IFR receive £29 million research boost

The Institute of Food Research (IFR) is receiving £29 milllion as the first phase of a five-year £250m strategic investment programme announced during May by BBSRC to ensure the UK’s bioscience research base remains globally competitive.

IFR scientists, in collaboration with the University of East Anglia and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, are studying the gut as whole organ and to increase knowledge on gut biology, the resident bacteria or ‘microbiota’ in the gut, and how they interact and communicate with cells and tissues in the body.

If scientists can unpick the complexity of the gut, they might, for example, be able to develop better means of protecting the gut and arming it against infection by foodborne pathogens. Food poisoning costs the UK over £2 billion each year, affecting over a million people.

One group of IFR scientists is experimenting with altering fat digestion. Changing what is on the surface of fats can make them less accessible to bile salts and delay their digestion further down the GI tract. A slower release of fat from food can help maintain satiety for longer.

Research on food components and health has already enabled a new variety of broccoli to be developed, available in UK and US shops, with higher levels of a phytonutrient. Ongoing work will further unpick the long term impact of diet on the health of the individual and of the next generation.

Other research is investigating food ‘waste’ as a source of energy and valuable compounds. For example, wheat straw contains energy locked up in plant cell walls. IFR knowledge of the physical treatment and fermentation of plant material has made it possible to build a pilot plant. Scientists are experimenting with using it to produce bioethanol.