While the commercial pressure to make a fast buck out of the obesity crisis has spawned a whole swathe of hunger-busting ingredients, products containing them have struggled to make headway, with uncertainty over health claims approvals and a reluctance to take risks in the current economic climate compounding the problem.
Scan the Mintel new products database for new launches using words such as 'appetite' or 'hunger' and it will bring up scores of dietary supplements making all manner of questionable claims, but only a handful of foods and drinks which does not suggest the market has exploded as many researchers predicted a couple of years ago.
Lipid Nutrition, which has been heavily promoting its PinnoThin appetite suppressant from Korean pine nut oil since its launch in 2005, admits four years on, that sales are still not setting the world on fire, despite lots of good PR and new easier-to-use formulations.
"We've got new products using PinnoThin in the Netherlands and Spain, but things are moving more slowly than we would like," says global marketing manager John Kurstjens. "It's still very new and getting the right product with the right message at the right price is hard." Chocolate containing PinnoThin under the Naturally Gorgeous brand is still on the UK market, but the smoothies have been dropped.
Even DSM, which supplies appetite-suppressing palm and oat oil emulsion Fabuless the star ingredient in Campina's Optimel and Optiwell Control drinks, admits they have struggled to retain their early momentum with volumes dropping off after a promising start. "This is the general nature of new product introductions some fail and others make it into successful brands," says product manager Emily Tellers.
Manage consumer expectations
"In weight management, consumer expectations are high, as weight loss is often seen as the holy grail. But there are no miracles for weight management; a healthy lifestyle which balances energy intake and energy expenditure is the key."
To manufacturers contemplating launches on a satiety platform, she adds: "There is no magic bullet; be transparent, provide support and do not over-promise."
On the plus side, new products containing Fabuless are under development on several continents including yogurts, milks, instant beverages, bars and dietary supplements, says Teller, with recent launches including Silhouette Active, a UHT milk from Candia available in France.
While not a single weight management ingredient health claim has yet gained a positive opinion from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), DSM remains confident that Fabuless will be successful on this front, insists Teller. "With Fabuless we have shown both short and long-term effects, and this is also supported by the recently announced mechanistic evidence that Fabuless works on the body's natural appetite control mechanism."
Things are looking more challenging for the appetite suppressant hoodia gordonii, however. Life sciences firm Phytopharm says it is confident of securing a new partner to develop food applications following the collapse of its multi-million-pound tie up with Unilever. But a year after the two parted, Phytopharm boss Sandy Morrison admits potential partners are still reluctant to sign on the dotted line until there is more clarity over the safety and efficacy of its specific hoodia extract.
Unilever has remained tight-lipped on the reasons for ending the partnership, but was understood to have been trialling hoodia in a beverage, which was unsuccessful because it was metabolised too quickly. "If you use enough hoodia to be efficacious in a drink, it can have digestive side-effects," says one industry source.
As for health claims, despite the fact that large sums have been spent investigating its efficacy, Phytopharm has not yet submitted a formal application to EFSA proposing a health claim about its hoodia extract.
In the meantime, the market has become saturated with generic hoodia products that do not have the same effects as Phytopharm's extract, says ingredients distributor Gee Lawson: "We decided not to supply hoodia as we couldn't guarantee it was the correct species. There is a huge amount of Chinese hoodia out there, whereas the hoodia with the clinical evidence behind it is from South Africa."
Back at Unilever meanwhile, other attempts to make money out of satiety have proved equally costly and disappointing, with Hunger Shots a drink containing whey protein and fibres withdrawn last year after poor sales.
But we should not assume that satiety was a passing fad or that the science behind it is dubious just because products such as Hunger Shots did not succeed, insists Dr Julian Stowell, scientific and regulatory affairs expert at Danisco. "Satiety products are not something you consume instead of following a healthy, calorie-restricted diet and lifestyle they are designed to help people comply with this lifestyle."
Isabel Farinha, marketing manager for Slendesta a potato protein claimed to suppress appetite from Kemin Health Europe, says managing consumer expectations is key. "Satiety products are not miracle products, and I believe this has been the problem. Consumers were (and still are) expecting that a satiety product will solve all their problems: take one pill or a shot and feel full for the rest of the day. This is not the case."
To date, 16 supplements and one milk shake using Slendesta have been launched in Europe, she reveals. "Bars, milk drinks, beverages, cookies and gums are also under development."
The advantage of Slendesta over other hunger-busting ingredients is that only small amounts are required to be efficacious (300mg per portion), she claims. "It can be used in capsules, tablets, soft gels, milk, cookies, bars and beverages. The only problem is clear beverages; there is a water dispersible version, but it is not completely soluble; you can still see cloudiness."
She is also confident that an article 13.1 health claim about the satiating effects of potato protein will be approved by EFSA: "Slendesta has 11 clinical trials supporting it, so we don't believe we'll have problems."
Staple products vs new concepts
At the moment, the most popular options for food manufacturers seeking to make more filling, less energy-dense products, are fibres (oligofructose, inulin, guar gum, polydextrose, corn), proteins (soy, whey, milk, pea, potato), and combinations of the two as in Kellogg's Special K Sustain cereal or Danone's Shape 'Feel Fuller for Longer' yogurts (with guar gum and milk proteins), says Kavan Ranasinghe at DKSH. "Big brands are conservative. They want something that sounds recognisable and won't negatively impact on taste or texture."
Rather than going to market with a totally new concept based on satiety, manufacturers are also thinking more about incorporating satiating ingredients into staples such as cereals, yogurts and bars, says Joy Thomas at Cornelius, the UK distributor for Slendesta and the Sunfiber hydrolysed guar gum from Taiyo Europe used in the Shape Feel Fuller for Longer yogurts. "Completely new food products and concepts based entirely on satiety can work, but they are always more risky."
If you incorporate satiety ingredients into staple products that people consume anyway, she observes, you are not asking them to spend much more or change their habits.
While there are plenty of ingredients to choose from for manufacturers looking to tap into the satiety trend, they might be well advised to opt for something that also confers other benefits, adds Dr Naomi Grant at whey protein supplier Volac. "The good thing about whey protein is that it's not just about satiety, it's a much broader proposition. It's about maintaining lean muscle mass and reducing fat." This is something that sports people already understand, she says, but is only just starting to move into the mainstream.
"We really need a big brand to get behind whey to raise awareness of what it can offer on the weight management front. But I am encouraged that brands like PepsiCo are involved in a whey protein research consortium in the US, and we already have brands such as GSK using whey in more mainstream products under the Lucozade brand, so it's only a matter of time."
Paul Donegan, marketing manager at whey protein supplier Carbery, claims whey also has advantages over other proteins. "Whey has great solubility in water, and a higher protein efficiency ratio (PER) than soy or other vegetable proteins." (PER measures how well a food is used by the body for muscle building and growth.)
As for health claims, while EFSA has given short shrift to the weight management claims it has assessed so far, it has yet to comment on the scores of ingredients purporting to stave off hunger pangs, from potato protein isolate and Korean pine nut oil to carob all of which are still in its in-tray. So on the plus side, there is everything still to play for.
But it would be a mistake to assume that securing a health claim will guarantee commercial success. After all, even if EFSA accepts appetite suppression is a useful endpoint in itself, consumers may not. If a firm can clinically prove that drink X keeps punters 'fuller for longer', but it does not ultimately help them lose weight, will they keep buying it?
There is also the more fundamental question of how important appetite actually is in weight management, which means customers can quickly become disillusioned when products do not 'work'. Hunger, after all, is self-evidently not the only factor governing how much, what, or when, we eat. If only it were that simple.