Issues in Contemporary Agriculture: Pharmaceuticals

In the News

Manitoba's Functional Food Industry Leaders Team up with Australian Scientists

www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/, From FFNet,March 7, 2008

Members of Manitoba's vibrant functional food and nutraceutical cluster have initiated a collaborative research and product development effort targeting bioactive proteins in dairy and their impact on chronic disease prevention and management. Lead by The Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals (RCFFN), the global initiative involves scientists at University of South Australia's Nutritional Physiology Research Centre, the Centre for Agri-Health in Research & Medicine (CCARM) at St. Boniface Hospital, and the University of Manitoba Departments of Food Science and Human Nutritional Sciences, which are affiliated with the RCFFN.

The RCFFN and CCARM are members of the Manitoba Agri-Health Research Network (MAHRN), which promotes Manitoba's unique capacities in the research, development and commercialization of agri-food products for health. The study protocols for the first project in the initiative, a joint human clinical trial to determine whether increased consumption of dairy protein can improve body composition and counteract disease in at-risk individuals, were finalized during the Government of Manitoba's recent business mission to Australia.

According to Dr. Curtis Rempel, Research and Development Manager at the RCFFN, the collaboration will evaluate the efficacy, structure, and function of bioactive proteins found in dairy products targeting prevention and management of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity - a cluster of disorders associated with metabolic syndrome. "These chronic diseases place a significant burden on the Canadian and Australian populations, as well as populations globally. We believe prevention and management using functional food products will decrease the economic burden and enhance quality of life," he explains.

Rempel says the collaborative research will focus on "environmentally friendly" technologies for isolating functional bioactives from dairy products and evaluate the potential of dairy products, such as drinkable yogurts, as "carriers" of other bioactive compounds. Longer term, the research will utilize novel technology at the RCFFN to fractionate the dairy protein, enabling the bioactive components to be identified and evaluated in experimental studies at the CCARM and in further human trials in both Canada and Australia.

Funding for the research collaboration is being provided by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) "Going Global" program as well as the Province of Manitoba, Department of Science, Technology, Energy & Mines. The functional food research initiative parallels the collaborative research being conducted between South Australia and Manitoba on adapting canola for climate change and on proteomics of cancer, particularly with respect to cell recruitment and tumor formation.