As Vitafoods Asia closes its doors on a successful three-day debut edition in Hong Kong today, event director Chris Lee shares impressions of the show with Shane Starling, and ponders refinements to the event in 2012.

Spanish supplier Genosa brought its olive extracts to Vitafoods Asia in Hong Kong this week where it found a recent EFSA-approved health claim resonated well beyond European shores.

Asia Pacific markets are ripe for functional foods development as a response to the increasing prevalence of western diets, says Katrina Diamonon, consumer analyst at market researcher, Datamonitor.

Earlier this year, an international team of scientists identified three distinct varieties of gut microflora. NutraIngredients caught up with the lead researcher of the project to find out more about the research and its possible implications.

As the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) delivers hundreds of batch five general function health claim rejections to an ever-frustrated academic and commercial community, EFSA health claims panelist Ambroise Martin, PhD, tells NutraIngredients why disgruntled researchers would come to the same conclusions as EFSA’s health claims panel, if put in the same position. It’s all about context you see…

Information about the human genome is providing new insights into the way vitamin E – a nutrient that has very much ridden the scientific roller coaster in recent years in the face of questioning meta reviews – functions in the body.

General Mills is throwing more and more resources behind an ‘intellectual outsourcing’ project that has significantly reduced its product fail rate. But gaining the trust of start-ups has not been easy, says Kamel Chida, associate director of its Worldwide Innovation Network.

Metagenomic developments are providing new insights into the here-to-now largely mysterious mechanisms of behaviour displayed by gut microbiota – just the kind of data required by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to win claims.

In advance of the presentation of the southern edition of the DSM Science and Technology Awards yesterday, DSM senior VP in nutritional science and nutrition and health advocacy, Dr Manfred Eggersdorfer, explained how it is that nutrition science is entering a renaissance period.

Probiotics are best used for their potentially beneficial effects on gut health, but they may also help to boost immune functions – an effect that could benefit sports stars in the future, according to a leading sports scientist.