Sweeter than Sweet

Food companies operate on slim margins at the best of times, so backing the right horse when it comes to allocating limited R&D resources is absolutely critical, says Dr Diederick Meyer - the man in charge of setting the research agenda at Dutch ingredients giant Sensus - a subsidiary of farmer-owned Royal Cosun Group.

It would, for example, be fascinating to do more clinical studies into Sensus's star ingredients inulin and partially hydrolysed inulins (fructo-oligosaccharides) and bone health, says Meyer, but that may not be the best use of limited resources. "Beneo Group [Sensus's key competitor] has done a really nice trial in this area, and we could pursue this as well. But we've got to be practical.

"Our target areas are gut health, weight management and bone health. But at the moment, the bone health market is focused on calcium, which consumers understand. It's also cheaper than inulin. Spreading the news that inulin can improve calcium absorption is a more complex message, and I'm not sure the return on investment would be there if were to do clinical trials.

"Likewise, we're not going down the route of looking at inulin and colon cancer. We're also avoiding heart health because there are so many competing products in that market already, such as plant sterols, oat beta-glucans and so on."

Rather than fighting over the same territory as rivals, Sensus has instead decided to focus on areas where it feels it can carve its own niche, says Meyer, who studied chemistry at the University of Amsterdam in the late 1970s but went on to specialise in microbiology, obtaining his PhD in 1985. "Beneo has done studies into the effects of fairly high dosages of inulin showing bifidogenic effects, but we have achieved good results with far smaller quantities. But we also focus more on our applications expertise and support customers through regulatory issues."

Meyer progressed quickly up the ranks at Suiker Unie's (Sugar Union's) research arm - now the Cosun Food Technology Centre (CFTC) and was soon heading up a team working on industrial fermentation for the production of bacterial polysaccharides such as xanthan and lactic acid from sucrose. This was incredibly exciting research with a lot of potential, but was eventually abandoned as the business decided to concentrate on fructose production from chicory, says Meyer.

Ironically, Sensus has now stopped producing fructose, as prices collapsed in the wake of reform of the EU sugar regime - something that everyone was expecting to happen - just not so fast, says Meyer. "No one could have foreseen that the drop in price would be that dramatic. So we stopped producing fructose, completely. This of course means that we need to expand our inulin business fast to compensate for the loss of turnover."

As for research funding, food companies face serious challenges as they start to stray into territory previously occupied by the pharmaceutical giants, says Meyer. "Collaborative research is one obvious way to spread the costs, but of course, several companies will get the benefits and no one can gain competitive advantage. But if it's all pre-competitive, much more research is then needed to apply it in industry."

Industry and academia could always work together more effectively, he concedes. "But I don't think industry should determine the research agenda; universities must be able to do work unfettered by commercial interests or there would never be anything new."

Like most regulatory experts, Meyer approves of the principles underpinning the new EU Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation, but has been less than impressed with its execution.

The lack of guidance on the submission of article 13 claims supported by 'generally accepted science' has been particularly frustrating, while uncertainty over which system of nutrient profiling will underpin nutrient and health claims is equally unhelpful, he says. However, he is hoping that claims relating to inulin and oligofructose on gut health and the immune system, satiety and bone health will be successful when the EU-wide list of approved claims is published in 2010.

Longer-term, Sensus might expand to become a broader health ingredients company, or further develop its expertise in one area such as fibres or prebiotics, he says. "There is still a lot we can do by playing with chain lengths to develop new inulin-type products."

While other ingredients such as galacto-oligosaccharides and polydextrose have been shown to have a prebiotic effect, inulin has a broader suite of other health benefits and functionalities, says Meyer. "We can talk about fibre, GI, fat and sugar reduction, satiety, bone health and so on, so I think we've still got the edge!"