NutraIngredients NutraTalk Podcast

A paradigm shift is needed to force delicate women’s health issues like vaginal infections and discharge out into the open, says industry microbiologist.

New technology like crowdsourcing and artificial intelligence computers is the future of risk assessment, the head of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has said.

Since taking the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) throne last summer, Dr Bernhard Url has become something of a pin-up boy for the so-called new ‘open EFSA’. But how far exactly is this new executive director willing to take his vision of transparency?

The potential of probiotics to benefit maternal and infant morbidity and mortality is being shown in on-the-ground projects in Africa and elsewhere, according to lifelong researcher, maternal and infant morbidity and mortality, professor Gregor Reid.

Self-styled 'germvangelist' and microbiologist Jason Tetro says the probiotic industry is obsessed with technicalities and needs to venture back in time to access the innate, holistic power of probiotics.

Irish dairy and ingredients group Kerry sees a lot of potential in an Indonesian market where sophisticated nutritionals are gaining ground with a young demographic. It is upping investment in a country with south east Asia’s largest population (250m).

Indonesia's food industry will continue to grow in importance as its population of around 300 million gains wealth, according to some voices in the halls of the Jakarta International Expo at Food Ingredients-Asia last week. But it may have some way to go yet.

Omega-3 supplements are key to boosting intakes, a UK researcher says, and marine omega-3 fatty acids are more beneficial than their plant-based counterparts.

Already one of the most widely-used stimulants in sport, recent research suggests there may be greater scope for caffeine to be used in a wider range of sports as well as during exercise, says sports nutrition researcher and consultant in elite sport.

Exotic and functional fruits and vegetables like cashew nut fruit, chu chu and their extracts are set for an easier passage into European Union markets if mooted simplifications to EU Novel Foods laws come to fruition, according to a UK-based expert.

Evidence is building that links the gut microbiome and brain function and ‘psychobiotics’ are at the heart of that, says a leading Irish researcher working in the field for more than five years.

As the EU’s ambitious €6m PlantLIBRA project to further botancials science drew to a close this week at a congress in Vienna, we asked the European Commission about the project’s relative merits – and whether a ‘mark 2’ was on the cards.

Nick Henson is the Reading-based associate director at the International Food Network (IFN), a key player in the EU’s new multi-million euro, multi-partner Metabolic Syndrome-battling project, PATHWAY-27, that has health claim victories trained in its sights.

Food manufacturers, retailers and other food industry players are failing to connect with consumers who are tuning out of mainstream messaging and infesting their own comms channels, says angel investor, business mentor and philanthropist, Mike Greene.

Veteran probiotic researcher professor Gregor Reid is not a happy man. It’s time the probiotic community fought back against those forces that have for too long denied a perfectly valid body of nutrition science in the form of commercial claims. It’s time to get personal…

Putting a male-oriented sports nutrition product into a petite, pink package is a lazy way to meet female needs, says a leading UK firm which is going about things a little differently.

James Collins, bespoke nutritionist at Arsenal Football Club and with other elite athletes, says food supplements and sports nutrition products are highly important to top athletes - so important their use is now near-on ubiquitous.   

Irish biotech start-up AnaBio Technologies is in advanced negotiations with major infant formula makers interested in its encapsulation technologies that can blend probiotics and minerals into heat treated products at cost-effective prices.

As the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) welcomed a broad range of stakeholders to its Italian HQ today to debate data and process transparency, the food industry asked at what point openness brakes innovation and competitive advantage?

The food industry came under attack last week at the International Congress of Nutrition (#ICN20) for not doing enough to improve the healthiness of its portfolios…unfairly, says Unilever.

The Dutch start-up Medical Brands is finding success with cranberry products that have won UTI and vaginal treatment claims via the EU medical devices directive.

Aggrieved companies and  trade groups have already mounted legal actions against the EU’s strict health claim laws – they are in process – but the regulation’s workings could face fresh challenge from governments signed up to the World Trade Organization (WTO), according to a Brussels-based legal expert.

A new technology that utilises intestinal stem cells to grown mini gut structures in the lab promises to help probiotic researchers achieve efficient and cost effective research, according to TNO.

Greater collaboration from both within the industry, and between industry and academics, will help to drive forward promising scientific developments in probiotics, according to experts at Probiotech and Microbiota 2013.

Metabolites from the break-down of resveratrol have been shown to come together and regenerate the compound inside living cells, leaving researchers questioning whether worries over bioavailability are relevant.