Speakers

Prof. Dr. Harry Wichers
Prof. dr. Harry Wichers is a biochemist by training, with immunochemistry as a minor subject. He obtained his PhD degree from the University of Groningen, on the subject ‘Biotechnological production of pharmaceuticals via cultured plant cells’. After working for five years for the Dutch Organisation for Applied Research (TNO) at its Biotechnology Department, he moved to Wageningen University and Research Centre in 1990. There, he was involved in research on the biochemical characterization of quality-related parameters that determine food quality (taste, texture and notably color). Currently, Prof. dr. Wichers is working on the relationship between food and its components and the immune system. In this research, data on immunomodulatory effects of food components are integrated with data on their characteristics in raw materials and data on the impact of processing. The ultimate objective is to develop sensory attractive foods that can contribute to maintaining a balanced and active immune system. In addition, Prof. dr. Wichers is one of the founders of the Allergy Consortium Wageningen. In this expertise centre, research teams from each WUR-science group cooperate to develop strategies for allergy management, based on knowledge of the allergens as pivotal strength of the centre. Since April 2005, Harry Wichers is holder of the chair ‘Immunomodulation by Food’.

Eve: naive or ahead of her time?
Requirements and hurdles for the development of functional foods

Prof. dr. Harry Wichers
Agrotechnology & Food Innovations
Wageningen University and Research Centre
The Netherlands

The awareness that there is a relationship between what ones eats and (the prevention of) disease is in itself not new. Already in the Dutch Golden age, it became apparent that consumption of vegetables and fruits could help to prevent scorbut. Rice hulls were found to contain vitamin B1 (thiamine), essential to prevent beriberi. Nevertheless, for a very long time, health problems related to food had more to do with shortages and poisonings due to spoilage, on which issues food science has thus focussed for many years. The “modern” concept of functional foods stems from the past 2 or 3 decades, and is, in a way, a rather luxurious “problem” that can in particular be addressed in an ambiance where the supply of sufficient amounts of safe foods is ascertained, such as the Western hemisphere. Successful development of a functional food requires an intense interplay between various scientific disciplines:

- Much must be known about the health issue that is addressed: its epidemiology, its mechanism, its markers (to assess effects), individual aspects of health;
- In addition, much must be known about a potential functional food: what is it made from, what are the bioactive ingredients, how do these behave in the food production chain, will these be available to absorption after ingestion, in which form will they reach the site where they are supposed to exert their activity.

A few examples will be presented that illustrate the interaction between nutritional and technological sciences to develop health-protecting foods. It seems obvious that health can be affected via food and nutrition, and that food is more than just energy and the supply of building blocks. Underpinning health claims in a scientifically sound way is not easy, due to methodological shortcomings, yet essential for credibility of the functional food-concept. Imbalances in immune functioning seem to be involved in many chronic disorders. As the immune system is relatively well described, this seems to be an attractive and promising target for the development of health-protecting foods. To achieve progress, health will have to be defined more at an individual level: from this it follows that the requirements for nutraceuticals compounds is also individually determined, and that functional foods can only be developed for specific groups of consumers. The vitamin-examples above relate to nutrient-deficiencies; if this concept is applicable, at least partly, to nutraceuticals, then it should perhaps be concluded to over-refined and over-processed foods are undesirable.

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