Objective
The proposed Task Force should generate interest, understanding and acceptance of the opportunities being provided by new technologies such as “-omics” and imaging, to explore possibilities and to make use of these new techniques to demonstrate the effect of biological active substances in humans to claim substantiation.
Background
Many bioactive food ingredients are claimed to either reduce disease risks or to improve life quality by optimizing and maintaining body functions. These claims have to be based on scientific substantiation. The project “Process for the Assessment of Scientific Support for Claims on Foods” (PASSCLAIM) developed a generic tool to assess the scientific support for health claims for foods. This included also the establishment of criteria for markers and measurement techniques to be used to proof a claimed effect. However, nowadays new technologies have been developed (especially all -omics tools like genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics) which can serve as good tools to further strengthen the evidence of efficacy of specific bioactive food ingredients, detect new markers of efficacy which were not known up to date and/or generate reliable evidence in cases (i.e. calorie restriction) where this may be difficult for the classical biomarkers. Likewise, it is conceivable that imaging techniques (like CT, MRI or PET) which up to date were mostly used for clinical diagnosis can provide evidence in humans (i.e. brain functions), which is very difficult to get with established biomarkers / tests.
State-of-the-art techniques are tools like genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics. These are future-orientated technology fields that are under investigation mostly in academy but more and more also in the industry. A good example in coordinating these activities is the “The European Nutrigenomics Organisation: linking genomics, nutrition and health research” (NuGO) project. One of their goals is to implement and apply genomic technologies for the benefit of nutritional science in Europe and worldwide.
Plan of Action
A workshop bringing together experts from academia, industry and international institutions should be prepared and organised to have interactive discussions.
The results of this interactive process should be published in a paper and widely disseminated.
Impact
The anticipated impact of this project is to define and generate an approach to further advance our tools by employing new technologies to demonstrate the effect of bioactive naturally occurring compounds in humans. These technologies will help to identify complementary markers to the established biomarkers to be used for demonstrating nutraceutical efficacy or serve as good tools to further strengthen the evidence of efficacy of specific bioactive food ingredients.
Task Force Collaborators:
The scientists below participate in the task force:
Experts from supporting member companies
Dr. Jean-Michel Antoine, Groupe Danone (FR)
Dr. Laurent Fay, Nestlé (CH)
Dr. Michele Kellerhals, Coca-Cola European Union Group (UK)
Dr. Kerstin Kramer, Monsanto Europe-Africa (BE)
Dr. Gladys Ouédraogo-Arras, L'Oréal (FR)
Dr. Peter Weber, DSM (CH)