UK launches public–private research agenda in diet and health

Public–private research initiative

Three of the UK’s Research Councils have joined forces with 15 food and drink companies to launch £4 million of research projects with the aim of improving scientific understanding of the key issues linking diet and health.

The Diet and Health Research Industry Club (DRINC), managed and led by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), brings together food and drink companies, public research funders and academic scientists to support research that will advance consumer understanding of the link between diet and health.

Funding has been awarded nine projects at universities and institutes across the UK to investigate three main areas:

• How foods can be developed to help fight obesity;

• The processes that affect decisions about what food we eat and the portion sizes we take;

• The benefits to health of various nutrients, including fruits, vegetables, cocoa, wine and tea, and how best such nutrients can be efficiently delivered to where they are needed in the body.

A second round of projects worth a further £3 million will be funded in 2009.

Doug Yarrow, BBSRC’s Director of Corporate Science, said the funding of these projects represents an open and transparent collaboration between publicly-funded science and the food industry. “This work will ensure that the food industry can access the best of UK science to address some of the most important health issues faced by the UK today.”

Among the projects that have received funding are:

• Satisfying foods – research at Birmingham University to develop mechanisms for keeping the stomach fuller for longer and also tell the brain that the stomach is pleasantly full. The research could lead to new foods to tackle obesity by telling the brain to stop eating sooner and preventing snacking between meals.

• Why we super size – researchers at Bristol University will examine the psychology behind how filling we think a food will be before we decide how much of it to eat. The work will help to understand how to present food so people take in reduced levels of calories.

• Maximising the health benefits of chocolate, tea and wine – while flavanols in cocoa, tea and wine can have beneficial effects on cardiovascular health, processing these foodstuffs affects flavanol content. Researchers at Reading University will examine flavanols in cocoa and investigate what happens to them in the human digestive system and how they have a beneficial effect on human cells.