Avocado prices have surged in the past year. Demand for Grass-fed beef continues to increase. The cost of high-quality cheeses and nuts can be downright expensive. Yet, these are all consistently flying off the shelves in countries around the world where the Keto Diet Product market is expanding. The US News and World Report ranked the Keto Diet the worst on its list of 2018 Best Diets due to what their panel concluded about its long-term weight loss success, ease of adherence, and overall impact on health. Yet still, none of these factors are discouraging to keto dieters. Instead, the growing obsession with the keto diet is lending itself to the birth of the Keto Diet Product Market as companies large and small emerge to cater to Keto Diet enthusiasts.

When reports that Gus Klemos’ Keto Buns had seen a 100-fold increase within the space of the 2018 year, some may have been shocked. Although, those who have been following the growth of the Keto Diet Product Market trend since early 2016 knew all along that the ketogenic diet would surge in popularity due to its numerous reported benefits.  What was once reserved for fitness and medical communities as a means to treat intractable epilepsy, in a matter of years, the Keto Diet is now a household word.

The Keto Diet encourages a diet of high fat, low carbohydrates, and adequate protein, and although it has its fair share of criticism, demand for high-quality keto products is surging. To date, Keto Certification appears on over 300 different products by mostly small and medium-sized brands like 4th and Heart Ghee, Keto Buns, Phat Fudge, Dang Bar, and Primal Kitchen Co.

The Paleo Foundation reports that Keto Certification for products is up over 400% since 2017, and has shown no sign of slowing down for the third-party certification organization.  Although the keto diet is often dismissed as a fad by media outlets, The US volume for sales featuring a ‘keto’ claim surged in 2018, and some reports suggest that as many as 6% of the US population have attempted the popular Keto Diet and that the diet is driven by it’s benefits to weight loss and other neurological disorders.

Keto Diet enters the mainstream

Even though the keto diet has had waves of criticism and skepticism from food and nutrition experts, Big and small food companies alike have started to embrace the new wave of keto dieters both in producing products and acquiring new companies. Food goliath Kraft Heinz recently acquired keto-centered products produced by Primal Kitchen for 200$ million, and the demand for high-fat and low-carbohydrate keto certified foods and snacks has propelled companies into incredible growth patterns.

For example, Gus Klemos owner of UnBun Foods got his first order for his Keto Buns, a product made with keto friendly ingredients such as almond and coconut flour and contain no added sugar, on January 24, 2018.  That day he quit his tech job and began baking his Keto buns full-time— and decision that has paid off.  One year later, Klemos’ Keto Buns are now available in more than 300 locations in the United States and Canada.

Further, investment companies are also focusing resources on emerging keto diet products, and sales estimates for keto product producers such as Primal Kitchen exceeded 50 million in 2018 according to Bloomberg.  For these reasons, many companies who did not previously have keto-diet products have begun to produce new products to meet the burgeoning keto diet product market.

Largely Untapped areas of the Keto Diet Product Market

Carbohydrates are typically reduced to less than 50 grams per day to enter ketosis — the metabolic state in which your body burns fat for fuel instead of glucose. Since the ketogenic diet requires around 75% of fat, adherents often turn to high-fat animal products such as meats, butter, and full-fat dairy.

While the demand for meat snacks and animal-derived high-fat foods are on the rise, the keto diet can be adapted to meet the plant-based needs of the vegan market. However, because vegan diets exclude all animal products, it can be more challenging to eat a low-carbohydrate diet. Further, conventional sources of protein for vegans and vegetarians alike such as beans and lentils are high in carbohydrates. However, this challenge has not dissuaded some savvy, forward-thinking product producers like Phat Fudge and Dang Bar from creating coconut-based products to meet the macronutrient needs of the vegan population.

What the Future Holds for the Keto Diet Product Market

If you rely on google searches to indicate food trends, you can safely assume that the Keto Diet is just warming up regarding its nationwide and global popularity. However, some suggest that the google trends are not good indicators for the Keto Diet and its long-term utility, and that the ketogenic diet is not easy to adhere to for weight-loss, which may result in the diet’s ultimate loss of favor.

Today, the primary driver of the Keto Diet trend is mostly its ability to promote weight loss.  Some estimates suggest that our current obesity epidemic will only get worse.  Estimates by the World Health Organization project that nearly half of the United States, Mexico, and England will be obese by 2030.  With the rapid increase in the prevalence of these diseases, it is likely that the ketogenic diet will gain popularity in the medical community as well due to its effectiveness, despite being relatively difficult to adhere to.

Advances in Ketogenic diet research reveal that it has shown to be a useful adjunctive treatment for many diseases that plague modern civilization. Even though the medical community may not quickly embrace a high-fat diet given decades of warnings against such a diet and potential for some serious adverse effects,  the utility of the diet and its efficacy in treating devastating neurological and metabolic disorders may prove to solidify the ketogenic diet’s place in modern medicine. Thus, aiding in further driving the ketogenic diet’s popularity. Therefore, with those increases in popularity, increases in demand for high-quality keto diet products will also continue.  And thus, product differentiation will become a critical strategy in the emerging Keto diet market.