Enterprises can exploit the scientific results

Berry foods are often being marketed with claims of their healthiness. The new regulation on nutrition and health claims limits strictly what kinds of claims and on what terms these claims can be linked to foods. The Berries and Health project assists individual enterprises in applying the standards for their present and/or future products. The general objective is to create healthy, appropriately labelled and marketed products with information which is based on generally accepted scientific results.
 
Background

Sitra's Food and Nutrition Programme (ERA) has undertaken two summaries of the scientific research on nutritional and health effects of berries. These summaries have concentrated on the berries which possess importance in public health and are commercially interesting: bilberry, cranberry, lingonberry, buckthorn, blackcurrant, cloudberry and crowberry.

Objectives and activity

• Adapting research-based information in the summaries to allow it to be exploited by food processing enterprises
• Knowledge transfer to enterprises in this field by adapting the scientific knowledge to the individual company's own products and/or product development, private consultations
• Generation of new R&D projects, assistance in project planning
• Comprehensive knowledge propagation
  • A national "Berries and Health" seminar was arranged (4/2008) 
  • Berries and Health website is being prepared
     

Further information:

Marja-Leena Laitinen, Development Director
GSM + 358 45 657 9569
firstname.lastname @ kuopioinnovation.fi

www.oske.net/en

 Basic information about the project:

• A spearhead project of the National Food Development Competence Cluster
• Kuopio Innovation Ltd. coordinates and administrates the project,  the Kuopio Region Centre of Expertise