Joanna Cosgrove07.01.08
A New Weapon in the Battle of the Bulge
Unilever discusses its new food and drink-friendly satiety technology.
By
Joanna Cosgrove
Online Editor
The new technology was part of a presentation covering new food ingredients and approaches to fat reduction. The presentation was delivered by David Mela, PhD, a senior scientist in weight control and behavioral nutrition at Unilever Food and Health in The Netherlands.
To test the efficacy of this new development, Unilever researchers recruited 24 volunteers who consumed either a serving of regular Slim-Fast or a milkshake formulated with the company’s satiety ingredient. The researchers reported that those who consumed the experimental milkshake reported feeling “significantly fuller” for up to four hours following consumption.
In an interview given to Reuters, the research team that helped develop the satiety technology explained that it essentially traps gas in foods, preventing it from dissolving in the mouth. To do this, the team “engineered the fats, proteins and fibers in the food until reaching the right mix to trap the gas.”
What’s more, the concept is not limited to beverages. Dr. Mela noted that the concept is also well suited for use in foods and possibly even supplements, although ongoing research is still fine tuning future formulation opportunities. “This and other technologies can potentially be applied to other formats, but would have to be adjusted to the relevant product and processing conditions,” he said.
Dr. Mela was tight-lipped when it came to disclosing additional formulaic or ingredient details regarding the technology, acknowledging, “It’s a very commercially sensitive area, but a range of technologies are being developed and tested for potential future use, based on established and proprietary technologies,” he said. “This product concept was developed as part of a broader program of research on appetite control approaches and technologies that has been ongoing for many years.”
Programs of Ongoing Study
Although Unilever’s leading weight management brand, Slim-Fast, has been clinically proven to control hunger and improve weight loss efficacy, Dr. Mela said one of the primary factors compelling the company’s research into alternate weight loss aids was the desire to produce new product functionality and formats. “[It’s] one of many technical routes being developed and evaluated, by our own scientists and working in collaboration with third parties,” he said. “Consumers consistently report that ‘cravings for foods I love’ and ‘always being hungry’ are the number one reasons why their weight loss attempts fail (source: U.S. Strategic Segmentation Study 2007).”
In his presentation to the European Congress on Obesity, Dr. Mela asserted that the market is ripe for industrial foods and ingredients that benefit body fat reduction, noting the three possible application routes: reduced voluntary energy uptake (appetite-based), interference of energy uptake (absorption-based) and alter-energy metabolism (substrate oxidation or body composition-based).
He said of the three, the area currently attracting the most consumer interest is food-based enhancement of appetite control. “This is usually directed at gastrointestinal mechanisms, but targets for foods and ingredients could range from sensory stimulation to direct hormonal or even neural targeting,” he said.
Furthermore, he said future advances in appetite control through foods are expected from research approaches that “integrate expertise in food structures, physiology and nutrition.”
The need for a collaborative approach to weight loss was also underscored in a presentation delivered by Dr. Mela’s colleague, Gert Meijer, PhD, vice president of nutrition and health, and head of Unilever’s Nutrition Network.
Dr. Meijer's most salient point was that the food industry ought to take a leading role in making healthy food choices more accessible to consumers. This can be achieved, he said, by providing everyday solutions; an education process that is initiated internally; reviewing their own portfolio to ensure the food industry can be credibly in “the external debate”; providing clear labeling, claims and advertising/marketing; and partnering with governments and non-governmental organizations.
A successful example of this is evidenced in the effort by many leading food companies, including Unilever, Kraft and Nestle, to reduce saturated and/or trans fat, sugar and sodium in their products.
Unilever has already taken many of Dr. Meijer’s obesity-fighting criteria to heart, according to Dr. Mela. The company has a Nutrition Enhancement Programme, focused on evaluating and reducing levels of sodium, added sugars, saturated and trans fats across its entire portfolio, enabling it to make improvements where necessary and/or possible; participates in the Choices International Programme, by which a “Choices” front-of-pack stamp is used on food products that have passed an evaluation against a set of qualifying criteria based on international dietary guidelines, periodically reviewed by an independent international scientific committee of leading scientists; and has product extensions that include lower calorie options, among other things.
And though it will be some time before the company’s aforementioned new satiety technology is implemented for general consumer use, Dr. Mela said Unilever is committed to one of its ongoing core aspirations in the effort to help consumers with weight control: to continue developing foods with proven functional benefits, such as enhanced satiety or cholesterol-lowering abilities.