But weight management is not just a January issue: with around one in three people in the EU now classed as overweight and one in 10 of these obese, Europe's weight problem is impacting health care budgets due to the rise in obesity-related conditions like heart disease and diabetes.
The food industry has been casting about for ways to reduce its responsibility for the problem, and low calorie, low fat foods, portion control and labelling initiatives are some of the ways it has sought to deal with the issues.
But Orafti believes that the results from current dietary strategies have, so far, been unsuccessful. Meanwhile it maintains that its prebiotic ingredients could offer another approach to help combat the obesity epidemic if they are used in foods designed to fill up consumers, leaving no room for unhealthy snacks.
The new placebo-controlled cross-over trial comes on the back of earlier animal studies which showed that rats fed either Beneo P95 or Beneo Synergyl for three weeks had a lower energy intake than a control group, resulting in a 30 percent decrease in body fat mass.
The human pilot intervention study involved ten healthy men and women aged 21 to 39 years, all with normal body mass index values. After breakfast and dinner they took either 8g of Beneo P95 or a placebo (maltodextrin).
After both meals the Beneo P95 was seen to significantly increase satiety. Hunger was also reduced, as were prospective food consumption and total energy intake during the day.
The feeling of satiety is believed to be due to hormones induced by the fermentation of the oligofructose in the colon. These hormones send signals to the brain that influence satiety and, as a consequence, food intake.
In the rat trial, those that consumed Beneo P95 and Beneo Syergyl had higher plasma levels of the hunger-repressing gut peptide GLP-1 in the portal vein compared to the control group, and lower levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin.
Wim Caers, regulatory and nutrition support manager, told NutraIngredients.com that the positive results of the trial mean it is likely that Orafti will investigate satiety in a larger human trial that is more focussed on biomarkers related to satiety and appetite.
"Everyone knows excessive food intake is a big problem now, so it fits in with this health trend," he said.
As to potential sales off the back of the research, Caers said that these will be related to the level of success demonstrated.
"If we are successful, I am pretty sure a number of food companies will be interested."
Satiety is only one additional aspect of oligofructose that Orafti is currently investigating. Others include calcium absorption, its effects on colorectal cancer growth, chronic inflammatory bowel disease and ulcerative colitis.