The market research firm said the trend has great potential despite still being in its infancy. Indicative of the long term promise of beauty food and drinks is the number of well publicised launches from big players in the industry.
Big hitters enter market
Datamonitor named Masterfoods as one of the leading companies to have recently entered the beauty from within market.
Its Dove Beautiful Milk Chocolate is packed with ingredients that are purported to nourish the skin including vitamins C and E along with biotin, zinc and cocoa flavanols.
And in the U.K., Beauty Spring Water touts its Praventin ingredient as rich in Lactoferrin to help reduce acne.
Nestle also hit the headlines this year with the high-profile launch of the beauty juice Glowelle, which is formulated with vitamins, phtyo-nutrients, botanical and fruit extracts that are combined to fight the signs of aging from the inside.
Debate over retail position
Drinkable and edible cosmetics, such as these, sit on the boundary between food and cosmetics leaving their identity ambiguous and ideal position on the shop floor open to debate.
Nestle decided that beauty shelves rather than supermarket aisles would be the best location for Glowelle.
The product is the brainchild of Kimberly Cooper who told CosmeticsDesign.com that Nestle is going after prestige beauty consumers.
To reach them, Nestle decided to begin selling Glowelle at luxury retailer Neiman Marcus in the US where the drink will be sold alongside conventional cosmetics.
Some other nutraceutical products have been launched on supermarket shelves but Cooper said they have to compete with other big food and drink brands in front of consumers that are not looking for a cosmetic.