Feeding your face is big business, with more than 500 new beauty foods and drinks launched globally between January 2004 and September 2006, and double digit compound annual growth in oral beauty supplements since 2000.

Leading the weight management pack is Lipid Nutrition, which will showcasing two major ingredients designed to tackle the rising obesity epidemic: Clarinol CLA and PinnoThin.

Healthy lipids suppliers will top the billing at this year's show.First up is Croda, which is launching Incromega Trio, a new product containing concentrated amounts of EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), and the less well-known omega-3 fatty acid DPA (docosapentaenoic acid) in a bid to cash in on its unique properties.

While the European market for functional foods remains smaller than many people think, it continues to outperform the food and drinks market as a whole, and bioactive plant extracts are key to its growth.

Vitafoods is celebrating its 10th birthday in style with more than 320 exhibitors plugging their wares at Geneva's Palexpo exhibition centre on May 8-10. Vitafoods has now become the key networking event for companies in the health and wellness market, with last year's event attracting a record 4,800 visitors from more than 76 countries, 82% of whom were at director or chief executive level. Over a third of exhibitors also chose Vitafoods to launch a new product in 2006.

A recent report from market analyst Frost & Sullivan suggests that the top five plant-derived functional food ingredients are carotenoids, isoflavones, phytosterols, polyphenols and vitamin E. And its top 10 hot list of botanicals for delivering them includes blueberries (for protection against liver cancer); cranberries (tooth decay); ginger (cancer); green leafy vegetables (obesity); rhatany root extract (skin care); and tomatoes (for blood pressure).

Flavours research and development (R&D) is being shaped by rapidly growing consumer demand for health and wellbeing products. This poses numerous challenges to flavour houses, which are having to re-engineer many of their formulations around natural ingredients, which are typically more expensive and less consistent in quality.

We've come a long way from saccharin, the first non-food sugar substitute, discovered somewhat by accident back in 1878. Manufacture of this sweetener with a bitter aftertaste began in 1901, and it remained more or less the only 'artificial' sweetener until the 1950s, when along came cyclamates (discovered in 1937), breathing new life into saccharin's future with taste improvements created through synergistic cyclamate/saccharin blends.

Those stunning aerial shots of runners crossing the start line in any of the world's major marathons say it all. Sports nutrition is set to run and run. What once was an elite, specialist area for professional athletes and bodybuilders has evolved into much more of a mass market.

It's 40 years since they burned the bra, but social liberation didn't free women from the tyranny of the female body. Menstruation, pregnancy and menopause with the attendant hormonal havoc wreaked on general good health still come with the territory. As does a streak of pure vanity.

There are many materials used in food processing that impart 'flavour' making the flavours market a difficult one to measure. This analysis focuses on 'top note' flavours, including single flavours, fruit flavours, essential oils and oleoresins.

Success in functional ingredients comes down to three things, says Jens Bleiel: "An understanding of consumer needs and market trends; partnerships with customers; and scientifically substantiated health claims."

Formed in 1997 by the merger of Avonmore and Waterford Foods, Ireland's largest dairy processor did not get off to an auspicious start, with many analysts writing it off as one of the biggest corporate disasters of the decade as its debt mountain soared and the profit warnings came in thick and fast.

When a food that smells, and for the uninitiated, tastes, like old socks, suddenly vanished from shop shelves in Japan recently, it highlighted the country's unique relationship with functional foods and its never-ending food fads. The food - a pungent dish of fermented soybeans called natto - and supplements derived from it, flew off the shelves when new health claims for this traditional foodstuff were made on a popular TV programme. Claims, however, that later turned out to be untrue.

Rising input costs, more demanding customers and growing competition from rivals in lower cost production areas. It's a margin-crushingly familiar tale of woe, and as a result, every enterprising ingredients supplier worth its salt is now on a mission to claw back the initiative and boost its portfolio with more 'value added' products.

From a regulatory perspective, 2007 will be a busy year for the EU food sector. European legislators are absorbed with additives, enzymes and flavourings legislation, and new proposals are expected from the European Commission (EC) on nutrition labelling, novel foods, and maximum levels for vitamins and minerals.

French hydrocolloids maker Colloids Naturels International has launched Equacia, a new nutritional texturiser, in a bid to cash in on the fast growing fat replacement market. A blend of wheat and acacia gum fibres, Equacia serves as a thickener, stabiliser, water binder, fat replacer and mouthfeel enhancer. However, it also has important nutritional qualities, containing soluble fibres with a prebiotic effect and insoluble fibres for their bulking effect.

Enzymotec's phytosterol-based ingredient CardiaBeat increased the absorption of key nutrients such as beta carotene and other fat soluble vitamins by 16% compared to standard sterol esters, according to a recent human study conducted at McGill University in the US.

Nutrisoft 55, a new emulsifier from Cognis, can help manufacturers reduce trans fat levels in a range of products from bread to mousse desserts. The product, which should be used in conjunction with an aerating emulsifier, also boosted the shelf-life of bread by stabilising the helical structure of starch, which slowed down the staling process, said the firm.

Danisco has launched Guardian Green Tea Extracts, a new range of natural antioxidants designed to preserve the flavour and shelf-life of meat and poultry products. Performing better than synthetic antioxidants such as BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole), the new range was more cost effective than other natural antioxidants, claimed Danisco.

Flavours firm Treatt has launched Habanero Treattarome 9815, a new flavour ingredient distilled from top grade habanero chilli peppers. Ideal for spicy sauces, salsas and drinks, Habanero Treattarome 9815 is the latest addition to Treatt's expanding range of natural ingredients.

Long before the innovation funnel, big food companies conducted their research and development (R&D) mostly in-house. Their labs were large enough for 'blue sky' research, which may not have led directly to retail outcomes. It was an act of faith that knowledge would lead to opportunity.

Sipal Partners has launched a new range of organic syrups made from dried dates and figs. As natural sweeteners, Sipa-Dates and Sipa-Figs add a fruity taste and colour to a wide range of products including biscuits, cereal bars, breakfast cereals, drinks, yoghurts, desserts and sauces, says the firm.

Competition in the weight management market is set to become even more frenzied as pomegranates, black soybeans and white kidney beans join the growing list of foods claiming to help battle the bulge.

Caffeine increases stress, according to preliminary results of an intervention study undertaken by scientists at Bristol University, UK.

Givaudan claims to have broken completely new ground in the gum market through the use of patented technology enabling it to 'layer' different flavours into a single piece of chewing gum and release them at different stages as it is chewed.

The functional ingredients arm of DSM Food Specialties is preparing to launch a 'breakthrough flavour innovation', bosses have revealed.

Fish intake, contaminants and human health

It might be the Viagra of all superfruits, but time is rapidly running out for the humble goji berry - at least in the EU - unless somebody, somewhere, provides regulators with compelling evidence that that it was consumed here in significant quantities before May 1997.

Swiss life sciences firm Lonza is building a new performance chemicals plant in Nanjing, China. Products from the plant, which is due to start production in the second half of 2008, will be used in antimicrobial applications.

Flavour and fragrances firm Symrise has acquired British herb and spice pastes, stocks, marinades and natural flavourings manufacturer Steng for an undisclosed sum.

Lipogen has doubled capacity at its factory in northern Israel to meet demand for brain health ingredient Lipogen PS (phosphatidylserine). Chief executive David Rutenberg said the move would enable it to reduce costs, lower prices and increase its penetration of the functional foods and dietary supplements markets.

Israeli biotech company Enzymotec is going head to head with market leader Neptune Technologies by moving into the krill oil market. Enzymotec, which makes lipid-based ingredients targeting heart, brain and infant health markets, said its krill oil could give "additional benefits to customers by providing higher levels of phospholipids and omega-3, conjugated on phospholipids, lower cost and not forcing limitation of customer use". High in omega-3, phospholipids and antioxidants, krill oil is derived from the planktonic family of crustaceans.

A major European study has been published showing for the first time that colon cancer risk can be reduced by taking a dietary supplement containing the prebiotic ingredient, Beneo Synergy1 from Belgian firm Orafti.

A more mature debate about E-numbers would only come through a better understanding of where additives came from and why they were added to foods, a leading supplier has claimed.

Bloated expectations and hype surrounding functional ingredients and foods is pushing up valuations of some companies in these sectors to "unrealistic" levels, according to Glanbia Nutritionals chief executive Hugh McGuire.

Avebe subsidiary Solanic will score an industry first in October when it becomes the first business to start commercial production of high performance proteins from potato juice.

The European Commission's working group on nutrition and health claims will meet again at the end of March to thrash out the details of how to establish a fair system of nutrient profiles under the controversial Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation.

The soft drinks giants behind controversial calorie-burning drink Enviga said they would "energetically oppose" the lawsuit launched against them by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

A Norwegian company supplying lentinen, a polysaccharide (beta-glycan) biofermented from an exotic mushroom for cancer therapy in the Far East, is poised to start trials in the UK.

Essential fatty acids expert Bioriginal is embarking on an aggressive acquisitions drive this year in a bid to boost its portfolio of nutritional ingredients.

US firm Phyto-Source has unveiled plans to build a manufacturing plant in Europe in a bid to cash in on growing demand for cholesterol-busting wood sterols.

A start-up company developing functional food ingredients from ancient apple varieties boasting "higher concentrations of polyphenols than green tea and cocoa" has been awarded a £243,000 grant from the UK government to fund development work with the Institute of Food Research.

A group of MEPs is calling on the European Commission (EC) and Council to introduce mandatory labelling of trans fats on foods as part of forthcoming nutrition labelling legislation.

The European Commission (EC) has promised to publish its long-awaited proposal to revise the Novel Food Regulation (NFR) "before the summer holidays".

The first products containing ingredients that can effectively fool our taste buds into believing we are eating foods far saltier, sweeter and richer than they really are will hit supermarket shelves this year.

The prices of staple foods could rocket by 15-20% over the next decade if food crops continue to be diverted into biofuel production, caramel colours giant DD Williamson has warned.