Food Choice

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Food Choice obesity
The role of Food Science

• Dr. Victor Kuri
• School of Biological Sciences

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Obesity Food Choice

• Risk Factors
• postprandial hyperglycaemia
• high blood pressure
• high cholesterol levels
• obesity

• Degenerative diseases
• coronary heart
• Strokes
• type-2 diabetes
• some cancers
• cirrhosis
• digestive diseases

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Unhealthy diet bad choices ?

• Too much calories
• Too much sugars
• Too much fats
• Too much alcohol
• Too little fibre
• Too little fruits and vegetables?

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Who is to blame?

• Supermarkets
• Fast food chains
• Super-size-me
• or
• Lifestyle
• Stress levels
• Genetic make up

Limited food choice unhealthy foods eat
more! culture
Other factors
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What do retailers do?

• Retail chain management
• Consumer feedback

Real-timeinformation flow
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Are consumers driving the changes?

• Demographic Changes -Consumers
• Foods valued for
• Status
• Pleasure
• Safety
• Convenience
• Variety
• Sustenance, healthiness?

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Are consumers driving the changes?

• Is the food industry responding to consumer
  demand by developing new products
• or the industry is creating demand by providing
  more choices?

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Work at UoP Glycaemic index

• Development of novel foods
• lower glycaemic index than conventional pasta,
  bread, dairy foods
• in vitro in vivo study
• Research of links between
• microstructure and digestibility
• control of predicted GI

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Work at UoP -Dietary fibres and novel ingredients

• Role of soluble and insoluble fibres in function
  and structure
• Acceptability
• functionality
• Processability i.e. rheology
• Use of functional materials
• Fructo-oligosaccharides, beta-glucan, gums, pea,
  bamboo, citrus fruit fibres

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microstructure
Links-Food Quality Nutrition
Curd rheology
Functional ingredients
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Functional Foods-Ice-cream
Effect of fat and ß-glucan on probiotic
prebiotic (5 inulin) ice-cream meltdown rate

• Prebiotic
• Probiotic
• low-fat

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Work at UoP - Sensory evaluation
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Work at UoP Consumer perception

• Reactions to price, production methods
• Organic
• GM
• Novel technologies

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Technology transfer

• SMEs
• Safety management
• Food product development
• Quality systems

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Can consumers trust the food industry?

• Consume more
• Eat more (the hungry gene)
• Pay more?
• Value vs. price
• Real choice
• Ethical issues
• Marketing

Vote with
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Food Choice health

• Stakeholders
• Consumers (patients)
• Health practitioners
• Government bodies
• NGOs
• Scientists

• Some Issues
• Who should fund research?
• What should be regulated?

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What is a Health Claim?

• A claim is any representation which states,
  suggests or implies a food has certain
  characteristics relating to its
• Origin
• nutritional properties
• Nature
• Production
• Processing
• Composition
• or any quality
• (Codex Alimentarius, 1991)

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What can be done?
Good understanding of links between food health
Food availability(healthy, appealing,suitable)
Improved Health
Better practices
Informed choices
Implement measures Manage change
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Food Science and food choice
Food
Functional foods
Food choiceand behaviour
Biological Sciences
Consumer
Health
Mechanisms and links between food and health
Role of diet in health and disease
Nutrition
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