Danisco Presents Dietary Strategies for a Long Healthy Life

18/10/06 Some 150 participants, including representatives of more than 50 major food companies, gained an insight into innovative opportunities to optimise consumer health at an international symposium hosted by Danisco in Copenhagen.

Eight keynote speakers from the scientific world guided the symposium participants through the latest research, which points to diet as the key to alleviating the rising incidence of lifestyle-related health conditions and reducing the burden of healthcare costs. The talks covered some of the most topical areas in health and nutrition, such as bioactive food components and their effects on biomarkers, functional food developments in Asia, nutrigenetics and -genomics, nutritional strategies for weight management, and cardiovascular and digestive health.

Market drivers

Along with taste, trends within health and nutrition are major drivers of today’s food market. Most of the manufacturers represented at the symposium came from companies that already employ nutritional solutions supplied by Danisco. For them, scientifically and clinically substantiated benefits are a particular interest area.

Many of the healthy ingredients under investigation are already well known, including plants used by the holistic Hindu healing system Ayurveda. Beneficial probiotic bacteria are also becoming recognised for a growing number of new health benefits, supported by the numerous ingredients now known to have a prebiotic effect.

Danisco research

Four of Danisco’s own top research scientists presented the results of a series of studies that shed light on Litesse as a prebiotic dietary fibre, the health benefits of probiotics and betaine, and the potential synbiotic effect of combining the documented probiotic L. acidophilis NCFM with prebiotic lactitol.

“What we can offer that none of our colleagues in the industry can is a holistic approach to health and nutrition formulations,” said chair of Danisco’s health and nutrition network, Julian Stowell. “We can not only offer a key active ingredient. We can reformulate the whole product from a taste and texture perspective. Danisco offers the broadest portfolio of any company in this area.”

By stimulating dialogue between food innovation experts, Danisco is meeting its goal to encourage the development of new ideas and projects for appealing functional foods backed by sound science.