AURI is helping companies design products for a growing consumer group that wants food not only to taste good, but also to keep them healthier and ward off disease. Following are some of the AURI clients finding nutraceuticals to be a profitable niche market.
Please note: Many health claims of nutraceuticals have not been reviewed by the FDA, and Ag Innovation News does not necessarily imply endorsement of such claims.
Drink to feel good
Kefir with FOS
Sauk Centre, Minn. — “Let medicine be your food and food be your medicine.”
Hippocrates could have been referring to fructooligosaccharides, from the fiber of chicory roots, which have been consumed since his time. Today, FOS is a key ingredient in Helios Nutrition Organic Kefir, a fermented dairy beverage produced by George Economy, founder of Helios Nutrition Ltd. He also produces rBGH-free and organic milk and ice cream at Pride of Main Street Dairy.
Kefir, the Turkish term for “good feeling,” contains more than 30 strains of seven beneficial bacteria and yeast — up to 1,000 times more live organisms than yogurt. The added FOS multiplies bifidobacteria by five times in the gastrointestinal tract and helps the body absorb calcium and other minerals and vitamins. “The GI tract contains 100 trillion microorganisms weighing more than three pounds … over half the body’s immune system. If you have a healthy system, you are less susceptible to bacterial infections and chronic illnesses such as asthma, food allergies, yeast infections and so on,” Economy says.
Helios Nutrition Organic Kefir is available in plain, raspberry, peach and vanilla flavors in Midwest food co-ops and grocers such as Coborn’s, Cash Wise, Cub, Byerly’s and Kowalski’s.
Puffs accent the eyes
Organic Foods snacks
Waconia, Minn. — At Organic Foods, Inc., the focus is on eyes. The manufacturer of ready-to-eat organic foods is adding lutein to a puffed cereal and snack food made with HiLysine corn. Some studies suggest lutein may reduce cataract formation and retinal diseases.
AURI is helping analyze the nutritional value of the snacks, now in test production. Organic Foods makes a variety of other products including hummus, cookies and burrito-like “Healthy Wraps” in 10 flavors, such as Mediterranean, Tex-Mex, Spicy Thai and Japanese with Toasted Sesame Seeds.
Bite of bread makes medicine go down
French Meadow Bakery
Minneapolis, Minn. — Lynn Gordon, president of French Meadow Bakery, makes organic bread with medicine in every slice. “Women’s Bread” contains 80 mg of soy isoflavones, which may help ease symptoms of PMS and menopause. The bread is loaded with healthy ingredients — oat fiber, rice bran, sesame and sunflower seeds, quinoa, amaranth, sprouted grains, cranberries and flaxseed. “The essential fatty acids omega 3, 6 and 9 found in flaxseeds actually increase the body’s metabolic rate in addition to helping your skin, hair and body stay healthy,” states French Meadow’s Web site.
“Men’s Bread” is a high-protein, high-fiber bread with prostate-friendly saw palmetto. French Meadow claims it “provides the necessary nutrients … for long-lasting energy and physical endurance.” Other “functional food” breads offered by French Meadow include “Healthseed Spelt” with sprouted grains and “Healthy Hemp” that the baker claims “contains the highest amount of protein and fiber of any bread available.”
Planting what’s hot
Specialty crops
Some Minnesota farmers are taking advantage of the nutraceutical craze by planting high-value specialty crops. Canola, a cool-season crop grown primarily in Canada and North Dakota, is an increasingly popular alternative to growing small grains in northern Minnesota. The oil is low in saturated fat and rich in omega-3 fatty acid.
Cranberries, grown in northern Minnesota bogs, contain tannins and anthocyanines purported to help prevent bladder infections. The lignans in rye and flax may protect against heart disease and some cancers. Chicory, a root crop harvested with sugar beet equipment, is a good source of fructooligosaccharides, which nourish healthy bacteria in the digestive system. Other crops touted as cancer fighters that can yield high prices on small acreage include garlic, carrots, broccoli and other cole crops.
Good fat from grass
Farm-direct grazed dairy products
Meat and milk from grass-fed cattle are claimed to have high levels of nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids, beta carotene and conjugated linoleic acid. Some farmers and processors are taking advantage of those claims and marketing products from grazed livestock not fed antibiotics or hormones.
Whole Farm Cooperative, a 30-member farmer marketing group, sells Grazer’s cheese and milk, along with other natural products, through Twin Cities churches. PastureLand Cooperative, representing six southeast Minnesota dairy producers who use intensive rotational grazing, sells natural cheeses to food co-ops and grocers in the Rochester area. Cedar Summit Farm in New Prague, which promotes the omega-3 content of its products, recently opened an on-farm creamery to produce milk, butter, yogurt, ice cream and cheese.
Omega-3 is an essential fatty acid that promotes lean muscle mass, helps fight cancer and converts fat to energy. Beta carotene is claimed to reduce cancer risk and CLA may hamper some tumors and reduce body fat.
Super red stuff
Scientists at Purdue University and ARS have developed a tomato that contains 3.5 times the cancer-fighting antioxidant lycopene.
Source: Focus on Agriculture, American Farm Bureau Federation, July 1, 2002, www.fb.org/views/focus/index.html.
Beef’s a star
Beef producers from Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri spotlighted the healthy aspects of beef during the 4th Annual Conference on Treatment and Prevention of Obesity, held in Kansas City, Mo. There is evidence that conjugated linoleic acid, a nutrient found in beef, may help battle obesity and certain diseases.
Source: About Agriculture, October 13, 2002.
More fishy fats
Southern Illinois University Carbondale researchers are working to boost levels of omega-3 fatty acids in farm-raised fish. A three-year $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation's Partnership of Innovation program is funding the research.
Source: Southern Illinois University Public Affairs, (618) 453-2276, siu7cnews@siu.edu.
Grass-fed is king
According to University of Georgia meat scientist Susan Duckett, grass-fed beef provides 75 percent less total fat, higher levels of antioxidants, vitamin E and beta-carotene, and an 1:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids compared to grain-fed beef. The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in grain-fed beef is about 13:1.
Source: Progressive Farmer, October 2002.
Plantibodies are coming
Epicyte Pharmaceutical, Inc. was issued a patent for its “Plantibodies” technology to produce antibodies in transgenic plants.
Epicyte's technology enables the development of a broad spectrum of novel monoclonal antibodies through transgenic plants for the treatment of inflammatory and infectious diseases in humans. The patent claims any transgenic plant expressing antibodies from any animal species.
Epicyte will develop new treatments and address capacity constraints in the antibody-based therapeutics market, which is estimated to reach $8 billion by 2004. It currently is producing a herpes simplex virus antibody for preclinical models and a treatment for respiratory syncytial virus.
Source: Debra Robertson, executive director, intellectual property for Epicyte, (858) 554-0281, drobertson@epicyte.com, www.epicyte.com
Wanna eat an HIV protein?
Corn genetically modified to contain a key protein found on the surface of the monkey form of HIV has been created by ProdiGene. This brings an edible, effective HIV vaccine for humans a step closer, says the National Institutes of Health. Corn-based production is touted to have several advantages, including production of large amounts of vaccine in edible form and a long shelf life.
Source: NewScientist.com, April 12, 2002.
Vaccine for the runs
ProdiGene, Inc. is conducting a first clinical trial in cooperation with the National Institutes of Health, studying the safety and immunogenicity (ability to induce either humoral or cellular immunity) of an oral vaccine against traveler's diarrhea, a condition caused by E. coli. The vaccine is produced in corn using ProdiGene's proprietary transgenic plant technology.
Source: John McClellan, ProdiGene, (979) 690-8537.
Protease inhibitor scaled up
ProdiGene, Inc. has begun commercial scale-up of aprotinin, a protease inhibitor used in cardiac surgery, wound healing, and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Aprotinin reduces the need for blood transfusions in patients undergoing cardiac bypass surgery. ProdiGene is producing recombinant aprotinin in corn and preclinical trials began this fall. Aprotinin is traditionally extracted from bovine lungs.
Source: www.staufferseeds.com
Ruling against genetic drift
This fall, the FDA and USDA issued a draft guidance for plant-grown pharmaceutical production. The draft recommends pharmaceutical plants that out-cross should only be grown in regions where little or none of the plant's food/feed counterparts are grown.
The Biotechnology Industry Organization and its member companies went beyond the proposed regulation to adopt a voluntary moratorium on planting pharmaceutical and industrial crops in areas that are centers for crops prone to spreading genes — for example, transgenic corn could not be planted in the Midwestern corn belt. The intent of the moratorium and the proposed rules is to prevent the spread of exotic genes into field crops used for food or animal feed.
Source: www.bio.org
