Sugar processor Tate & Lyle has announced it will contribute £4.5M over five years to help research the link between health and nutrition.
The money will be used set up a new centre for research at King’s College London, which will be known as the Tate & Lyle Health Research Centre and include a clinical research facility and a carbohydrate nutrition research laboratory.
The aim of the research is to strengthen understanding of how carbohydrates can promote gut health and how different types of carbohydrate can reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome (associated with heart disease and type II diabetes.)
Tate & Lyle chief executive Iain Ferguson said: “By combining Tate & Lyle’s commercial experience in the food and beverage industry and King’s expertise in health and nutrition, we can share knowledge through the dissemination of our research, and ultimately bring new products to market.”
King’s College is currently researching, among other things, the effect of low glycaemic carbohydrates on metabolic syndrome and the use of prebiotic carbohydrates to promote gut health.
Tate& Lyle, meanwhile, is working on developing ingredient solutions under its Enrich service to enhance the nutritional benefit of food and beverages without compromising on taste. The solutions aim to address health issues such as gut health, satiety, paediatric health and vitamin and mineral enrichment.
Previous collaboration between the company and the college in the 1970s resulted in the development of the no calorie sweetener Splenda Sucralose.