| Center for Advanced Functional Foods Research and Entrepreneurship
Despite improved medical care and the virtual elimination of nutritional deficiency disorders, aging Americans are suffering epidemics of chronic illnesses, including obesity, cancer, diabetes and vascular disease.
The need to address such serious societal needs, as well as the surge in corporate interest for the development of new foods, ingredients and crops with unique qualities to provide specific health benefits, spurred the creation of the Center for Advanced Functional Foods Research and Entrepreneurship (CAFFRE).
CAFFRE's mission is to serve as a catalyst for research and development of novel "functional foods and ingredients" - those with health-promoting and/or disease-preventing properties beyond their basic nutritional function - that will enhance health and quality of life for people of all ages.
- Enhance collaboration among investigators of diverse disciplines such as horticulture, crop science, food science, nutrition, medicine, public health and agricultural economics.
- Conduct research to study the efficacy and safety of newly developed functional foods.
- Develop unique nutritionally enhanced functional food products for disease prevention and control.
- Disseminate scientifically sound information on health-promoting functional foods and components to scientists, healthcare professionals, food-industry representatives and consumers.
- Collaborate with strategic food-industry and business partners to market functional foods and components.
CAFFRE is interdisciplinary in nature and is comprised of a diverse group of world-class scientists, medical professionals and policy makers who have experience working with industry partners. As a result, the CAFFRE team can assist at various points in the process of developing functional foods, ingredients or crops targeted to protect health or enhance quality of life.
"From Crops to the Clinic to the Consumer" is the paradigm that CAFFRE created to define Ohio State University expertise into a unique AgBioscience Center of Innovation that involves high-end science, clinical trials, product development and commercialization.
CAFFRE draws from the university's wealth of resources and its campus partners, including OARDC and OSU Extension; the departments of Horticulture and Crop Science, Plant and Cellular Molecular Biology, Food Science and Technology, Human Nutrition, and Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics; the colleges of Medicine and Public Health; the OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center; and the General Clinical Research Center.
Ohio State is uniquely positioned to lead functional-foods research because of its land-grant roots in agriculture and its world-class medical research hospital. The combination of agricultural and medical research on a single campus is a valuable resource.
CAFFRE capabilities include:
- Plant and horticultural science studies
- Food science, product development and processing
- Food chemistry and nutrient and phytochemical analysis
- Preclinical screening of novel food products
- Phase I and Phase II human clinical trials/human translational research
- Market, regulatory and agricultural-economics studies
- Entrepreneurship, technology-transfer and intellectual property rights resources
CAFFRE has successfully promoted the health benefits of functional foods through several projects, including:
Healthyhearth™ baking blend: Containing 3-50 percent soy flour, products made with this specialty baking blend can contain enough soy protein (6.25 g) to carry the FDA "heart-healthy" claim. A new company, Bavoy Inc., was created to market the blend to bakeries, retail stores and food companies.
Soy tomato juice: The processed soy-fortified tomato juice developed by CAFFRE researchers is well tolerated, contains phytonutrients that are readily absorbed, and improves blood lipid levels and antioxidant status, making it a promising product for multi-center clinical trials in the future, particularly in prostate-cancer patients.
Black raspberries: Berry derivatives, including a lozenge made from freeze-dried black raspberries, have been developed to evaluate their cancer-fighting properties, especially against oral, esophageal and colon cancers.
CAFFRE is looking for partners to establish entrepreneurial and technology-licensing collaborations. Please contact us to discuss novel opportunities in the emerging world of functional foods.
Contact Information:
Steven Schwartz, Ph.D., Director
Center for Advanced Functional Foods Research and Entrepreneurship
The Ohio State University
110 Parker Food Science and Technology Building
2015 Fyffe Court
Columbus, OH 43210-1007
For more information, contact:
Robin Ralston, Program Manager
(614) 292-6487
ralston.67@osu.edu
http://fst.osu.edu/caffre
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