BIOVAL Association of Bioenterprises of Valencian Community Region

What do you see as the future for the food industry and what
influence will Functional Food have?

It’s clear that functional food will have a very important impact, as it is the only subsector of the food industry that has grown consistently in double digits in the last 5 years.  Functional products are of increasingly high interest for the European consumer, a trend that began in Asia and is continuing to spread worldwide.  The industry is acutely aware of this and is looking for the best way to implement these ideas in a wider range of products.

I believed 4 years ago that when the new EU regulations on the use of health claims in food came into effect, it would establish a new market for the sale of these products; consequentially, this will necessitate a greater investment in research to obtain clear validation into the advertised physiological properties of the food product.  However, we should keep in mind certain limitations.  While these new products require pre-clinical and clinical studies, the food industry is not the pharmaceutical industry.  The traditional animal models are too slow and expensive for use in the food industry’s time frame and cost structure.  The implementation of new models is vital to assure the long-term growth and profitability of functional products.  New advances in “-omic” technologies offer an interdisciplinary approach with simpler animal models that do not sacrifice rigorous scientific standards and subsequently, offer a solution to tradition models.  Of course, the final stop before clinical studies continues to require result validation with classic animal models.

Both the yeast Saccharomyces cervisiae and the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans are perfect example of organisms that can be employed in this manner.  They are well established in biological research, their genomes have been completely sequenced and a collection of mutants exists with both gain and loss of function in many of their genes. The amassing of this molecular knowledge combined with genomics and metabolomics allows us to define metabolic pathways of functional ingredients in less time and at less cost than with conventional mouse models.  Valencia is particularly advanced in this area of research and partnership between Biopolis S.L., the Prince Felipe Research Institute and the Investigation Center of the La Fe Hospital has further developed models for use in the medaka fish.  However, I must emphasize that traditional research into mouse models should not be abandoned.

How will Genomics influence food in the future?
I believe think it will radically influence how we eat.  Companies are continuously racing to lower the cost and time required in sequencing genomes and in a few years, we will without a doubt have a routine method available that permits us to know the mutations present in the genome of any individual whose negative affects can be minimized by nutritional intervention. This will allow us to open the doors to nutrigenomics and begin to base our eating habits on our own genetic passport.

We cannot forget that at the current date, there are 1214 genomes of distinct animals, plants and microorganisms sequenced and that there exists more than 6900 projects sequencing other genomes.  Without a doubt, we are at the beginning of a major revolution in the study of biology as it unravels the genetic blueprint of different organisms.  Many of these sequencing projects feature an increasing amount of organisms of interest to the food industry such as rice, bread yeast, or grapes.  This molecular knowledge offers endless possibilities for the improvement of physical-chemical, organoleptic, or nutritional characteristics of food.  Valencia is uniquely positioned to offer a complete solution to this problem with a wide variety of diverse companies working on everything from modeling techniques to sequencing and ingredient development.

What do you see in the future of food technology?
The research and innovation in food products is undergoing a revolution caused by the use of new understanding and technology generated by the life sciences as well as other new technologies such as the use of artificial intelligence in processes and nanotechnology.  More and more we need to stop speaking of the food technology, and more of food science and technology:  fewer tubes, more genes, and more algorithms for processing control.  We should be pioneers in helping food companies in the implementation of this new understanding in both food and nutrition.

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