Confronting anxiety about the future, consumer interest in products that help manage stress, boost mental wellbeing, relaxation, or focus has grown during uncertain times ushered by the COVID-19 pandemic

More than a fifth of consumers claim to be eating foods to boost their mood and mental wellbeing, according to a New Nutrition Business survey of 4,800 consumers in the U.S., UK, Australia, Brazil, and Spain. Younger consumers are more actively looking for these benefits from foods than are older consumers (Charts 1 and 2).

Increasingly, creative companies are responding to this demand and developing foods and beverages with added ingredients—nootropics and adaptogens—specifically designed to deliver a mood or mind benefit.

Nootropics are substances taken to improve cognitive function or mental performance, such as caffeine and L-theanine. Adaptogens consist of plants, herbs and roots, many of which have traditional usage in Chinese or Ayurvedic medicine. Examples of adaptogens are panax ginseng, ashwagandha, cordyceps and reishi mushrooms.

But product success is challenging, and rare. Most products don’t perform well enough on taste or don’t deliver a benefit that the consumer can feel—or at least think they can feel.

“It is a premium-priced and very high-risk area which is difficult for companies to navigate,” said food industry expert Julian Mellentin, who has authored a new strategy briefing on nootropics and adaptogens.

“The challenge of delivering a product that both tastes good and delivers a feel-the-benefit effect, and is convenient, has been a major barrier to success in this category,” said Mellentin, director of consultancy New Nutrition Business. “Coupled with that you need to select ingredients that could have credibility with the health-active consumer.”

Mood and mind benefits have strong connections to everyday “real foods.” For example, chocolate is used by many people to lift their spirits. Mushrooms are one class of ingredient that is increasingly finding success and connects to consumer desire for “real” in a way that more science-sounding ingredients, such as L-theanine and GABA, cannot.

One of the brands creating success with mushrooms is California-based Mud Wtr, a powder for adding to beverages and foods. It has positioned itself as an alternative to coffee, for the many people who want a morning shot of energy but don’t want caffeine. Mud Wtr’s active ingredients include the mushrooms lion’s mane, cordyceps, and reishi.

U.S. kefir market leader Lifeway has also embraced the potential of mushrooms, using reishi and lion’s mane in its oat kefir.

“We are likely to see a major push for mushroom ingredients in the next few years,” said Mellentin. “For example, Compass Pathways, a company marketing mushroom-derived psychedelics, successfully floated on the NASDAQ exchange in the U.S. with a valuation of $590 million. Backers of the company including PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.”

“Investors are motivated by a growing body of science for mushroom,” he adds.

In his concise, unique strategy briefing, Mellentin highlighted, with brand case studies, the four strategies that companies are using in the emerging and high-risk area of nootropics and adaptogens. The report explains:

• Which ingredients to use, including a review of 17 ingredients and their benefits;
• Which consumer benefits to target;
• What social media reveals about which emergent ingredients and benefits are getting the most consumer attention.