Innovate UK launches £10M R&D collaborative fund

03-Nov-2015 - Last updated on 16-Nov-2015 at 13:06 GMT

Innovate UK: £10M collaboration project aimed at reducing sugar, salt and fat

The government agency Innovate UK is launching a competition to fund up to £10M in collaborative research and development projects aimed at reducing sugar, salt and fat and increasing dietary fibre in food and drink.

In doing so, Innovate UK aims to stimulate the availability of healthier food and drinks and open up new markets for the British food industry.

Helen Munday, lead technologist, Agriculture and Food Team at Innovate UK, said: “Healthier ingredients in packaged and pre-prepared foods have a part to play in improving our nation’s diet.

“This is not the entire answer to poor dietary habits or the obesity epidemic, but the companies that win funding and the innovations and healthier products that they develop will be part of the solution.”

Variety wanted

She said that for greatest economic impact, Innovate UK was looking for a breadth of projects, spanning a variety of food types, from improving heavily consumed, comparatively unhealthy foods to developing new, healthier foods to meet increasing consumer demand.

The deadline to register for the initiative is Wednesday November 18.