Biofunctional ingredients
• Examples of biofunctional ingredients
- Biofunctional ingredients are everywhere also in food products we consume on regular
basis
- Chili capsacin burning feel in mouth + bioactive as pain killer
- Turmeric curcumin anti-cancer compound
- Green tea epigallocatehin-3-gallate anti-oxidant anti carcinogenic
o Anti-oxidants you can recognize by their large conjugated system of double and
single bonds
- Soy genistein (isoflavin) anti-oxidant hormone lookalike estrogenic activity can
bind to estrogen receptors in human body making body react in same way as
- Tomato lycopene anti-oxidant
- Broccoli, cabbage and garlic components anti-carcinogenic effects
- Grapes resveratrol French people eat lot of cheese (fat) resveratrol compensates
this
- Way that you build your food system determine which compounds are appropriate
(polar/apolar)
o A lot of carbon in molecule apolar dissolve in water to limited extent (poorly
soluble in water)
o More oxygen/nitrogen increasing water solubility
• What are important considerations for biofunctional ingredients?
- bioavailability (uptake)
o component not absorbed in gastro intestinal tract (small or large) to blood not
provide any health effect
- bioactivity (dose)
o which reactions are triggered or inhibited by the molecule
o what is the dose required for bioactivity at which level starts to ingredient to have
a noticeable effect
o how do determine bioactivity depends on product/molecule experiments
- molecular alterations
o in human body, some molecules can be altered by human metabolism or by microbes
present certain substituents might be removed or attached due to the enzymes in
small intestine or liver changing bioactivity and dosage needed
o human metabolism (liver enzymes)
o microbial metabolism in the gut you can make use of this target bioactive
ingredient in colon
o molecules in food products suitable for health promoting but because of
molecular alterations not functional anymore
, - applications in food products
o solubility often these components do not dissolve easily in water
o taste bitter need to cover when added in food products
o stability (Conjugated (alternating simple of double and single bonds) Linoleic Acid)
prone to oxidation components/molecules are altered during storage different
taste/functionality
o safety strictly regulated
o price often high prices of these ingredients
▪ sometimes available in waste streams make the process better to use this
• Points of attention
- provide a scientific base for the idea/fact that you can influence health with appropriate food
ingredients
- the adventurous journey of food ingredients through the gastro-intestinal tract
- molecular diversity and structure-function relationships of biofunctional ingredients
- modification of ingredients to improve properties/performance
• Human nutrition through the years
- Long ago: enough (calorie intake)
- Decades ago: balanced in a number of key components (carbohydrates, proteins, fats,
vitamins)
- Now: preventive with respect to discomforts/diseases, improving intrinsic health (bioactive
compounds)
• Epidemiological evidence for relation food components-health
- Incidence of particular diseases related to geographic regions (breast cancer, hot flushes)
- Nutritional habits (soy)
- Relation to particular components
• Nutraceuticals and human health
- Healthy stable up to certain age certain discomforts and health related issues start to
arise decrease quality of life product with biofunctional ingredients improves quality of
life (retain intrinsic health for longer time live for longer time in life without any
discomfort)
- Why are biofunctional ingredients increasingly important?
o Composition of the population changes, more elderly persons
o percentage of elderly is expected to increase further
o as a consequence, social security costs and costs for health care will rise steeply
- (predicted) age structure of the Dutch population as a function of time
o First (1950): triangle many young people and few old people
o Now: evenly distributed colom shape small group of your people and more older
people number of elderly people is increasing
, - Increasing costs of health care with age
o Health care costs rise significantly with age combined with growing elderly
population biofunctional ingredients more important
- Increasing health care costs + more elderly people result in question for biofunctional
ingredients to retain the quality of life
- Hot-button health topics
o heart health (cardio-vascular diseases)
o cancer
o women’s health (breast cancer, hot flushes)
o men’s health (prostate cancer)
o joint & bone health (osteoporosis)
o anti-allergy (e.g. hay fever)
o cognitive performance/mental health
o weight control (obesity)
o diabetes
o sports/fitness (fast recovery)
- Definitions
o functional foods (FUFO): “ready-to-eat food” for target group, often with a health
claim
▪ breads, cereals and energy bars
o nutraceuticals, botanicals, phytochemicals, phytonutrients, herbs
o food supplements are often consumed as pills
▪ meant to ease discomforts / worries
▪ assist in daily uptake (regular food intake insufficient to meet dose)
▪ easier to meet the requirements of an individual
▪ ground flax meal, liquid oil, capsules
• Fading boundaries between pharma and food
- Foods move slowly in direction of pharma requires adaptive regulations
- Pharma
o Cure
o Prescription
o High concentration/effect
o Short exposure
o Extensive testing
- Food
o Prevent
o Self-medication
o Low concentration/effect
o Prolonged exposure
o Minimal testing
, • Challenges for the food technologist
- how can the bioactive potential of foods be improved or utilized, in such a way that the
target process in the human body is influenced?
o properties of the ingredients (activity, solubility, stability, …)
o detailed knowledge on the gastro-intestinal tract
▪ conditions as pH and presence of digestive enzymes
▪ microbial conversions can create or destroy bioactivity!
o clever processing or modulation of ingredient properties
▪ fermentation or enzymic conversion(s) to modulate bioavailability and
bioactivity
• Do biofunctional ingredients reach their target on their long, harsh journey through the
gastrointestinal tract
- food travels through esophagus to stomach continues to small intestine followed by large
intestine leftover excreted by the rectum
- Stomach
o Chewing food in mouth amylase is added to the product by salvia degrades starch
into smaller molecules
o In stomach very low pH (<2) HCL
▪ unfolding of ingested proteins increases their digestibility
▪ pepsinogen is activated to pepsin
▪ pepsin (low pH optimum) hydrolyzes unfolded proteins
▪ a-amylase from saliva is inactivated
o few bacteria (~103/mL contents; Helicobacter pylori) can survive
o little/no absorption of food components
- Small intestine
o Duodenum: brush-border enzymes digest carbohydrates and (poly)peptides into
monosaccharides and amino acids
▪ Bile salts and pancreatic lipase start cutting fats in monoglycerides and fatty
acids
o Duodenum/jejunum: absorption of carbohydrates, lipids, amino acids, calcium and
iron primarily
o Ileum: absorption of bile salts, vitamin B12, water and electrolytes mainly
o bacterial numbers: ~104-106/mL contents (lactobacilli, gram positive cocci)
• Examples of biofunctional ingredients
- Biofunctional ingredients are everywhere also in food products we consume on regular
basis
- Chili capsacin burning feel in mouth + bioactive as pain killer
- Turmeric curcumin anti-cancer compound
- Green tea epigallocatehin-3-gallate anti-oxidant anti carcinogenic
o Anti-oxidants you can recognize by their large conjugated system of double and
single bonds
- Soy genistein (isoflavin) anti-oxidant hormone lookalike estrogenic activity can
bind to estrogen receptors in human body making body react in same way as
- Tomato lycopene anti-oxidant
- Broccoli, cabbage and garlic components anti-carcinogenic effects
- Grapes resveratrol French people eat lot of cheese (fat) resveratrol compensates
this
- Way that you build your food system determine which compounds are appropriate
(polar/apolar)
o A lot of carbon in molecule apolar dissolve in water to limited extent (poorly
soluble in water)
o More oxygen/nitrogen increasing water solubility
• What are important considerations for biofunctional ingredients?
- bioavailability (uptake)
o component not absorbed in gastro intestinal tract (small or large) to blood not
provide any health effect
- bioactivity (dose)
o which reactions are triggered or inhibited by the molecule
o what is the dose required for bioactivity at which level starts to ingredient to have
a noticeable effect
o how do determine bioactivity depends on product/molecule experiments
- molecular alterations
o in human body, some molecules can be altered by human metabolism or by microbes
present certain substituents might be removed or attached due to the enzymes in
small intestine or liver changing bioactivity and dosage needed
o human metabolism (liver enzymes)
o microbial metabolism in the gut you can make use of this target bioactive
ingredient in colon
o molecules in food products suitable for health promoting but because of
molecular alterations not functional anymore
, - applications in food products
o solubility often these components do not dissolve easily in water
o taste bitter need to cover when added in food products
o stability (Conjugated (alternating simple of double and single bonds) Linoleic Acid)
prone to oxidation components/molecules are altered during storage different
taste/functionality
o safety strictly regulated
o price often high prices of these ingredients
▪ sometimes available in waste streams make the process better to use this
• Points of attention
- provide a scientific base for the idea/fact that you can influence health with appropriate food
ingredients
- the adventurous journey of food ingredients through the gastro-intestinal tract
- molecular diversity and structure-function relationships of biofunctional ingredients
- modification of ingredients to improve properties/performance
• Human nutrition through the years
- Long ago: enough (calorie intake)
- Decades ago: balanced in a number of key components (carbohydrates, proteins, fats,
vitamins)
- Now: preventive with respect to discomforts/diseases, improving intrinsic health (bioactive
compounds)
• Epidemiological evidence for relation food components-health
- Incidence of particular diseases related to geographic regions (breast cancer, hot flushes)
- Nutritional habits (soy)
- Relation to particular components
• Nutraceuticals and human health
- Healthy stable up to certain age certain discomforts and health related issues start to
arise decrease quality of life product with biofunctional ingredients improves quality of
life (retain intrinsic health for longer time live for longer time in life without any
discomfort)
- Why are biofunctional ingredients increasingly important?
o Composition of the population changes, more elderly persons
o percentage of elderly is expected to increase further
o as a consequence, social security costs and costs for health care will rise steeply
- (predicted) age structure of the Dutch population as a function of time
o First (1950): triangle many young people and few old people
o Now: evenly distributed colom shape small group of your people and more older
people number of elderly people is increasing
, - Increasing costs of health care with age
o Health care costs rise significantly with age combined with growing elderly
population biofunctional ingredients more important
- Increasing health care costs + more elderly people result in question for biofunctional
ingredients to retain the quality of life
- Hot-button health topics
o heart health (cardio-vascular diseases)
o cancer
o women’s health (breast cancer, hot flushes)
o men’s health (prostate cancer)
o joint & bone health (osteoporosis)
o anti-allergy (e.g. hay fever)
o cognitive performance/mental health
o weight control (obesity)
o diabetes
o sports/fitness (fast recovery)
- Definitions
o functional foods (FUFO): “ready-to-eat food” for target group, often with a health
claim
▪ breads, cereals and energy bars
o nutraceuticals, botanicals, phytochemicals, phytonutrients, herbs
o food supplements are often consumed as pills
▪ meant to ease discomforts / worries
▪ assist in daily uptake (regular food intake insufficient to meet dose)
▪ easier to meet the requirements of an individual
▪ ground flax meal, liquid oil, capsules
• Fading boundaries between pharma and food
- Foods move slowly in direction of pharma requires adaptive regulations
- Pharma
o Cure
o Prescription
o High concentration/effect
o Short exposure
o Extensive testing
- Food
o Prevent
o Self-medication
o Low concentration/effect
o Prolonged exposure
o Minimal testing
, • Challenges for the food technologist
- how can the bioactive potential of foods be improved or utilized, in such a way that the
target process in the human body is influenced?
o properties of the ingredients (activity, solubility, stability, …)
o detailed knowledge on the gastro-intestinal tract
▪ conditions as pH and presence of digestive enzymes
▪ microbial conversions can create or destroy bioactivity!
o clever processing or modulation of ingredient properties
▪ fermentation or enzymic conversion(s) to modulate bioavailability and
bioactivity
• Do biofunctional ingredients reach their target on their long, harsh journey through the
gastrointestinal tract
- food travels through esophagus to stomach continues to small intestine followed by large
intestine leftover excreted by the rectum
- Stomach
o Chewing food in mouth amylase is added to the product by salvia degrades starch
into smaller molecules
o In stomach very low pH (<2) HCL
▪ unfolding of ingested proteins increases their digestibility
▪ pepsinogen is activated to pepsin
▪ pepsin (low pH optimum) hydrolyzes unfolded proteins
▪ a-amylase from saliva is inactivated
o few bacteria (~103/mL contents; Helicobacter pylori) can survive
o little/no absorption of food components
- Small intestine
o Duodenum: brush-border enzymes digest carbohydrates and (poly)peptides into
monosaccharides and amino acids
▪ Bile salts and pancreatic lipase start cutting fats in monoglycerides and fatty
acids
o Duodenum/jejunum: absorption of carbohydrates, lipids, amino acids, calcium and
iron primarily
o Ileum: absorption of bile salts, vitamin B12, water and electrolytes mainly
o bacterial numbers: ~104-106/mL contents (lactobacilli, gram positive cocci)
