World-class advisors
Early on, Global Dairy Platform assembled the Scientific and Communication Advisory Board to provide direction on the scientific research and communication issues that GDP tackles on a global basis. The Advisory Board, which met for the first time in May, consists of the world’s most renowned specialists in health and nutrition from academia and the corporate world. They recently shared their perspective on what’s important in dairy research and communication, as well as their latest accomplishments:
Arne Vernon Astrup, M.D., Dr. Med.Sci./Ph.D., is the head of the Department of Human Nutrition at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Having authored more than 300 original papers, he is recognised as an international expert on the etiology and treatment of obesity. He currently serves as the president of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, among numerous other professional activities.
Prof. Dr. Peter van Bladeren is the director of the Nestlé Research Center, ranked as one of the finest food and nutrition research laboratories in the world. Located in Switzerland, the center employs 670 staff members, including more than 300 scientists. In 2005, Dr. van Bladeren and his staff were responsible for 240 scientific publications, 173 external scientific contracts and 27 patents. At Nestlé, he has global responsibility for science and research, with emphasis on translating scientific innovations into business opportunities. Trained in organic chemistry and toxicology, he is interested in individual differences in risk assessment, as well as mechanisms of chemoprotective effects.
“Without a doubt, the relationship between nutrition and health is critical for the future”, said Dr. van Bladeren about research needs.
Cédric Boehm is the business manager of the Chilled Dairy Strategic Business Unit at Nestlé. Based in Switzerland, he is responsible for the long-term business strategies and profitability of the business, including research and development, branding, business expansion and asset utilization. “In this role, we have established differentiated strategies, leveraging the health and wellness properties of the category for the consumer”, he said. These strategies are based on clinical studies developed by the Nestlé Research Centre in such areas as the immune system, and bone and digestive health.
In chilled dairy and other milk products, Mr. Boehm thinks probiotics research will be critical in the next few years. “Key benefit platforms are bone health in the context of the ageing population and digestive health”, he said. “Strong science in those areas will be key. Other areas of interest are diabetes and allergy”.
Professor Shuichi Kaminogawa has served in the Department of Food Science and Technology in Nihon University in Japan since 2003. He has written more than 350 publications and is a recognised authority on milk proteins, lactic acid bacteria and immunological properties of dairy products. He currently serves as the president of the Japanese Association of Food Immunity and is the chairman of the Expert Committee of Food Safety Commission, Cabinet Office, of the Japanese Government, among many other professional activities.
Among Dr. Kaminogawa’s recent accomplishments is research into the suppression of allergies by probiotics and prebiotics, characteristic properties of iteritine immune cells and mechanisms of oral tolerance. “I think the contribution of milk and fermented milk products for human health will be important scientific research to be elucidated by dairy science”, he said about important research for the future. “It is because the fermented milk products are ideal foods from the point of view of safety and convenience and for the prevention of diseases”.
Frans J. Kok, Ph.D., is professor of nutrition and health and head of the Division of Human Nutrition at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He specialises in the role of diet in disease prevention, energy balance and body composition, and sensory science, as well as nutrition in the developing world. Dr. Kok has written some 250 original scientific publications and is a member of several scientific committees, such as the Dutch Health Council and the Netherlands Association for Scientific Research.
Most recently, Dr. Kok has been researching the effect of bioactive peptides in relation to blood pressure. He thinks more work needs to be done on dairy and the metabolic syndrome, focusing on the area of proteins, energy balance and body composition, as they pertain to weight management, satiety and muscle metabolism. Other key areas include the relationship of dairy with glucose metabolism and insulin resistance, as well as dairy and blood pressure. “The obesity epidemic will stimulate nutrition research to find new ways to help prevent and/or restore a positive energy balance for those who are overweight”, Dr. Kok added.
Richard Lange is group manager of national marketing at Dairy Australia, where he develops programmes targeting consumers, health professionals, food service channels, schools and opinion leaders. His career has focused on food marketing, spanning dairy, beef and rice products. His dairy consumer programme has been a past winner of the IMP Trophy for generic marketing at the IDF World Congress. He also has won three Rx Club Show Awards, including a Gold Award in 2004, for a programme that communicated to health professionals the benefits of dairy for conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. This is an international competition for pharmaceutical product advertising and promotion that is judged in New York.
Most recently, Mr. Lange has launched a successful communication programme called, “Dairygood for life”, that repositions the emotional association with dairy among consumers. He believes there are numerous important communication issues facing dairy. “The big issues are those affecting the positioning of dairy as emotionally and functionally relevant in mainstream diets”, he said. Dairy is under pressure from fortification of beverages with calcium, non-dairy foods making health claims, regulation on market channels including schools on the basis of nutrient profiling and trans fatty acids, as well as the more general issue of obesity, food and nutrition.
Thomas Sanders, D.Sc., is the director of the Research Division of Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London. Most of his research career has focused on investigating the effects of diet on cardiovascular risk factors, particularly haemostatic risk factors such as n-3 fatty acids. Currently his research team is conducting a randomised dose response study of fruit and vegetable intake on vascular function, and a randomised controlled trial of diets high and low in fat on vascular function. He has served as a consultant to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation, and was a founding secretary of the British Atherosclerosis Society, among other professional activities.
“I believe the development of novel fermented milk products has helped maintain milk consumption despite falling consumption of milk”, Dr. Sanders said. “The positive health benefits of these products have also been helpful”. In terms of future research, he added, “I believe it will be necessary to substantiate any health claims made for milk products”.