Healthy Taste For Souped-Up Foods

In The Jetsons, a US television cartoon series, futuristic characters simply pressed a button on the wall when they got hungry out would pop small pills that when swallowed produced all the tastes and nutrients of a three course dinner. The pills were no doubt a spoof on the newly popular vitamin industry.

If the series were made today, The Jetsons would probably pass on the pills. The pendulum has swung back and todays researchers are asking the question: rather than serve food in the form of medicine, why not serve medicine in the form of food?

In the US and Europe, food and biotechnology companies are betting on products with claims to disease prevention. Known as nutraceuticals or functional foods, they go beyond claims of low fat and cholesterol to promise specific health benefits, such as reducing blood sugar levels or improving the immune system.

 

Nutraceutical (promoters) basically see food as a delivery mechanism for disease-fighting compounds, says Nancy Borgeson, a senior consultant specialising in functional foods for the consultancy SRI.

The first examples of this new line of products are already moving into the supermarkets. In Europe, Nestle is marketing LCI yogurt, fortified with a special ingredient to rid the body of harmful bacteria such as salmonella. Florida-based Tropicana has put out a new line of nutrient-enhanced juices for health-conscious consumers.

In January, Campbell Soup began trial sales in Ohio of a new brand called Intelligent Quisine, retailing for about $10 for three home-delivered meals a day. The company is promising consumers lower cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar if they stick with the programme for 10 weeks or more.

More nutraceuticals are in the pipeline. Kellogg, the US breakfast cereal maker, will soon open a $75 million research centre in Michigan dedicated to developing functional foods. It has also applied to the US Food and Drug Administration for approval to advertise some of its cereal products as a prevention for colon cancer.

Nabisco, another big US food company, says it is working on a new line of such products and may make some announcements over the next few months. Agronomy groups like Zeneca and Monsanto are also developing nutritionally pumped-up produce.

New knowledge about nutrition is pushing nutraceuticals forward. In addition to basic vitamins and minerals, scientists have identified new classes of nutrients such as phytochemicals that are considered essential in the battle against cancer and other diseases. As a result, vitamin formulations are becoming bigger and more specialised.

At some point, the supplement gets so big that it makes sense to put it in food, rather than pill form, says Nancy Childs, a professor of food marketing at St Josephs University in Philadelphia.

The amount of technological engineering involved in nutraceuticals will probably vary widely. Functional foods could include anything from a snack bar with extra bran to genetically altered fruits and vegetables. Some of the most interesting work is coming out of bioscience companies such as Monsanto and Zeneca.

In Germany, Monsanto has just launched special eggs with DHA, a nutrient known to reduce the risk of heart disease and mainly found in fish. Fish obtain the nutrient from certain types of algae. By lacing chicken feed with the same algae, researchers for the project say they have managed to produce eggs with a similar nutritional value.

Zeneca and Monsanto are both working on tomatoes with extra lycopene, a type of beta-carotene identified as a cancer-fighting nutrient. The challenge is to come up with a souped-up crop that produces the same yields as other tomatoes. The extra lycopene part is easy, says a researcher. The problem is to make it economically feasible.

At the government-sponsored National Food Biotechnology Centre in the Irish Republic, researchers are searching for a private-sector partner to market a health milk they are developing. Scientists would lace the milk with special lactic acid bacteria in the hope that the bugs would colonise in the human digestive tract. The lactic acid would then battle harmful bacteria.

Functional foods have potential drawbacks. For one thing, the regulatory environment to support health claims is uncertain.

At present, the US Food and Drug Administration specifies that foods may make general health claims such as he- art healthy. If manufacturers wish to pitch their products for more specific diseases, however, clinical trials are probably necessary.

That may not constitute a barrier for some food groups. Financing research to support health claims is a growing trend in the industry. In the early nineties, the cranberry company Ocean Spray paid for clinical trials to show that cranberry juice can help prevent urinary tract infections, then successfully used the supporting results to market its product. Campbell Soup also financed a series of clinical trials to back up its health pitch for the Intelligent Quisine brand.

Even so, companies are cautious about making health claims that would unrealistically raise consumers hopes. We have to be very careful about making such claims, especially with something as serious as cancer and heart disease, says Nigel Poole, regulatory affairs manager at Zeneca. It would be difficult to prove such claims, and could get us in trouble legally as well as tarnish our image with the public.

Even if they turn out well, research and clinical trials are expensive, and as pharmaceutical companies know only too well, regulatory approval is not always forthcoming. Moreover, many nutritional innovations are extremely difficult to patent, so imitators could easily wipe out any advantage. Companies should be fairly certain of a substantial pay-off before sinking too much money into such ventures.

In spite of the challenges, functional foods look set to be a big new area for manufacturers. While nutraceuticals may not provide any greater health benefits than can be obtained by eating balanced meals, companies are betting consumers will pay a heavy premium to get the extra convenience and taste. That bet may pay off.

It s clearly not enough to just tell people to eat more fruits and vegetables, says Borgeson of SRI. People want to eat healthy, but only if they can do it with the convenience foods and tastes theyre used to. Because of that, nutraceuticals will probably be a very appealing consumer item. At some point, the supplement gets so big that it makes sense to put it in food, rather than pill form