Juliette Gagliardi
Junior Researcher
Health and food supplements in Italy - Statistics & facts
The adoption of a modern lifestyle opened the way to new health disorders such as diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. The consumption of food supplements, to improve people’s health and to prevent diseases, has become a growing global trend, leading to significant growth in the health supplements market worldwide. Italy, with 29 percent of the sales value market share in Europe in 2020, was the European market leader and is expected to keep this role in the coming years.
Italian market overview
The market of food supplements in value and in volume has constantly grown in Italy since 2008, with the COVID-19 pandemic further boosting the overall supplements market in the country. As of 2020, almost 80 percent of food supplements were sold through pharmacies, while the rest were sold by drugstores, large-scale retailers, and online. Globally, the market size of vitamin and mineral supplements was more than 32 billion U.S. dollars, as of 2024. In Italy, vitamins and minerals generate the highest revenues among all supplements, accounting for a share of around 26 percent with a value of almost 840 million euros, as of 2022. The three supplement categories that experienced the largest increase in sales between early 2021 and early 2022 were for the respiratory tract, musculoskeletal area, and gastrointestinal area.Consumer profile
Italy is the country with the highest expenditure on food supplements per capita among the other European countries, with an average of 63.6 euros per inhabitant spent on food supplements during 2020. According to a recent survey, the main reasons for Italian consumers to be using food supplements was to support the immune system, as an energy supplement, and as an aid for bones and joints. As of 2023, the main promoters of the use of food supplements across the country were doctors and pharmacists.
