18 Jul 2012 EU scientists designing new ingredients for satiety

The University of Liverpool is leading a €8-milllion European project to develop and test new food products with satiating qualities to help control appetite, manage weight and combat obesity. Obese and overweight people are less likely to feel full after eating, partly because of the calorie-dense foods they prefer have a reduced impact on gastrointestinal hormone signals that help promote feelings of satisfaction and fullness.

SATIN (SATiety INnovation) is a five-year, EU-funded project to develop new food products using the latest processing innovation techniques. Exploiting better understanding of the biological processes in the stomach and the brain that underpin what makes us feel “full”, the project will evaluate whether this approach is a viable weight management tool.

Obesity is a major public health issue facing the European Union and reducing it is a priority for all European governments. It is estimated that 60% of men, 50% of women and 25% of children in the UK will be obese by 2050. Obesity has a severe impact on people’s health, increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and heart and liver disease. The direct costs to the NHS (National Health Service) caused by obesity are estimated to be £4.2 billion per year in the UK. In several European countries, the cost of obesity has already reached 5% of public health expenditure.

Professor Jason Halford, Director of the University’s Human Ingestive Behaviour laboratory, says: “People who are obese find successful weight loss and maintenance notoriously difficult. Obesity is typically a consequence of overconsumption driven by an individual’s natural sensitivity to food stimuli and the pleasure derived from eating high fat and high sugar foods.

“Obese and overweight people are less likely to feel full after eating, partly because of the energy-dense foods they prefer have a reduced impact on gastrointestinal hormone signals that help promote feelings of satisfaction and fullness.

“SATIN aims to draw upon our improved understanding of appetite expression – how the foods we eat affect eating behaviour and appetite. If we can produce foods that fill people up quicker and for longer and taste good then we can help moderate appetite whilst maintaining a healthy balanced diet.”

SATIN will use advanced food processing technologies (such as advanced forms of fermentation, vacuum technology, enzyme application, emulsification, ultra-filtration, drying, sublimation and freezing, heat treatment, protein modification and encapsulation) to modify the structure of the foods which accelerate satiation, enhance satiety and to reduce appetite.

One of the ingredients of interest to the project is starch, which is found in bread and pasta and is blamed for a lot of calories in our diet as most of it is easily digested.

Harry Flint, researcher at the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health at the University of Aberdeen and a partner in SATIN, has studied starch resistant to human digestive enzymes.

“It is possible to convert some of this readily digestible starch in the food to non-digestible material and as a result you get fewer calories,” he says.

“The idea is to model what is happening in the body so to screen ingredients before we put them into clinical trials so we’ve a better idea of the likely success of ingredients,” adds Halford.

Commenting on the project, Harvey Andersen at the University of Toronto, says: “The idea is to use the gut and food stimulation rather than drugs to tell the brain to reduce intake. In addition to being a safer approach, it is a logical path as the first generator of satiety signals come from the gut. It is a good idea, because if nothing else we will learn more about gut function and its importance as we are now learning about bacteria in the colon and intestines and their role in health.”

SATIN represents a consortium of 18 academic and industrial partners from nine European countries including leading research institutes, large companies and small- and medium-sized companies in the food and retail industry who specialize in novel food formulation and production.

See more at www.satin-satiety.eu