Funding boost for UK polyphenol developer

The Department of Trade and Industry gives a small number of grants on the basis of competitions in areas considered to be of importance to the UK economy.

The £243,000 (€363,000) DTI grant is one of three granted in the bioscience and healthcare technology areas of the DTI Technology Programme.

According to Coressence chief executive Richard Wood, this is "a clear indication of the growing recognition of the benefits of polyphenols in the modern diet ".

Coressence initiated a 24-month joint project with the Institute of Food Research (IFR) last October.

In fact, the company and the institute have worked together since 2004, and in the early stages of the project identified procyanidins that are available in commercially significant concentrations from specially bred fruits.

The current stage involves refined screening of the selected fruits using 2006 and 2007 early season crops, and the development of a multi-stage stage extraction process to extract specific natural polyphenols for use in functional foods, beverages and supplements.

It is also expected to deliver materials that will be used in a randomised 4-way crossover human intervention trial as part of the EU FLAVO project in 2006/7, to measure arterial stiffness, platelet activity and other biomarkers of vascular inflammation.

A growing body of science links polyphenols from fruit with cardiovascular, digestive health and cognitive health benefits.

"We know that many of these benefits are directly associated with polyphenols of the flavan-3-ol group," said Wood.

"Each time we hear news of a new 'superfruit', be it purple grapes, cocoa, or exotic goji berries, it is because of the polyphenols they contain."

To date Coressence has developed one commercial product called Evesse, which is intended to give high polyphenol natural fructose to foods.

It is suitable for use in fruit drinks, smoothies, yoghurts, cereal bars and soft-gel supplements.