You are what you eat? For a European public increasingly enamoured with good nutrition, this certainly seems a sound proposition.

Savvy consumers and major retailers have forced a step change in the food-colours market over the last few years in response to negative publicity targeting synthetically produced colours and nature identical colours.

Xylitol is a low calorie, sugar free sweetener that is widely recognised as being not only non-cariogenic but also cariostatic (caries preventative). This substance has been the focus of dental health research for over 30 years, and during this period xylitol's functionality and dental benefits have been corroborated on every occasion.

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes of Atkins, the low-GI (glycaemic index) diet had everything going for it: great weight-management credentials, plus enthusiastic support from medics and academics alike, many of whom remain convinced it could prove a key weapon in the fight against spiralling levels of obesity, heart disease and type-two diabetes.

Obesity in Europe has reached epidemic proportions, according to the World Health Organisation. If nothing is done, there will be 150M obese adults, 20% of the population, by 2010 and 15M obese children. And with 30%-80% of adults overweight in most countries, Euromonitor International is forecasting that satiety could be the next big health and wellness trend. The good news is that food manufacturers will be able to repackage and relaunch low-GI and low-carb foods as high-satiety foods and ingredients, says Simone Baroke, Health and Wellness Analyst at Euromonitor.

You thought the future was fat; in fact, it's terminally confused. As fast as it piles on the pounds, the western world is losing its marbles, presenting governments with a twin dilemma and food manufacturers with a potential double whammy of a public health crisis. They're wising up to the notion that "brain food" could, as one leading US researcher put it, be "the last frontier" of nutrition and the dish of the day is soya, a bean so loaded with thought provoking compounds that there's hardly a multinational not devoting some portion of its NPD budget to exploiting soya's potential.

When I first joined the company in 1991, manufacturers would come to me and say, 'I want this ingredient'," says Pauline Taggart. "Then it developed into, 'I have this technical problem, what's the solution?'" Fast forward 15 years, she says, "and it sometimes feels more like they are saying 'this is what marketing would like me to do, and I would like you to do it instead'!"

Katinka Abbenbroek's description of Lipid Nutrition - "young and focused" - could just as easily apply to its new boss. Propelled into the hot seat of one of the most exciting ingredients businesses around - just seven years after walking through the front door - Abbenbroek is on a mission to double the size of the outfit within three years.

Without a doubt, seaweed is the hottest functional ingredient in town. Not only is it packed with almost all of the important nutritional components, it contains them in levels that often far exceed its terrestrial counterparts: vegetables. It is now known that seaweed contains numerous bioactive substances shown to lower cholesterol, reduce blood pressure, promote healthy digestion and tackle free radicals. Add to this the fact that it is virtually fat and calorie free and it is easy to see why seaweed is building a reputation as the new 'superfood'.

The question of regulation, and its impact on innovation and competitiveness in global markets, is a critical one for the food industry. Talk to most innovative companies in the sector and I suspect the majority believe that the negative impacts of regulation outweigh its positive effects. And genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and derived novel food products are a clear case in point.

With health high up the agenda, the appetite for functional and nutritional foods is creating a growing and highly profitable category that is fuelling ever-increasing innovation in the food sector.

Another new year; each of us another year older and (maybe) another year wiser! But will this increased collective wisdom change Brussels' approaches to the quantity and complexity of legislation and, increasingly, pseudo-legislation affecting the food industry? Or, despite yet another round of promises of "better regulation" and less "red tape", will it be even more of the same?

There was an 86% jump in the number of gluten-free products launched on the global market in 2006, according to Mintel. More than 182,000 new products were launched in total, said Mintel.

DSM's Iwan Brandsma was incorrectly named Irwan in the last issue. We apologise for the error.

Danisco is developing new products to ease the abdominal pain of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) after research highlighted the analgesic effects of one of its patented probiotic strains: Lactobacillis acidophilus NCFM.

Roquette has developed a new blend of maltitol and xylitol ideal for use in sugar-free deposited chewing gums.

DSM Nutritional Products has announced the European, Asian, Latin American and African launch of Hidrox, an ingredient made from the juice of organic olives. The product contains high levels of polyphenols and has strong anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities.

Cargill has developed a pork fat substitute called Adrogel GR that can be mixed with water and vegetable oil to produce a restructured vegetable fat suitable for use in meat products sold to Muslims. With a white colour and consistency similar to that of back pork fat, Adrogel GR can be cut into pieces and used in turkey and poultry sausages.

About a month ago I went to my local supermarket to check what claims for nutrition or health were being made on packaging. Within 10 minutes I had a basket of at least 12 products bearing such claims.

Orafti has launched Beneo LGI, a new reduced-sugar inulin designed for manufacturers keen to reduce the calorie content and glycaemic response of their products without losing functionality.

More than 500 new beauty foods or drinks were launched globally between January 2004 and September 2006, with the bulk in beverages (45%), followed by confectionery (16%) and dairy (9%), according to market researcher Mintel.

Quest has launched a new set of natural flavours in a bid to grab a bigger slice of the western European market in natural flavours for beverages. This was worth an estimated euro 150M for non-alcoholic drinks and euro 31M in alcoholic drinks.

Tate & Lyle has developed new ingredients to help customers create products under three health platforms.

Moves to add functional ingredients, such as probiotics, to chewing gum will drive demand for dry powder-based tableted chewing gums in 2007, according to gum base supplier Cafosa.

MEAT NEW IDEA

No piece of legislation from Brussels has ever been greeted with unbridled joy. But EC Regulation 258/97 is regarded by those subject to it with a sense of frustration almost unprecedented in the field of EU food regulation. And there is a lot of competition, observe the cynics.

Researchers at Zhejiang University in China have found that soaking potatoes in a solution containing bamboo leaf extract could reduce the formation of acrylamide in products such as crisps and French fries by up to 75%.

The European Commission has launched a series of initiatives to help make the Seventh Framework Research Programme (FP7) more friendly to small firms.

Ajinomoto has opened one of the world's largest amino acid production plants in Limeira, Brazil, to meet growing demand for glutamine, which is widely used in sports nutrition, clinical nutrition and pharmaceuticals.

Chinese ingredients supplier Fenchem has gained regulatory approval to market its Cholevel plant sterols in the EU.

Cargill has applied to the Dutch authorities to gain approval to market its slowly digestible sweetener Sucromalt in Europe under the Novel Food Regulation.

A new tool that enables manufacturers to rapidly assess the success and failure rates of new product launches could help slash development costs in the industry, according to its co-creators, Mintel and Information Resources.

The first set of results from a major pan-European study exploring how the food industry can help tackle metabolic syndrome by developing healthier fats will be published in July.

The market for vitamins and dietary supplements in western Europe is expected to grow by 3.6% a year over the next few years, according to new data from Euromonitor.

European food manufacturers spend less on research and development (R&D) than counterparts in the US and Asia, the European Commission has revealed.

Biotech firms should refuse to be browbeaten by lobby groups and instead call for a fresh debate on the merits of agricultural biotechnology in Europe, according to the chairman of the International Plant Biotechnology Organisation.

Unilever is just five years away from selling products based on its growing understanding of the interaction between diets and gene expression.

The legal team at US food watchdog the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), will meet Coca-Cola and Nestlé this month to thrash out concerns about Enviga - the two firms' 'calorie-burning' green tea drink.

Lipid Nutrition's new boss wants to double the size of the business in three years - and bring two new products to market over the same period.

Prices of the sweetener xylitol have more than doubled in the last three months as demand continues to exceed supply.

The challenge for Tate & Lyle will be to widen the market for its Splenda sucralose rather than fighting with suppliers of aspartame for ascendancy in the diet drinks sector, according to a controversial new report from analyst Credit Suisse.

Cargill will launch a major pan-European study into consumer understanding of glycaemic response this year.

Tate & Lyle's new venture capital fund has just invested in its first business after investigating more than 50 potential opportunities in Europe and the US since its launch last summer.

The Indian company representing the most serious challenge to Tate & Lyle's monopoly of the highly lucrative sucralose market claims it will be capable of producing 2,000t of the sweetener a year by 2011 using a process that does not infringe any of Tate & Lyle's patents.