Whiff of change

Food 'grazing' could take on a whole new meaning, according to Dr Ralf Zink, director of global research and development at Cognis Nutrition and Health, who predicts that with the global scales tipping towards more over- than underweight nations, technologies that can manipulate and create nutrient-dense, but energy-poor ingredients from low-cost raw materials, like grass, will propel manufacturers into previously unexplored pastures.

"Nanotechnology is already used in the application of ingredients, but what the food industry is not fully thinking about yet is how nanotechnology can create food, taking individual molecules to form a tailor-made product. That opens new ways of using raw materials. For example, we cannot digest grass because we do not have the enzymes to tear it apart, but using nanotechnology you might eventually only need a spoonful to get all the nutrients you need for a day."

And if you don't fancy filling the lunchbox with silage sarnies, just think what else could be achieved using single cell protein (SCP) technology, says Zink. How about products with eternal shelf-life, whose biological processes can be chemically 'switched off' to prevent degradation and reduce wastage, or the ability to plant and generate health enhancing lipids in the gastro intestinal tract?

The benefit to consumers will be so profound that even the use of genetic modification (GM) to kick-start the process, won't put off the punters, says Zink. "I know it's a little heretical to say, but if it's buried far enough down the food chain, they won't care."

"That's what everybody tells us," agrees David Stark, vice president of consumer traits at GM trailblazer Monsanto, which is five years away from launching its first commercial oil seed engineered to yield omega-3 fatty acids with a similar profile to the 'smart' stuff found in fish. Developed to add functionality to a range of chilled foods, including mayonnaise and yoghurt, it's described as being closer in its biochemical behaviour to soya, but not as stable as olive oil. "In the products we have made we haven't used micro encapsulation, which means it should also be cheaper. And you can avoid the whole trans fat issue because you don't have to hydrogenate it," says Stark.

"Functional foods sometimes make a promise that cannot be substantiated. Consumers don't care about the ingredients, they care about the benefits," echoes Zink. But as the ethical shopper flexes his dietary enhanced muscle, manufacturers are beginning to realise that those benefits extend way beyond personal health to much bigger issues, such as environmental protection - concerns that can be addressed (cynically or responsibly, depending on your perspective) by firms reviewing their selection of ingredients based on provenance and process.

According to Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, London, we are shifting from a "value for money market to a values for money market" and industry is more sympathetic to the mood swing than it's sometimes prepared to admit.

Lang's extreme view of a supermarket sustained by 1,000 rather than 25,000 lines, is unlikely to transpire, but "boutique" food shopping within stores, based on ingredients targeted at specific consumer groups, will inevitably grow, fuelled in the not-too-distant future by the up-close-and-personal new sciences of nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics.

While the first identifies what foods trigger gene expression, thereby hindering or accelerating diseases to which most of us are susceptible, the second helps in preventing specific illnesses in individuals whose personal genetic make-up and lifestyle make them vulnerable - the DNA barcode, which the popular press has likened to a Tesco clubcard.

Nutrigenomics

Early targets for nutrigenomic research led by the US and New Zealand are, not surprisingly, obesity and inflammatory disease.

"We're not interested in commodity ingredients; we're looking at developing proprietary ingredients," says Julie Hirsch, product development manager for US biotech firm Wellgen, which is working with Rutgers University in identifying bioactive compounds to turn into a range of food stuffs. Meanwhile, scientists in New Zealand are focusing on an apple extract to fight Crohn's Disease. Dr William Lang, who leads the collaborative Nutrigemonics NZ project, says the aim will be to develop foods and ingredients that "ameliorate, cure or prevent the disease".

It's a bold boast and one that European colleagues, gagged by health claims regulations, would be cautious to endorse. Nick Eskins of specialist flavour development firm TasteConnection isn't alone in believing the functional foods forum has been hi-jacked by the pharmaceutical industry on whose giant toes manufacturers have dared to trample.

"Health is being driven by pharma companies who have recognised that complementary care is a growing market. They've decided that what we will do is stuff people in it by believing a lot of rules and regulations need to be introduced. It's preparing the market for them to enter in a most callous way." But he's happy to leave the turf war to others: opportunities are growing over the next decade in other, equally profitable, directions, he says.

Recently asked to develop a red meat seasoning from Aberdeen Angus beef, he boldly predicts the death of hydrolysed vegetable protein (HVP) and other, similarly derided 'synthetic' products in favour of natural provenance. "Looking at floral flavours and natural trends, provenance is clearly going to be a big thing, but a sub-trend of eco-provenance is now on the horizon and coming at us fast. We're talking food miles, health and welfare of animals and the environment.

"By 2010 we could be up to a market that's 20-30% natural, but once you start sourcing from specific resources and extracting using natural methods like infusion, rather than chucking solvent at a product, it becomes expensive."

Scientists in New Zealand might have found a solution in biofermenting the enzymes responsible for tickling tastebuds and alerting our sense of smell. So far, they have successfully replicated the aroma of green apples and proved that a rose by any other name can smell as sweet, even if that other name is kiwifruit.

"At the moment, biofermentation is typically a little more expensive than chemical synthesis although as the price of petrochemicals increases this could change," says head of research Dr Ross Atkinson. "However, the environmental footprint that it leaves behind is much, much less. One berry, for example, is all the plant material needed to derive the biosynthetic pathway and replicate it through biofermentation in large quantities. The process is very clean, very reproducible with very little waste and loss of living plants.

"The source plant for the enzyme is not important: the enzyme responsible for producing the rose smell was actually obtained from kiwifruit flowers."

Back at Monsanto, Stark also believes environmental considerations will only increase the pressure on manufacturers to find alternative ingredients, even if they look suspiciously familiar to the ones we've been using for years.

"Everyone knows fruit and vegetables are healthy, " says Stark. "The problem is no one eats enough. So we need to have fruit and veg that are easier to consume, that taste great every time. It's not always about adding value, it's about improving the quality and consistency of a raw product. Frankly, if you really want to achieve that with less environmental impact you need all the best production tools, whether it's a good, safe chemical, certainly GM, or other smart products."

Benign or Frankenstein, as far as the future of ingredients development goes, technology will prevail, agrees Robert Pickard of the British Nutrition Foundation. "Genetically modified organisms and extreme functional foods will be clearly visible in the market landscape, " he says.

Is that a Flymo I hear revving?

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend