderly, and special medical purposes is forecasted to expand to 209,100 million yen for processed foods, and 1,592,300 million yen for prepared meals.
Research Outline
2.Research Object： Meal service providers, home meal delivery service providers, food processing companies
3.Research Methogology： Face-to-face interviews by the specialized researchers (including online), survey by telephone, and literature research.
<What is the Market of Foods for Long-Term Care?>
The food for long-term care is the foods targeted mainly to elderly who has been issued a Certification of Needed Support that has functional disability, such as chewing difficulty and swallowing difficulty, and therapeutic foods that address the needs of people in need for extra assistance in calorie control or in obtaining requisite nutrition.
In this research, the market of processed foods for long-term care indicates processed foods used at hospitals, elderly facilities, and home, and the market of prepared meals for long-term care refers to meals for inpatients at hospitals and persons admitted at elderly facilities, as well as to bento (assorted-plate meal) provided by home meal delivery services.
<What is the Market of Foods for Elderly?>
The food for elderly refers to foods modified in hardness, calories, nutrition, etc., in consideration of physical characteristics and nutritional aspects of the elderly people, for elderly people that are relatively healthy and are yet to require foods for long-term care.
The market of processed foods for elderly refers to processed meals to be used at home, and the prepared meals for elderly refer to meals for persons admitted at elderly facilities and to bento provided by home meal delivery services.
<What is the Market of Foods for Special Medical Purposes?>
Food for special medical purposes (foods for special medical purposes [FSMPs] and texture modified foods [TMFs]) refers to the nutritional food as solutions for dietary management of specific disorders or disease-related medical conditions like kidney diseases and diabetes.
In this research, the processed foods for special medical purposes indicate the processed foods used at hospitals, elderly facilities, and homes, and the prepared meals for special medical purposes refer to the meals for inpatients at hospitals and persons admitted at elderly facilities, as well as to bento provided by home meal delivery services.
＜Products and Services in the Market＞
Foods for Long-Term Care, Elderly, and Special Medical Purposes (FSMPs, TMFs)
Published Report
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