Ferré & Consulting Blog (English Version)

Nestlé, Kellogg, Danone, Christian Hansen, and Fromageries Bel will work in partnership with TI Food & Nutrition to provide strategic research and innovation in probiotics development.

The five industry giants and TI Food and Nutrition in the Netherlands – an institute part funded by the industry and government – will combine their resources to carry out pre competitive basic level scientific research into gastrointestinal health and the effects of probiotics.

Several other large companies including Unilever, FrieslandCampina, VION, DSM and CSM are already in active partnership with TI Food and Nutrition on other research projects.

“We are committed to a structured approach to pre-competitive applied research of strategic importance to our industry partners,” said Jan Maat, Managing Director of TI Food and Nutrition

Maat said the program “enables our partners to select and invest in the research that offers them the greatest innovation potential in line with their business development strategies and R&D capabilities.”

Fundamental research

According to Chr. Hansen, the partnership with TI Food and Nutrition – due to begin in January 2011 – will focus on “further disclosing the sophisticated mechanisms of the human gut.”

“TI Food and Nutrition is a recognized research leader with internationally renowned scientific experts in its network. The partnership will not enable us to offer new, scientifically documented probiotic solutions right away. Rather, we expect this initiative to bring the fundamental, pre-competitive probiotic research to the next level, bridging it with current challenges in the food, nutrition and pharmaceutical industries,” said Benedicte Flambard, head of R&D for Christian Hansen’s Health & Nutrition Division.

“The benefit of this project is that the probiotic field is multi-platform, you need to be an expert in many different fields. It’s very cross functional, but if you put people together from these areas, then it can help solve these problems,” said Flambard.

“All of the industrial partners have the same problems, so we can work together to create pre- competitive generalised knowledge,” she added.

Product development

As an industrial sponsors, Chr. Hansen said the companies will have the rights to any intellectual property resulting from the partnership, which also allows “immediate industrial implementation” of results or technologies developed through the collaborations.

“We can take any generic, pre- competitive findings from the partnership, and apply them in our own R&D and product development in our own facilities,” said Flambard.

Improving knowledge

The four year partnership will work together on research in five specific projects that will help to improve knowledge about the role of probiotics in the gut.

These include, investigating useful biomarkers for probiotics health effects, researching how the immune barriers of the gut function, looking into the metabolism and energy balances of microbiota, and investigating the wider roles of pro- and pre- biotics on intestinal tissues.

Source: Bakery and snacks

Research food giants, research, TI Food and Nutrition

Diabetic women who enjoy a diet rich in bran may live longer and be less likely to die of heart disease than those who do not, according to the results of a new study published in the journal Circulation.

Although previous studies have linked high consumption of whole grains to a lower risk of developing type-2 diabetes and heart disease, the new study indicates whole grains may help protect the heart even for those who already exhibit type-2 diabetes, which raises the risk of heart disease.

Dr Lu Qi, one of the study’s researchers, told : “Increased intake of whole grain products, especially bran, may lower the risk of mortality especially cardiovascular mortality in diabetic patients.”

Explaining the significance of the research Qi added: “This is the first study investigating the effects of whole grain intake on mortality in patients of type 2 diabetes.”

Less likely to die

The researchers at Harvard Medical School, Boston found that among 7,800 US women followed for 26 years, those with the highest bran intake were 28 percent less likely to die during the review period than those who consumed the least bran.

Also, they were 35 percent less likely to die of cardiovascular disease.

Although there was no conclusive proof that a bran-rich diet reduced risks, the link between higher bran intake and lower death rates remained even after accounting for other diet factors, such as fat intake and calories and lifestyle factors. Those included weight, exercise levels, smoking history and drinking habits.

Qi and the research team concluded that bran intake itself may help reduce diabetics’ risk of premature death.

“We would recommend diabetic patients to consume more whole grains, less refined carbohydrates (such as white rice and pasta made with white flour),” Qi said.

The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) nutrition website MyPyramid.gov identifies whole grains as containing the entire grain kernel including the bran, germ, and endosperm. Examples include: Whole-wheat flour, bulgur (cracked wheat), oatmeal, whole cornmeal and brown rice.

Dietary fiber

In contrast, refined grains have been milled; a process that removes the bran and germ. “This is done to give grains a finer texture and improve their shelf life, but it also removes dietary fiber, iron, and many B vitamins,” according to the website. Examples of refined grain products include: White flour, degermed cornmeal, white bread and white rice.

Meanwhile, the research was based on a Nurses’ Health Study which every two years surveyed the health of women with type 2 diabetes. Nurses also provided information about their general health, medical history and lifestyle.

Nurses with the highest bran intake consumed on average 9g of bran per day, 10 times more than the lowest-intake group.

Source: Circulation

Health carbohydrates, diabetes, fibers, research

Nestle’s new center, R+D Santiago, will lead the research and development worldwide in biscuits and cereals snacks, and will focus on innovation and product renewal. This will bring together specialists from different areas as nutrition, technology, product development and quality control.

The center will develop new technologies that will help further reduce levels of sugar and fat so that cookies are lighter, without losing flavor or consistency. In addition, the R & D Santiago center will develop biscuits with bioactive ingredients to improve digestive health, and fortified products to supply micronutrient deficiencies in countries where it is required, adapting to local tastes and needs.

Paul Bulcke, CEO of Nestle, said that the center “will offer to our consumers in Latin America and elsewhere, tasty, healthy and nutritious cookies. R & D Santiago will benefit from the synergies between research and development and production of biscuits, to be located in the industrial complex of Nestlé in Maipú, which employs more than one thousand two hundred people.

The new center will work closely with the global network of R & D of Nestlé, which has 28 Research, Development and Technology Centers and about five thousand workers. It will participate in local government initiatives, and develop collaborative partnerships with universities such as Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Universidad de Chile.

Companies development, Nestle, research