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The New Crop of Nutraceuticals
Restaurants USA, May 1999 Fact and fiction about bioengineered foods. By Lynda McDaniel
Appetizer: Collagen Hydrolysate With Lycopene and Phosphatidylserine Entree: Braised Isothiocyanate Nicoise, Oven-Roasted Garlic Saponins Dessert: Thermophilic Probiotics Anglaise With Polyphenols If "Today’s Special" doesn’t exactly make your mouth water, it might sound more appealing when you learn that it could bolster your immune system, lower cholesterol, ease symptoms of arthritis, and fight cancer and heart disease. Foods enhanced by these tongue-twisting components are part of a burgeoning biotechnology industry working to enhance our food supply with health-boosting benefits. Although most bio-tech foods have yet to leave the laboratory, their names and benefits are starting to enter mainstream vocabulary. As public interest builds, prepare yourself for a new round of customer requests — for such things as a dollop of stanol ester and a side order of allyl methyl trisulfide. If the long technical names and the array of words describing this science — functional foods, pharmafoods, nutraceuticals, probiotics, phytonutrients — have you reaching for Webster’s, don’t bother. They’re too new to be listed. "These terms are not yet clearly defined," explains Manfred Kroger, Ph.D., professor of food science at Pennsylvania State University. "All these subjects are interwoven and are being discussed now in conferences and books. They are very futuristic — but the future has arrived." What makes food functional? Simply put, functional foods are typically defined as foods like yogurt or broccoli that naturally provide nutrients and offer something extra for our immune system. Yogurt, with its lactobacillus bacteria, is also an example of a natural probiotic, which nurtures the good bacteria (as opposed to antibiotics, which kill bad bacteria). The term phytonutrients refers to plant chemicals in food that have been shown to decrease the risk of some chronic diseases, such as cancer and heart disease. Examples include phytoestrogens (found in soybeans and legumes), polyphenols (in citrus fruit) and carotenoids (among many other sources, in carrots and tomatoes). Finally, pharmafoods, nutraceuticals and bioengineered foods are basically synonyms, referring to the work of both Mother Nature and scientific nurture to bolster them with specific health-giving qualities from phytonutrients and probiotics found in functional foods. Got that? Many Americans do, according to research conducted in 1998 by the International Food Information Council, located in Washington DC. "More than three-quarters of consumers were able to name a specific food or component they believe enhances health," states Judith Dausch, Ph.D., R.D.., nutritionist for the National Restaurant Association. "Functional foods named included broccoli, fruits, vegetables, fish and fish oil, garlic, fiber, and orange juice. In addition, about three-quarters of consumers indicated they have changed their diet in the past five years for health reasons." But what about foods created in a laboratory? Science-fiction images of dinner-in-a-tube aside, Americans are saying "yes" to nutraceuticals, says Christine Bruhn, Ph.D., director at the Center for Consumer Research at the University of California at Davis. "Consumers are consistently and increasingly supportive of the idea of biotechnology for specific benefits. We have had studies where more than half the people believed that biotechnology has benefited them already, and 75 percent also believe it will benefit them in the near future. For consumer research, this is exceptionally high." The purported benefits of such engineering are manifold. Beyond feeding the growing health-consciousness of the Western world, nutraceuticals can enhance the food supply for an expanding global population. In some cases, reduced use of pesticides and less groundwater contamination are reported alongside improved farming practices. Closer to home, bioengineering for the foodservice industry could mean foods that stay fresher longer, taste better and offer more health-giving benefits. Dr. Kroger cites the genetically engineered Flavr Savr tomato as a harbinger of the future. "It is more easily harvested, it doesn’t go mushy too soon, it retains the flavor, it lasts longer, and we have less waste in the country. Most people would agree that this is good." (Flavr Savr is currently off the market for redevelopment.) Is it safe to tinker with Mother Nature? Some consumer groups are keeping a close watch on the advance of pharmafoods. Although most are not philosophically opposed to genetic engineering, they are in favor of labeling new products in an effort to protect people who might suffer allergic reactions. Genetically engineered soybeans, for example, are often co-mingled with natural soybeans before processing. This mix, which so far is not labeled, can be found in 75 percent of processed foods on store shelves — for example, cookies, crackers, snack foods, oils, soy, lecithin or soy lecithin, margarines, tofu and other soy products. Dr. Bruhn agrees that allergenicity is an important consideration for the industry and cites extensive work on food allergies and research into determining more clearly what it is about a food that is allergenic. "The leader in this area is Steven Taylor from the University of Nebraska," she says. "He and his colleagues have found the shapes of different kinds of chemicals that introduce allergies. They know common allergy foods such as nuts, milk products, eggs, and they have identified the shapes of the compounds within those foods that make people allergic. If anyone is modifying a product with a food source that is potentially allergenic, they have to prove that this allergen was not transferred. They do that both chemically [understanding the composition of that product] and by doing tests with people who are allergic to that product to see if they respond to this new food. This has been tested in an actual product — the soybean/Brazil nut product." That bioengineered food is already legendary in the young annals of nutraceutical research. It seems that scientists introduced components from the Brazil nut into soybeans to make a more valuable animal feed. Because humans can have deadly reactions to nuts, the company ran allergy tests on animals; no problems arose. But when two scientists ran blood serum of humans allergic to Brazil nuts against the genetically engineered soybeans, they found that the allergenicity did carry across. As a result, the company elected not to commercialize that product. Dr. Bruhn adds that this is an example of how the system is self-correcting. It is, after all, good business for companies to continue to test and retest so as to avoid public-relations disasters. Putting pharmafoods on the menu What responsibility, then, do operators have to inform their customers of genetically engineered foods on their menus? "I would say to the restaurateur, the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] has 10 filing cabinets full of this stuff. The FDA has declared this new food safe for the public," says Dr. Kroger. "Therein lies the blame if something goes wrong, because they are the ultimate authority on our health. The FDA is doing all it needs to regarding toxicity, carcinogenicity and antinutritive issues." To illustrate his point, Dr. Kroger cites the agency’s 10-year process before Olestra was approved for public consumption. "A chef is not required to tell people about these things — safety is not the issue here," adds Dr. Bruhn. "There is no science to support the view that biotechnology products would be less safe. In fact, they could well be more safe." One potentially touchy issue for restaurateurs involves the dietary practices of such religious groups as Jews and Muslims. "The philosophical question now comes up," Dr. Kroger states. "If you, for example, put a pig gene into a food, will Orthodox Jews and their rabbis object to this because they will eat something that partially came from pigs? This becomes a religious question, and the government doesn’t deal with that." Some consumer groups are addressing that issue in the courts, although no food now on the market contains pig genes. For chefs seeking new ways to make a restaurant unique, Dr. Bruhn again recommends biotechnology. "Especially if they are looking to serve products that are best for the environment," she continues. "Studies by region of the country have shown that farmers have used between 9 and 39 percent less pesticides, using, for example, Roundup Ready Soybeans [soybeans that can survive the reportedly less toxic pesticide Roundup]. This is a case where biotechnology is environmentally superior." On top of agricultural benefits, Dr. Bruhn anticipates some promising advances in enhanced flavor and nutritional value to emerge from biotechnology. "Icelandic cod can survive in very cold waters because it has chemicals within its cells that keep it from freezing," she explains. "Scientists were looking to introduce that to plants so that there isn’t the textural change you find in frozen green beans as compared to fresh. Another application was so that the plant would not die if it were caught in a weather change. But the food companies found that the public was very concerned about moving genetic code from an animal source to a plant source, so they stopped research. There would be too much public-relations difficulty in explaining that animals and plants have the same genetic code, so instead they are looking at plant products that are also resistant to chilling." But how does it taste? In developing new genetically engineered products, scientists must consider a whole range of issues, such as the effect of processing on the nutrient level, bioavailability, the interaction of the ingredients, and the effect the added ingredients have on the taste and quality of the finished product. As those factors are fine-tuned and research progresses, world leaders will be able to look to genetic engineering to help ensure that their people receive nutrients that are vital to good health. The developments in bioengineering are good news not only to people living in developing nations but to people in the United States as well. College students, for example, are eating too few fruits and vegetables and too much fat, according to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study stated that almost 75 percent of the students surveyed had not eaten the recommended number of servings of fruits and vegetables the day before the survey. Although Americans are demonstrating an increased health consciousness, our fast-paced, eating-on-the-run lifestyle is not likely to change substantially. As a result, bioengineering will assume an important role in helping us to achieve our nutritional needs. Dr. Dausch expects consumer demand to increase and the phytonutrient content of foods to grow as researchers continue to clarify their role in health promotion. "Rapid advances in food technology will result in numerous culinary innovations and applications as functional foods become mainstream," she says. "Chefs will be better able to create dishes that taste as good as traditional foods. For example, a high-oleic-acid soybean oil that has the health benefits of soybeans without the saturated fat could be an important ingredient in traditional recipes. A nutrition-analysis program will soon be considered a vital part of restaurant operations. Nutrition-analysis software not only provides the nutrient profile that can be used as a marketing tool, it provides in-house clues for recipe modification." Hungry for the future And just what is that daily special featuring functional foods? Appetizer: Collagen Hydrolysate With Lycopene and Phosphatidylserine (Cruciferous Vegetables in Carotenoid-Augmented Tomato Aspic) Entree: Braised Isothiocyanate Nicoise (Braised Broccoli Nicoise); Oven-Roasted Garlic Saponins (Oven-Roasted Garlic Soybeans) Dessert: Probiotic Streptococci Anglaise With Polyphenols (Fresh High-Fiber Fruit With Yogurt Sauce) Bon appetit! Digging for facts on functional foods Here are some nutraceutical resources unearthed by the National Restaurant Association’s Information Service and Library. Books:
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Lynda McDaniel writes for Restaurants USA from Washington, DC. |
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