Advantages and Disadvantages of Food Products with Special Health Benefits

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Food Products
with Special Health Benefits

• Hans Steinhart
• Universität Hamburg

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Topics

• Definition Novel Foods
• Functional Foods
• Safety Aspects
• Foods with Reduced Allergenicity
• Conjugated Fatty Acids

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Functions of Food

• First function
• Nutrition supply of nutrients
• Second function
• Organoleptic and/or
• Sociocultural properties
• Third function
• Added value health benefit

Food
Functional Food
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Definition of Foods(EC 178/2002)

• Foods are all substances or products
• derived from substances that are
• determined or substances that can be
• expected to be taken by human beings in
• processed, partially processed or
• unprocessed condition.
• Beverages, chewing gum, as well as all
• substances that are intentionally added
• to foods including water during their
• production, are also foods.

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Definition of Foods(EC 178/2002)

• Examples for non-foods according to
• this definition are
• Feedstuffs
• Cosmetics
• Tobacco and tobacco products
• Residues and contaminants
• Plants before harvest
• Living animals

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Aims of the Novel Food Regulation(EC 258/2002)

• The circulation and the labelling of novel foods
  and
• of novel food ingredients which result from using
  
• chemical, biochemical, biotechnological,
  especially
• genetic procedures is submitted to specific
• regulations.
• The Novel Food Regulation submits Novel Foods to
• a prohibition with the reservation of allowance.
• This means that foods have to be checked for
• their safety before their circulation is notified
  or
• allowed. The very new aspect is that the
  circulation
• of certain foods needs permission.

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Aims of the Novel Food Regulation(continued)

• Novel foods are only allowed to be distributed in
  
• the EU if they fulfil three requirements
• The products may not be dangerous to consumers
• The consumers may not be misled
• The products may not be different from
  conventional products as to cause deficiencies in
  certain nutrients
• Substantial equivalence of the novel food
  to conventional foods is therefore important

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Categories of Novel Food covered by the EC Novel
Food Regulation

• Foods and food ingredients containing or
  consisting of genetically modified organisms
  within the meaning of Directive 90/220/EEC
• Foods and food ingredients produced from, but not
  containing, genetically modified organisms
• Foods and food ingredients with a new or
  intentionally modified primary molecular
  structure
• Foods and food ingredients consisting of or
  isolated from micro-organisms, fungi or algae

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Categories of Novel Food covered by the EC Novel
Food Regulation

• Foods and food ingredients consisting of or
  isolated from plants and food ingredients
  isolated from animals, except for foods and food
  ingredients obtained by traditional propagating
  or breeding practices and which have a history of
  safe use
• Foods and food ingredients to which have been
  applied a production process not currently used,
  where that process gives rise to significant
  changes in the composition or structure of the
  foods or food ingredients which affect their
  nutritional value, metabolism or level of
  undesirable substances

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Topics

• Definition Novel Foods
• Functional Foods
• Safety Aspects
• Foods with Reduced Allergenicity
• Conjugated Fatty Acids

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Definition of Functional Foods

• ILSI Definition
• A food is a functional food if it has
• clearly been documented that it has
• one or more properties beneficial to
• human health by improving the
• state of health or reducing health
• risks in addition to its nutritional
• value.

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Additional Terms
Probiotics Living organisms which have
additional positive influences on health besides
their nutritive value, if they are eaten in
sufficient amounts. Prebiotics Fermentative
substances, which have a positive influence on
the microflora of the gut (for instance
nutritional fiber, fructooligosaccharides). Synb
iotics Combination of pro- and prebiotic
foods Designer Foods Products which have been
developed to meet special purposes. Pharma-Food,
Nutraceuticals, Foodaceuticals Products which do
not primarily meet nutritive and sensory
requirements but which have a positive influence
on health.
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Producing Functional Foods
Addition of one or more components
Removal of one or more components
Functional Food
Food
Modification of one or more components or
its/their bioavailability
Concentration of one or more components
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Factors influencing the Function
Interaction of different food ingredients
(synergisms, antagonisms)
Concentration of the active ingredient
Individual disposition
Function
Changes through storage
Changes by treatment in the kitchen
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Effects of the Function
Retardation of aging process
Convalescence from diseases
Prevention of certain diseases
Functional Food
Control of the physical and emotional condition
Enhancement of the immune system
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Proof of the Functional Effect

• Indicators
• Statistical indicators e.g. vitamin E levels in
  blood
• Biochemical function (answer)e.g. stability of
  LDL against oxidation
• Factors
• Medical end pointe.g. contraction of the
  carotid as proof of a change of the coronary
  blood vessel

Specificity
It is necessary to standardise and validate the
methods
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Categories of Functional Foods

• 1. Antioxidants like vitamins C and E,
  carotinoids, flavonoids
• 2. Substances with antimutagenic and
  anticancerogenic potential
• 3. Antibacterial and antiviral substances
• 4. Nutritional fiber, pro- und prebiotica, which
  influence gastrointestinal functions in a
  positive way
• 5. Immune- and inflammatory modulators
• 6. Neuroregulatoric substances
• 7. Phytoestrogens
• 8. Anti-hypertensives
• 9. Hypoallergenic foods.

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Examples of Functional Foods

• Foods
• 1. Pro- und prebiotics
• milk products
• (yoghurt, milk drinks, curd cheese, cheese)
• margarine
• muesli, biscuits, soups, ready-to-serve- meals
• 2. Enriched milk products
• drinking milk
• yoghurt
• curd cheese products

Functional components probiotic cultures,
prebiotics herbs (peppermint, sage,
whitehorn) unsaturated fatty acids
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Examples of Functional Foods 2

• Food
• 3. Beverages
• ACE-Drinks
• Wellnessdrinks
• 4. Frozen Food
• vegetables
• 5. Vegetable spreads

Functional component vitamins A, C, E, extracts
of plants (hop, sage, balm, artichoke
Pflanzenextrakte), coffeine vitamins, plant
oils phytosterols, w-3-fish oil, CLA
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Topics

• Definition Novel Foods
• Functional Foods
• Safety Aspects
• Foods with Reduced Allergenicity
• Conjugated Fatty Acids

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Safety of Functional Foods
RI
LOAEL
Safe concentration
Risk of toxicity
Risk of deficiency
Nutrient primary function
added value Tertiary function
RI Recommended Intake LOAEL Lowest Observed
Adverse Effect Level
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Safety Assessment

• Risk identificationf.i. identifying of toxic
  effects
• Safety assessmentdetermination of the LOAEL in
  studies with animals and menSafety Index (SI)
  
• Determination of the amount of ingestion
  probability that the ingestion exceeds the LOAEL
• Determination of interactions with other food
  ingredients
• Risk management - Reduction of the risk of food
  ingredients with a small SI

LOAEL RI
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In Vivo Proof of Oxidative Damage of
Macromolecules

• Macromolecule Proof of products with oxidative
  damages
• DNA oxidized bases as 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine
• GC-MS HPLC after hydrolysis
• Fat peroxides, isoprostanes
• HPLC GC-MS in blood and urine
• Proteins - amine side chains (His, Arg, etc)
• react with ROS to carbonyl
• carbonyl assay
• - nitrifying of Tyr by ROS (ONOO-, NO.2)
• HPLC, GC-MS in urine
• - hydroxylation of amino acid side chains

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Assessment Programme SAFETY

• The following facts should be taken into
• consideration
• Analytical/compositional and nutritional
  characteristics of the novel food (including its
  fate in biological systems)
• Previous history of human exposure
• Expected applications as a novel food and the
  predicted exposure
• Necessity, appropriateness and outcome of animal
  studies and studies in humans
• Necessity and outcome of post-launch monitoring

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Safety Assessment of Foods by Equivalence and
Similarity Targeting (SAFEST)
(ILSI Europe Task Force on Novel Food)

• CLASS 1 Foods or food ingredients which are
  substantially equivalent to a traditional
  reference food or ingredient
• CLASS 2 Foods or food ingredients which are
  sufficiently similar to a traditional reference
  food
• CLASS 3 Foods or food ingredients which are
  neither substantially equivalent nor sufficiently
  similar to a traditional reference food

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Examples of how various Novel Foods fit into the
SAFEST approach

• Type of food Equivalence or SAFEST EC
• Similarity Class Cat.
• Genetically modified bakers Substantially
  equivalent 1 a
• yeast (GIST Brocades) to conventional yeast
• Genetically modified brewers Sufficiently
  similar 2 a
• yeast (BRF International) to conventional yeast
• Carbohydrate polyesters Not sufficiently similar
  3 c
• to a traditional counterpart
• Mycoprotein as developed Not sufficiently
  similar 3 d
• by RHM to a traditional counterpart
• Strawberry jam processed by Not sufficiently
  similar to 3 f
• ultra high pressure treatment strawberry jam
  produced by
• traditional process

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Topics

• Definition Novel Foods
• Functional Foods
• Safety Aspects
• Foods with Reduced
• Allergenicity
• 5. Conjugated Fatty Acids

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Food Allergy GMT NPT
Conformational epitope (secundary- resp. tertiary
structure)
Sequence epitope (primary structure)
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Food Allergy - GMT

• Influence of genetic modification technology
  (GMT) on food allergy (1)
• Introduction of until now unknown allergens
• this is not a specific problem of GMT but
• a general breeding problem
• Assessing potential allergenicity of GM products
  involves a computer-based comparison of the
  proteins structure with that of unknown
  allergens. An identical match of at least 8 amino
  acids in a particular order indicates that the
  protein may be an allergen

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Food Allergy - GMT

• Influence of genetic modification technology
  (GMT) on food allergy (2)
• Introduction of known allergens from other
  sources
• (e.g. GM soybean containing Brazil nut
  protein)
• The Brazil nut 25 protein was engineered into
• soybean in order to improve its Met-amount for
  feed
• purposes. It was known that the 25 protein
  causes
• severe allergic reactions. The transferred gene
• encoded a major allergen of the 25 protein.
• The gene product was discarded
  immediately
• The decision tree for assessing potential
  allergenicity of GM-derived foods allows to
  determine such products

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Food Allergy - GMT

• Influence of genetic modification technology
  (GMT) on food allergy (3)
• Heat processed and purified vegetable oils
  contain
• little, if any, protein and are unlikely to
  cause
• allergic reactions
• Example Allergenic potency of soy lecithin
  refined
• and non-refined soybean oils
• Addition of enzymes / starter cultures
• Production of lactic and acetic acid
  tenderizer of
• meat, bakery
• production of hypoallergic food (e.g.
  enzymatic
• hydrolysis of cow milk, soybean, wheat or rice
  protein)
• Enzymes or parts of the proteins remain as
  potential allergens

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Protein contents of the native soy products and
the protein extracts
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SDS-PAGE-electroblotted and colloidal gold
stained protein extracts.
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Immunostaining of the protein extracts
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EAST Inhibition of the IgE binding to soybean
allergen disks by soybean productsNative soybean
extract was used as positive control
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C50 values and maximum inhibitions of the
investigated soy products
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Food Allergy - GMT

• Influence of genetic modification technology
  (GMT) on food allergy (3)
• Heat processed and purified vegetable oils
  contain
• little, if any, protein and are unlikely to
  cause
• allergic reactions
• Example Allergenic potency of soy lecithin
  refined
• and non-refined soybean oils
• Addition of enzymes / starter cultures
• Production of lactic and acetic acid
  tenderizer of
• meat, bakery
• production of hypoallergic food (e.g.
  enzymatic
• hydrolysis of cow milk, soybean, wheat or rice
  protein)
• Enzymes or parts of the proteins remain as
  potential allergens

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Food Allergy - GMT

• Benefits
• Production of recombinant food allergens
  (Lorenz et al., 2001)
• sucessful characterization of allergens from
  different foods
• characterization of cross allergies on a
  molecular level
• important tool to diagnose food allergens
• Production of hypoallergic foods
• (NAKAMURA and MATSUDA, 1996)
• inactivating of a major allergen in rice
  (inhibitor of the human
• alfa-amylase in saliva) by using the antisense
  technology
• In order to be more successsful in this field, we
  need more information on the epitope and peritope
  structures
• Drawback There are mostly more than one or two
  allergens in food, which cannot be changed
  altogether

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Food Allergy - NPT

• Stability of food allergens of animal origin and
  presence of hidden allergens (Besler et al.,
  2001)
• Allergens Heating Enzymic Significance as
• hydrolysis hidden allergen
• Milk and Milk stable partially high
• Products stable
• Eggs and Egg stable stable high
• Products
• Fish and Fish stable partially low
• Products stable
• Crustaceae and stable no data low
• Products
• Meat and Meat partially low low
• Products stable

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Food Allergy - NPT

• Stability of food allergens of plant origin and
  presence of hidden allergens (Besler et al.,
  2001)
• Allergens Heating Enzymic Signific. as
  hydrolysis hidden allerg.
• Peanuts /Peanut Products stable partially
  stable high
• Soybean /Soybean Products partially
  stable partially stable high
• Tree nuts and Products partially stable partially
  stable high
• Sesame Seeds and Products no data no data high
• Cereals and Cereal Products partially stable no
  data high
• Fruits of the Rosaceae-F. mainly
  labile labile low
• Latex-associated Fruits no data no data low
• Celery and Celery Products partially
  stable mainly labile high

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Topics

• Definition Novel Foods
• Functional Foods
• Safety Aspects
• Foods with Reduced
• Allergenicity
• 5. Conjugated Fatty Acids

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Structure of CLAs
t10,t12
c11,c13
c11,t13
t11,c13
t10,c12
c9,t11
t7,c9
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Physiological significance
C182 trans10, cis12
Enlargement of rat liver because of CLA feeding
(Berdeaux et al., 2001)
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Formation of metabolites of C182 isomers
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Dietary supplements

• capsules
• isomer mixture of CLA obtained by chemical
  synthesis
• as free fatty acids
• intake is recommended up to 3 g/d
• ? sold as products against obesity
• energy-chocolate bars
• enriched in CLA
• ? used by bodybuilders

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Physiological dose of CLA

• CLA have shown protective effects against cancer
  for dose-dependent dietary levels up to 1 of
  diet
• increasing the dose up to 1,5 have shown no
  more protective effects

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Products available in Germany
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Obtaining of CLA
primary material, e.g. ricinoleic acid
linoleic acid
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University of Hamburg Institute of Biochemistry
and Food Chemistry
Many thanks for your attention