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Dr. David Topping
Chief Research Scientist,
CSIRO Food & Nutritional Sciences,
Adelaide, SA,
Australia
Future Grains for Consumer foods with Extra Health Benefits
Monday, September 13, 2010
11:00 - 11:30 am
Abstract:
Functional foods
with substantiated
health benefits have
the potential to
contain the soaring
costs of preventable
diet-related
conditions -
diabetes, colo-rectal
cancer (CRC) and
inflammatory bowel
diseases (IBD).
Population studies
support a role for
dietary fibre (DF)
in disease risk
reduction and CSIRO
is developing novel
grains enriched with
DF carbohydrates,
especially resistant
starch (RS), to
produce consumer
foods to improve
public health.
BARLEYmax™ is the
first of these. It
has an alteration in
starch synthesis
giving more RS
through a higher
amylose content.
Human nutritional
trials showed good
consumer acceptance
of prototype
BARLEYmax™ foods and
that they have a low
glycaemic load. RS
is thought to
promote bowel health
through the short
chain fatty acids (SCFA)
produced by its
fermentation by the
large bowel
microflora.
Consumption of
BARLEYmax™ foods
gave higher faecal
SCFA levels than
comparable whole
grain foods
consistent with more
RS. The grain has
been licensed for
commercial use and
two breakfast
cereals entered the
market place in
August 2009 with
good sales and
positive consumer
feedback. A high
amylose wheat is
being developed and
initial animal
studies indicate
greater large bowel
SCFA and
improvements in
other biomarkers.
CSIRO is also
working with
university partners
through the High
Fibre Grains
Collaboration
Cluster to generate
new cereals with
tailored increases
in other DF
polysaccharides
including
arabinoxylans and
(1-3,1-4)-β-D-glucans.
The health potential
of the latter is
accepted while
animal feeding
trials with
arabinoxylan-enriched
fractions also
support their
potential for the
production of
functional consumer
foods with added
health benefit.
Biography
David Topping is a biochemist and gained his BSc from Liverpool University and his PhD from London University. He has worked in several areas of research including actions of insulin on the liver, smoking and health and the metabolic actions of dietary fibre in the intestinal tract. He is a past President and Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia. He was the first non-North American to become a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Nutrition. Currently, he is actively involved in several major CSIRO initiatives including the National Food Futures and Preventative Health National Research Flagships. David is particularly interested in the conduct of basic research and its subsequent application to the development of food products which add value for the manufacturer and improve public health. He was elected to Fellowship of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering for his achievements in this area. He is an author of more than 180 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and 9 patents.
