Infogest: an international network for improving health properties of food by sharing our knowledge on the digestive process

Establishing the links between food and human health was a top research priority for Europe. EU legislation, as advised by EFSA, now demands proper scientific data in nutrition and health claims. There is a lot of data being generated on the link between the food digestion and human health and a significant effort continues to be expended separately in each EU country on optimizing food for preventing the development of food-related diseases. The main objective of the COST Action “Improving health properties of food by sharing our knowledge on the digestive process (INFOGEST)” is to spread and improve current basic knowledge on food digestion, on the release during digestion of protein beneficial food components known to have a potential effect on human health and to promote harmonization of currently used digestion models. It will also assess the relationship between protein domain resistance to digestion and allergenicity, determine the influence of the kinetics of protein digestion on satiety, and assess the impact of protein metabolism on the human gut microbiota. The Action will be focused on dairy and egg products, fruits and vegetables. INFOGEST will gradually build a European network that will spread and improve current basic knowledge on food digestion. A multidisciplinary scientific community gathering scientists from different disciplines (food science, nutrition, physiology, immunology, cell biology…) will be created. The Action will facilitate the transfer of new scientific advances to European food companies (large groups as well as SMEs) for developing new functional foods and reinforcing their competitiveness in a growing world market. The duration of the Action is four years (April 2011 – March 2015) and is fully open to academic and industry partners that would like to join the network. For more information, see the actual webpage http://www.cost-infogest.eu or contact the Action coordinator Didier DUPONT ([email protected]).