Harness science to the plough

NIGEL MARPLE

GOT TO BE GOOD: Karl Crawford says the interesting thing about functional foods is 'their potential can grow overnight by millions of dollars by somebody discovering that something is good for you'.

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Showcasing the science-backed health benefits of our food is the way to lift returns from agriculture.

Karl Crawford has a simple way of explaining "functional" food and its claimed health benefits.

He writes down two prices - $4.55 and $92.40. The first is Fonterra's forecast milk payout a kilogram. The second is what farmers would receive if their milk went into a product called Actimel, which claims to boost the immune system.

"You may think Actimel is a small niche brand and it is easy to get a premium on this type of product," he says. "But Actimel is a €1.4 billion (NZ$3.04b) a year functional food with a compound annual growth of more than 30 per cent, distributed in 21 European countries, as well as Argentina, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and across the Middle East. This is the promise of functional foods - selling what we produce extremely well for 20 times what we get now."

If New Zealand doesn't get cracking and start to turn its raw materials into high-value food, the prospects are dire, says Mr Crawford, the business leader for Crown research institute Plant and Food Research. "Put simply, we won't be able to keep paying for our economic and social needs."

Health has taken over from convenience as the latest trend in the trillion- dollar global food and beverage industry, and New Zealand should be carving out its own niches. Relying on commodity exports is no longer an option. Science should be harnessed to the plough.

He is not saying that all New Zealand milk should go into one product, but the comparison with Actimel is an arresting example of the potential of functional food.

Dairying has great potential, and he applauds Fonterra's recent move into health drinks with its whey-protein- based Whole, but with milk production reaching its limits, he feels the industry must turn more to value-added foods to keep lifting the payout. His special interest is fruit - superfruits such as blueberries and cranberries and more common fruit that can be made super.

In his view, to be super, a fruit must have six qualities: a health benefit backed with science; a look and taste that are good; convenience, meaning bite-sized, in a beverage or freshly cut; novelty; control of supply; and good marketing.

"A lot of people will say a superfruit is some rare fruit from the South American jungle that the natives have eaten for 200 years and gives them long life. That's true, but you can also create the same thing deliberately by focusing on those six elements."

The latest to join the superfruit ranks is the pomegranate. Until three years ago it was known in the United States as only a Christmas table decoration. Then it was discovered that, when juiced, it had heart benefits. One product alone, PomWonderful, turns over US$60 million (NZ$91m) a year.

In New Zealand, kiwifruit and blackcurrants are superfruit. The kiwifruit success story, through the industry's grower-controlled, single-desk exports, is well known, but the blackcurrant story is not. Favoured by growing conditions that produce berries scientifically proven to have exceptional colour and flavour and to be high in antioxidants, New Zealand growers are working closely with their Japanese counterparts to take advantage of a flourishing functional foods business.

Apples, New Zealand's biggest fruit export, cannot become superfruit because it is impossible to control their supply. But maybe some varieties can. Mr Crawford points to the jazz apple, a cross of the common royal gala and braeburn, created by Plant and Food and now marketed exclusively by Enza. It sells in the US at prices 30 per cent higher than other varieties.

Plant and Food is working on a red- fleshed apple that it hopes will be a superfruit. It has novelty and health benefits from its antioxidant-rich flesh. However, scientists are not satisfied with its taste yet, and more work needs to be done.

Then there is Project Zen. This is research into what have been dubbed "mood foods" and centres on fruit that may reduce stress. After five years, a fruit extract has been found to combat fatigue, Mr Crawford says.

"We tested it by putting people under a lot of mental stress with challenging computer tasks. We measured their blood sugar, blood pressure and performance and asked them to rate how tired they were. We found the extract reduced how tired they felt, improved performance and stopped their blood sugar from dropping too much. We're pretty confident it works."

Plant and Food is now talking to the fruit's producer about promotion and marketing. It is commercially sensitive and he cannot name the fruit, but says it is a New Zealand-based, easily accessed fruit. "The interesting thing about functional foods is their potential can grow overnight by millions of dollars by somebody discovering that something is good for you."

Project Zen has also discovered a fruit compound that is "quite calming".

"We know from rat trials that it works quite well and we haven't got the results yet from human trials. It is from a common fruit, which makes it harder to protect commercially. But if it works in people, we've got an incentive to find how to protect it."

These results are promising, but they have to be translated into market success. Many innovative New Zealand companies have struggled because they are too small - they cannot get enough produce to gain traction in a big market, they can't afford crucial scientific support for a health benefit and they don't have the resources needed to launch in a specialist market.

Mr Crawford says a way of supporting these innovators has to be found. He suggests an industry, science, government collaborative approach that singles out products and gives them the support they need.

It would begin with science - focusing on research where New Zealand could be the best in the world - and ensuring that the knowledge generated could be commercialised. Seed funding would come from government agencies for selected companies to create products, brand, market and distribute them and then use the lessons learnt to show others how it could be done. Funders such as the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology and Trade and Enterprise would also contribute science commercialisation expertise and market information.

To minimise risk and increase the chances of success, these ventures would have to be around one product, focused on one geographic area and on one type of consumer.

"Finally, we need to be prepared for most of these showcase products to fail and to write the seed funding off as a good learning experiment and do it all again. The successes will more than pay for the failures."

With enough of these successes, companies could be left to pursue their own interests, with the support of government agencies and researchers.

Mr Crawford wants to hear the views of others in the food industry. "I really firmly believe that as a country, we can do much better than we do now.

"What would inspire me if I was a small business owner would be talking to someone who has actually done it, who can give hands-on practical advice. There are lots of agencies, and I've dealt with them all. They all do a good job, but there's no-one over the top of them saying, 'How do we get one of these companies up to $100m, and how do we show that to others?'

"We spend $123m a year on government-sponsored food research, and if we could just split some of it off into trying to get a result for small businesses maybe it could be a good use of the money.

"I'm looking from the sidelines, saying, 'C'mon guys, let's get in the game'."

* Plant and Food Research will hold a functional foods symposium in Christchurch on Monday.

- © Fairfax NZ News