Weekly Roundup: DSM launches F&B business group, Clasado Biosciences emphasizes need for sustainability across life sciences

14 Jan 2022 --- This week in nutrition news, DSM created a new integrated Food & Beverage group to align more closely with emerging customer and market needs. The F&B platform includes DSM’s Food Specialties, Hydrocolloids and Nutritional Products group. In sustainability moves, Clasado Biosciences emphasized that consumers are looking for brands and products that have a “greener” outlook and benefit the environment. Meanwhile, a study conducted by several US and Spanish-based universities found that higher olive oil intake was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease mortality.

In brief: Business news
DSM’s new Food & Beverage business group will offer consumers a full range of taste, texture and health solutions. The business group will combine the company’s full range of F&B ingredients, expertise and science-based solutions that improve the taste and texture of foods. The launch comes when industry is converging with the health and wellness space and increasingly aligning with consumer expectations for delicious products that support their health alongside environmental and social aspirations. By establishing a “one-stop-shop” of ingredients, solutions and end-to-end capabilities, DSM will help food and beverage manufacturers worldwide fast-track product development and achieve efficient production.

Clasado Biosciences commented on the increasing demand for sustainability across life sciences sectors. The company focuses its scientific and commercial activities around careful control of the planet’s resources. The business has a long-term sustainability plan to ensure it creates positive environmental and social change. Commenting on the impact of sustainability demand, vice president of sales B2B at Clasado Biosciences says “‘Green’ manufacturing in life sciences needs to be front and center, not just in terms of persuading the consumer, but in securing the long-term success of the industry.”Real Vitamins utilize natural vitamins, amino acids and minerals to alleviate mental health issues, including stress and anxiety.

Danish biotech company Biosyntia partnered with Wacker Chemie, a German polymer supplier, to develop a large-scale production process for fermentation-based biotin, rooted in Biosyntia’s microbial technology. It is currently only produced synthetically from petrochemicals. Wacker brings expertise in biotechnological process development and industrial-scale fermentation, which it already uses to produce L-cysteine. Previously, a fermented biotin product called BIO-B7 was launched by Biosytia, which was made from a sugar-based fermentation process.

In order to assess health risks, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) relies on collective, independent expert appraisals conducted by multidisciplinary groups of scientific experts that it coordinates. It called on applications to renew ten of these expert groups in the following fields: human food and nutrition, animal health and welfare, and plant health. Nominations for these groups, open to scientists from various disciplines, must be submitted online in French before March 15. The experts are chosen for a four-year term based on their scientific competence and following examination of their interests. A few of the sought after skills include risk assessment, epidemiology, toxicology, biology, agronomy, human nutrition, biochemistry and physiology, food hygiene and microbiology, food technology and ecology.

In brief: Launches and releases
Supplement company Real Vitamins released a product line to help fight anxiety and stress. The flagship anti-anxiety and stress supplement – Real Chill – was formulated with ingredients that balance brain and gut chemicals like serotonin, cortisol and GABA. According to the company, Real Chill is a natural stress relief supplement for anyone who experiences mild to moderate anxiety. This move comes when 40 million adults have some form of anxiety disorder, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association.

Social e-commerce platform Yunji unveiled its private-label Qingziyang brand probiotics bolus solid beverage. It says the beverage was an immediate bestseller, as customers purchased 55,000 boxes in forty seconds. It includes six strains of patented probiotics that can be effectively absorbed by the human body, helping restore the gut’s natural balance of bacteria and improving digestive health. Qingziyang develops healthy and nutritious food for women.NB Pure’s Immune+ supplement may shorten the duration and severity of viral symptoms.

NB Pure, a supplement brand, released Immune+, a supplement containing calcium, vitamin C and D, zinc, ashwagandha, quercetin, CoQ10, resveratrol and reishi mushrooms. The supplement shortens the duration and severity of viral symptoms, according to the company. Immune+ may also support respiratory, blood sugar, cardiovascular and anti-aging health.

In brief: Research and studies
A Brigham Young University study conducted at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center found that teenagers who are not getting enough sleep may consume an extra 4.5 lb(2.05 kg) of sugar during a school year. The researchers note that this sugar consumption increases the risk of weight gain and other cardiometabolic diseases. The study conducted on 93 teenagers found that teenagers undergoing short sleep (six and a half hours) consumed more foods that were likely to spike blood sugar than when they were in healthy sleep (nine and a half hours).

Replacing 10 g per day of margarine, butter, mayonnaise and dairy fat with 10 g of olive oil was associated with lower mortality risk pertaining to cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease and respiratory disease. The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and examined participants from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. The researchers analyzed 60,582 women and 31,801 men, free of cardiovascular disease and cancer, at the study baseline in 1990. During 28 years of follow-up, the diet was assessed by a questionnaire every four years. When researchers compared those who rarely or never consumed olive oil, those in the highest consumption category had a 19% lower risk of cardiovascular mortality, 17% lower risk of cancer mortality, 29% lower risk of neurodegenerative mortality and 18% lower risk of respiratory mortality.

Dried goji berries may protect against age-related vision loss resulting from macular degeneration, according to a University of California, Davis study. The researchers found that 13 healthy participants aged 45 to 65 who consumed 28 g of goji berries five times a week for 90 days increased the density of protective pigments in their eyes. In contrast, 14 study participants who consumed a commercial supplement for eye health over the same period did not show an increase. The pigments that increased in the group that ate goji berries, lutein and zeaxanthin, filter out harmful blue light and provide antioxidant protection. Both help to protect the eyes during aging.

A green Mediterranean diet, high in polyphenols and low in red and processed meat, may slow age-related brain atrophy, according to Israel-based Ben-Gurion University of the Negev-led study. The 18-month long study examined 300 participants divided into three groups according to a diet, including a healthy dietary guidelines group, a Mediterranean diet group and a green Mediterranean diet group. The participants’ whole-brain MRI measurements were taken before and after the trial. The researchers found a significant debilitation in brain atrophy over the 18 months in those who adhered to both Mediterranean diets, with greater magnitude in the green Mediterranean group, specifically among participants over age 50.

In brief: Community outreach
Thousands of residents lacking access to food and proper nutrition in Inyo, Mono, and Alpine counties (located at the far eastern edge of California, USA) will be served this winter by Inyo Mono Advocates for Community Action (IMACA) through a US$25,000 grant from California Health & Wellness (CHW). This food distribution had been in doubt after the pandemic forced IMACA to move to a contactless drive-through food distribution model to serve residents. With this grant, IMACA has upgraded the warehouse’s electrical service from 100 amps to 200 amps, installed a 30 amp plug for their freezer truck, and installed a backup power source for the warehouse refrigeration system.

By Nicole Kerr