Your chance to network with the key movers and shakers in healthy food ingredients, nutraceuticals, functional foods and food supplements all under one roof - Health ingredients Europe (HiE) is the biggest health ingredients show in town. Housing more than 400 exhibitors, it is your chance to discover new health ingredients and other innovative products and services and find out about current issues and trends that affect your business. It is also host to a major international conference featuring presentations on everything from health claims and changes to the Novel Food Regulation to the latest developments in gut health, satiety, salt and sugar reduction and foods for children and the elderly. Running alongside the show is Natural ingredients Europe, an exhibition and conference dedicated to natural ingredients for cosmeceuticals, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, foods and personal care products. Take a look at what's on offer

When the day of reckoning comes - and if you are in the dietary supplements trade, it's going to be some time in January, 2010 - there will be a handful of winners, and scores of losers as the European Commission finally reveals which health claims will be approved under article 13 of the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation.

A gluten-free diet is essential for consumers who have been diagnosed with coeliac disease, or dermatitis herpetiformis (gluten-induced skin sensitivity), and increasing awareness of this has spawned a prolific European trade in gluten-free bakery goods.

Back from holiday, jet lagged, gippy tummy? Pick up a bottle of Mile High Original. Its blend of fruit juice and anti-oxidants will sort out jet lag, dehydration, nausea, digestive upsets and infections, so its producer, the Mile High Drinks Club, claims.

Consumers in industrialised countries are increasingly looking for products that are low in fat, sugar and sodium and high in fibre, vitamins and minerals. But above all they are looking for products that are perceived to be healthy and natural, free from artificial preservatives, colours and flavours, and minimally processed. As a result, natural and organic products have therefore become one of the most dynamic areas of the food industry.

Bite into a fresh chilli by mistake and you will get an inkling of the effect the Sudan 1 crisis had on European food markets in 2005.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) figures, 12% of men and 5% of women in Europe die from cardiovascular disease (CVD) before the age of 65.

The EU food market is performing poorly. Low population growth, an increasing proportion of elderly people (who tend to consume less) and retailer price initiatives have all exerted downward pressure on market volumes and values. Meanwhile, consumption in North America and Asia Pacific is rising faster.

As promotional stunts go, slashing the price of staple foods is a depressingly familiar one in supermarket store wars as rival retailers seek to woo punters with loss leaders as the economy takes a downturn.

What does 'clean-label' mean? This, you might think, is a pretty straightforward question to ask the co-founder of a company specialising in the supply of clean-label ingredients. But frustratingly, there is no clear-cut answer.

Growing food can be like going into battle - whether it's with the elements, flying pests, encroaching weeds or simply market forces. But if the wild blueberry is your crop of choice (where you can add black bears to the list of local predators), the odds are stacked even more heavily against you. Unlike their larger, and blander, cultivated counterparts, antioxidant-packed wild blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium) stubbornly refuse to grow outside a tiny portion of the north-eastern seaboard (Maine, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Quebec). Equally inconveniently, they grow on the ground - and only where and when they feel like it.

If you were inventing the ideal functional ingredient, you might start with something that guards against cancer and offers cardiovascular protection. But why not add some fat-burning properties that could aid weight management while you're at it? And if you want even more, let's throw in gum protection and fresh breath for good measure. Better still, let's make it natural so it sounds appealing on today's cleaner food labels. Such a dream product may sound improbable but it's no fantasy. You've just reinvented green tea extract (GTE).

European Commission proposals on labelling of food products could drive up costs for manufacturers and generate mountains of additional waste for landfill, making a mockery of EU commitments to reduce packaging waste whilst adding to consumer confusion and undermining efforts of Member States to tackle obesity.

Taking 1,000mg of olive leaf extract a day can lower cholesterol and blood pressure in patients with mild hypertension. The findings, which were published in the journal Phytotherapy Research. are from a trial using extracts from Frutarom.

Waitaki Biosciences has launched two collagen-rich ingredients with applications in joint health and skin care. Chondroitin Sulphate Complex and Soluble Collagen II have been developed using fully traceable New Zealand sourced raw materials, delivering a combination of naturally occurring ingredients to encourage beauty from the inside.

A new granulated protein hydrolysate range has been specifically developed to improve curd strength and boost cheese yield. DSM Food Specialties has launched MaxiCurd, a clean-label technical processing aid aimed at manufacturers looking to maximise the texture, taste and yield of their cheese. The product works by binding with the whey protein-casein complexes during renneting to stabilise the curds and deliver a consistently robust, high-quality cheese.

Researchers have discovered that eating broccoli could undo the damage caused by diabetes to blood vessels. Professor Paul Thornalley and his team from the University of Warwick, UK, claim a compound in broccoli called Sulforaphane can encourage the body to produce more enzymes to protect the blood vessels, as well as reduce the levels of molecules that cause significant cell damage.

International Flavors and Fragrances has launched a novel new product that enhances the savoury flavours in food while reducing or eliminating the need for monosodium glutamate, autolyzed yeast extract or hydrolyzed vegetable protein.

The weight management market looks set to become even more crowded with the emergence of yet another player promising to help punters battle the bulge.

Biotech firm Natraceutical Group has submitted a patent application for a bioactive peptide from cocoa it claims can potentially inhibit an enzyme that plays a role in memory loss.

California-based biotech firm Senomyx has developed S6973, a taste enhancer it claims can magnify the sweetness of sugar to such an extent that manufacturers can reduce it by 50% without any loss of flavour.

To help manufacturers meet the demand for healthy fruit-filled snack bars, Wild has produced a range of preservative-free bake-stable fillings.

Cargill has launched two new product solutions.

The director of the firm behind beetroot drink Heartbeet has admitted the brand name probably amounts to an implied health claim, but insists the evidence is there to support its claimed cardiovascular benefits.

Unilever is about to embark on the first clinical trials of vegetable oil-based spreads containing a patented tomato extract developed by life sciences firm Provexis.

Rocketing poultry feed prices have prompted a surge of interest in egg alternatives as manufacturers seek to value engineer eggs out of their products to cut costs, according to ingredients suppliers.

Fat and fatty acids

The first opinions from the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA's) NDA Panel on potential health claims seem, to put it mildly, to have rather put the cat among the pigeons by rejecting seven out of eight applications. The EFSA scientists have put down a strong marker that they are, not unreasonably, seeking a clear demonstration of cause and effect between meaningful consumption of specific nutrients or foods and their claimed health benefits. Despite expressions of "shock horror" from some observers, should we be surprised or even disturbed by this? It has been suggested that the scientific dossiers for these products were not strong, despite the clear requirements of the Regulation itself and the associated guidance issued by EFSA that the supporting science must be robust.

Whey ingredients could play a far more significant role in gut and immune health products in future, according to academics at WheyVolution.

While its nutritional benefits were grabbing all the headlines, the technical properties of whey were driving its usage in the confectionery industry, said Andrea Pernot-Barry, technical director at ZDS, the Central College of the German Confectionery Trade.

Innovative use of whey protein isolate (WPI) has helped US retailer Safeway create an own-label rival to branded 'slow-churn' low fat ice creams at a fraction of the cost.

Whey protein should play a more significant role in weight management products in the future, both as an appetite suppressant and a means of improving body composition, according to leading scientists attending WheyVolution. Dr Harvey Anderson, who has gained an international reputation for his work on the glycaemic index at the University of Toronto, said he was very impressed by the ability of intact whey proteins (taken before meals) to reduce blood glucose response after meals.

Food manufacturers have "barely scratched the surface" when it comes to realising the full potential of whey as a value-added ingredient, according to experts gathered at 'WheyVolution' in Paris. While some whey derivatives were showing double-digit growth and overall volumes were expected to grow 6% annually until 2010, many ingredients suppliers had "failed to convince mass market players about added value whey products", argued Iris Consulting director Richard Field, who has just conducted an analysis of the $5bn whey market. "Consumer awareness is low and there is a major marketing exercise to be done to bring whey truly into the mainstream as a health ingredient," he said. But the trade also needed educating: "If you asked the average UK supermarket buyer what he thought of glycomacropeptide [a bioactive from whey connected to cardiovascular health], I suspect you'd get some pretty blank looks."

Commercial quantities of a new prebiotic derived from wheat could be available by 2010.

Greenpalm, the trading scheme developed to promote the sustainable production of palm oil, has finally got underway, with the first certificates now available.

The health claims Regulation is not geared up to handle generic health claims about whole food groups such as dairy or fruit and vegetables, Ireland's National Dairy Council (NDC) has claimed.

Food Ingredients, Health & Nutrition and Food Manufacture are hosting an exciting new conference addressing all aspects of product development from how to decide which ingredients to use, to how to work with third parties to get winning products from concept to launch more quickly.

Bread made with selenium-enriched wheat flour could hit supermarket shelves shortly following a tie-up between crop scientists, upmarket retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) and a fertiliser firm.

The food industry has engaged in a last ditch attempt to halt the progress of EU proposals to restrict pesticide use, which it claims could cause crop yields to plummet at a time when food prices are already spiralling out of control. Dominic Dyer, chief executive of the Crop Protection Association, said. "We're lobbying at every level to get politicians to look at this again. Trade associations from right across the food industry have also written to [British prime minister] Gordon Brown urging him to take their concerns to [French president] Nicolas Sarkozy.

Scientists at the University of Newcastle are developing breads fortified with brown seaweed extracts (alginates) that decrease fat absorption, paving the way for a new breed of weight management foods.