• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, September 10, 2009

While the growth in the number of U.S. food and beverage product launches making a claim of being "beauty enhancing" has been slowed by the recession, growth worldwide continues to be robust.

According to data from Mintel's Global New Products Database, the number of such products launched globally jumped by 306% between 2005 and 2008, from 71 to 288. In comparison, overall food and beverage launches grew by just 35% during the same time frame.

Not surprisingly, the U.S. has accounted for significant portions of those launches. For instance, in 2007, the U.S. produced 10% (16) of the 169 launches counted worldwide, and in 2008, 20% (57) of the 299 launches counted worldwide.

This year, as of Sept. 8, the global launch count is already at 299, surpassing the total for full-year 2008 with three months of 2009 still to go.

And although just 13 beauty-enhancing food and beverage launches had been recorded in the U.S. as of Sept. 8, all indicators point to robust product growth here, as well, as the economy picks up.

Mintel senior beauty analyst Taya Tomasello points out that one in five U.S. women between the ages of 18 and 25 are interested in trying beauty functional beverages, for example.

Globally, recent interesting beauty food launches have included dried fruit snacks (mangoes, pineapples, papayas, cranberries) coated with collagen, from Japan's Kracie Foods, and "Complexion Tea" from Australia's Tea Tonic, which claims to achieve luminous skin by "revitalizing each cell of the body within."