The Fountain

of Knowledge
Research for Nutrition,
Health and Wellness

Nestlé Research Center

Health and enjoyment:
drivers of research 2
We transform science into consumer benefits 4

Attitude, activity and food:

the base for health and wellness 6
Unlocking the nutrition puzzle 8
Towards a personal nutrition 14
Why we choose our foods 22
A new direction for food research 26
Quality from farm to fork 30
Building food safety in from the start 34

Foods for the future 38

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Health and
enjoyment:
drivers
of research

Nestlé has a long-standing reputation for excellence in
research on food and nutrition that has benefited consumers
for over a century. The Nestlé Research Center is one of the
world’s leading laboratories in the food and life sciences, and
undisputed leader in some domains.
To lead into the 21st century, Nestlé’s management took the
strategic decision to position Nestlé not just as a trusted food
company, but also as the world's leading nutrition, health and
wellness company, embodied in the corporate motto,
“Good Food, Good Life”. The strategy firmly placed nutrition
as a major driver for the Nestlé Research Center, not only
because of the scientific challenges, but also through the direct
role and responsibility of the center in the future of Nestlé.
What does the shift mean in reality? It responds to the
modern consumer’s needs and desires for foods that not only
procure enjoyment but, at the same time, offer nutritionally
proven health benefits at all stages and ages of life. Health and
enjoyment are the ingredients of wellness and well-being.
The cumulative knowledge is applied in focused research
projects so the resulting innovations reflect real business needs
in the strategic context of health and wellness.
Innovations in nutrition research target specific health benefits
through foods. Six consumer health benefit areas have been
defined: growth and development, protection, gut health,
performance and beauty, weight control, and healthy ageing.
These are outlined in greater detail in the section describing
nutrition research.
Achieving health and wellness through foods is a challenge
and an adventure. It extends the boundaries of consumer
expectations and satisfaction beyond the classical sensory
experience. But one rule stands out: today’s knowledge provides
the base for tomorrow’s innovations.

A visionary strategy to build a knowledge base

Few areas of research are as complex as food research. Food
demands a multidisciplinary approach utilising the physical,
biological, medical and social sciences. The Nestlé Research
Center is among the world leaders in research on food
and nutrition because Nestlé has constantly invested for the
future to remain at the leading edge in the key scientific
disciplines, conscious that the return on investment might
not be immediate.
Nestlé has always held that good food is the main source
of health. As knowledge on food has progressed, so has the
concept of what is good food. At first, food was good if it was
safe. Then, it was good if it also provided all the basic nutrients
to prevent nutritional deficiency. Now, food is good when it
provides added health benefits through specific physiological
functionalities, while still fulfilling the basic needs for safety
and nutritional adequacy. But in addition, food products must
also look and taste good and offer convenience of use for
the consumer.
Research on food demands not only a highly qualified staff –
the Nestlé Research Center has 300 scientists, many of whom
are international experts in their fields – but also a balance
between basic knowledge-building research and applied
research. For specific areas of expertise or analytical techniques
not available in-house, Nestlé scientists work with external
institutes, so possibilities for research are virtually limitless.

From knowledge to innovation

Concrete innovations depend on applying knowledge.
Taking all the multidisciplinary competences together, the
potential for innovation at the Nestlé Research Center
is enormous.

3
We transform science
into consumer benefits
“One of our aims is to transform scientific results into something
meaningful for the consumers. They want products that will taste
good and promote physical and mental health and wellness”
Peter van Bladeren Head of the Nestlé Research Center
What was your judgment of the Nestlé Research Center
when you joined?
Right from my first contact with the scientists here, I was
impressed with the breadth and depth of their research.
I immediately saw the Nestlé Research Center as a world leader
in food and nutritional sciences. Everything I have seen since
convinces me I was right.

How is research in Nestlé evolving?

We have seen a major evolution in both the food and nutritional
sciences. Food science now looks beyond individual food
constituents to the structures of whole food systems.
Food structures depend on interactions between food
constituents at a molecular level. They determine sensory
properties like creaminess or crispness, how flavour is released
from foods in the mouth and how nutrients are carried through
the digestive system and made available to the body.
Our approach to nutritional science is also changing quickly
from the “bookkeeping” of nutrients in products to a concept
based on nutritional value rather than simply nutrient content.
We are also living through an exciting evolution in identifying
novel nutrient systems and demonstrating their specific
health benefits. Using new bio-analytical techniques, we now
bring together food and nutritional sciences in studies of
food/consumer interactions. Peter van Bladeren has been head of the Nestlé Research Center
Our eight departments each provide specialised technologies since 2002. He is a leading scientist in the fields of toxicology
but our projects are more and more inter-departmental. This is and biotransformation. Before he joined Nestlé, he was Director
a key change. In fact, the multidisciplinary approach is the only of TNO Nutrition and Food Research Institute in The Netherlands,
way to solve the complex scientific questions we are faced with. and has a distinguished academic career

What are the consequences for the Nestlé Research Center

of the strategy to transform Nestlé into a trusted nutrition,
health and wellness company?
The Nestlé Research Center is essential for this move. It means
looking beyond the classical concept of foods as a source of
nutritional adequacy to foods with added value in the form
of health benefits. To identify and prove health benefits and make
specific health claims for products, you need research to find
and support them. The Nestlé Research Center is increasingly
becoming the center for these competencies. So far, we have
successfully focussed on promising new trends in science
to deliver more. Now, we are translating these into consumer
benefits.

4
Who defines the consumer health benefits to be targeted Nestlé has built up an enormous pool of knowledge in research
as research goals? over the past 100 years. In the new, forward-looking world you
For the company as a whole, we have defined global health describe, is this still of any use?
benefit areas. Individualised nutrition is one of these. But there Every scientist entering the Nestlé Research Center should
are also more specific goals like healthy ageing, reinforcing the look on this as their heritage. We owe it to our predecessors
immune system, digestive efficiency, growth. This is a major to look back and benefit from their work. They were often asking
change that will affect all Nestlé product sectors and all markets. the right questions, but did not have the technologies to answer
Selling a beef cube for its flavour and convenience is one thing. them. Now we do, and many of the questions are just as valid
Selling it for its health benefits is a totally different story. today as they were in the past. Even for new questions,
The move towards a nutrition, health and wellness company somebody may already have found the answer in a piece of
implies the need, across all business sectors and markets, research which, at the time, was academic. Some of our new
for a strong science base to understand and communicate to active ingredients recently introduced into Nestlé products for
clients and consumers the health benefits of our products. their specific health benefits come from research performed
It is essentially a question of integrating science more effectively twenty years ago. But the discoveries were not “timely” in the
into the teaching and training programmes of the company. evolution of the company’s business goals.
I believe that the Nestlé Research Center today, partly
What activities in the Nestlé Research Center have been because of its past, is a major asset for the company. If it did
reinforced, and why? not exist, it would take ten or twenty years to create it,
Apart from nutrition, the main area is in food/consumer and much longer for it to generate the competitive edge it
interactions. This looks into the physiological and neuronal now offers.
mechanisms of food perception. For the future, we believe
molecular biology and bioanalytics will help us move towards
personalised nutrition by identifying biomarkers of risk factors
in individual subjects for health conditions like obesity, diabetes
or cardiovascular problems. This opens the way to proposing
foods that act preventively long before clinical symptoms begin
to show up. For some individual consumers, this will mean
finding ways to fill gaps in their own specific nutrient demands.
In nutrition, we will always be dealing with the complexity of
food with its many components.
Food safety now focuses on early-warning, detecting new
potential risks in the food supply chain and dealing with problems
before they arise. Health and wellness are multidimensional,
eliminating risks on the one side and providing new benefits
on the other.
And we must not forget the strengthening of our research
in pet foods after Nestlé’s acquisition of the Ralston-Purina
Company in the USA. Nutritionally speaking, pets are very
similar to humans, so they can now benefit from over fifty years
research in Nestlé on human nutrition.

5
6
Attitude, activity
and food: the
base for health
and wellness

Why research for health and wellness?

Good food is the major source of health throughout life.
It must not only provide the appropriate nutrients, but present
them in a form that ensures their efficient uptake into the body.
So research must ask how efficiently different foods are
digested and how much of the essential nutrients are absorbed,
in addition to understanding how food is experienced through
the five senses. Earlier food research led to identifying and
eliminating anti-nutritional factors in foods that impeded
nutrient absorption, such as phytic acid in cereals that blocks
iron absorption. Today’s research in food science looks at
structuring foods and ingredients at a molecular level to
optimise nutrient delivery, so the nutrients declared on the
package can offer their full health benefits in the body.
Any food when consumed enters into contact with millions
of active receptors in the body, either as whole food
components or as molecules. The resulting interactions can
lead to sensations of pleasure or displeasure, or, in the longer
term, to good health or food-related health problems.
Seen from the angle of the consumer, foods operate in three
timeframes. In the short term comes sensory pleasure. Do we
like it or not? In the medium term comes comfort and feeling
well. Do we feel satiated and replete, or does it give us
heartburn or indigestion? And in the long term comes basic
health, the basis of wellness and – ultimately – well-being.

Nutrition and food safety, the two sides of the coin

Nutrition and food safety are both intimately linked to health
and wellness. Broadly speaking, nutrition research in Nestlé
seeks to optimise those properties of foods that have a positive
effect, while food safety research seeks to minimise or exclude
those with a negative effect.
Although this relationship between nutrition and safety is
generally true, the real situation is more complex. Any two
individual consumers may experience very different sensations
and different health consequences when consuming the same
food. Consider lactose intolerance, for example. Most individuals
in a traditional milk-consuming population like Switzerland can
digest lactose because the lactase enzyme permitting digestion
is synthesised in the body throughout life. However, many
individuals from parts of the world where milk is not a traditional
part of the diet, like South-East Asia, lose the ability to digest
lactose because their ability to synthesise lactase stops during
childhood. So in the discussion of nutrition and food safety,
the precise profiles of positive and negative elements may differ
from one individual to another.

7
Unlocking the nutrition puzzle
Research can reveal which specific components in food have
a positive effect on health and which may have negative effects.
Nestlé foods can be designed using this knowledge

8
Nutrition and changing expectations
Expectations for safe, healthy, tasty food
fall into two categories. The first concerns
the fundamental qualities of safety and
nutritional adequacy in all foods to meet
basic physiological needs. The second is
more product-specific, and concerns flavour,
texture, convenience or added health
and wellness value – the optional qualities
that reflect the conscious consumer
desires that determine food choice.
Nutrition research in Nestlé today
addresses both categories. For example,
babies and young infants need specific
proteins and fats that give the right
balance of amino acids and essential
fatty acids for growth and development.
And all consumers need foods that
build strong bones to offset the risk of
osteoporosis in later life. But we must
also be aware of the conscious desire for
products that may improve personal
appearance and self-image by offering
a better skin quality or body shape.
Lifestyle and environment have changed
markedly over the past decades, placing
new demands on diet and metabolism.
Our modern society has produced many
health benefits. But it has also seen
an increase in diabetes, obesity and
cardiovascular problems: the metabolic
disorders prevalent in urban civilisations.
For health, the right balance between
physical activities and food intake is very
important, and this balance depends
heavily on personal attitude. Research
reveals which specific components in
food have a positive effect on health
conditions, and which may have a negative
effect. Nestlé foods can be designed
accordingly. This influences not only new
products, but also existing products
where recipes are constantly updated
in line with state-of-the-art knowledge
in nutritional science.
9
Identifying nutritional needs and
food habits
In identifying and fulfilling needs through
foods, Nestlé Research has an extensive
knowledge base coming from several
decades of clinical trials on nutrient
metabolism and physiological response.
This is constantly being supplemented
by new research.
To understand the needs of the
consumer, research in Nestlé is necessarily
global. A recent example is a seven-year
clinical assessment run jointly with three
leading Chinese universities, the Institute
of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Beijing,
the Jiaotong University, Xian, and the
Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical
Sciences, on the energy requirements
of babies and young children in rural
and urban China. The results from these
studies were used for revising the
Recommended Daily Allowances of
nutrients (RDA) for infants in China.
Research also charts the food habits of
sub-groups within a population, as in the
survey of what foods adolescents in
Switzerland consume. Contrary to
expectations, results revealed that Swiss
adolescents stick remarkably closely
to the eating patterns they learn as
young children. This analysis by Nestlé
scientists is now an official World Health
Organisation publication entitled
Habitudes alimentaires d’un groupe
d’adolescents suisses (Food habits of
a group of Swiss adolescents).
Infant nutrition: ensuring
a good start in life
Nestlé firmly believes that
mothers’ milk is the best food
for babies. However some
mothers cannot, or choose
not to breastfeed and they
need an appropriate substitute.
This is why Nestlé specialists
in infant nutrition conduct
extensive research with
leading paediatricians and
obstetricians in hospitals and
clinics worldwide, in order
to develop a wide range of
starter formulas, follow-up
formulas and highly
sophisticated formulations
for babies with special
medical needs to give a good
start in life.
Starting from sweet whey,
research led to an innovative
process to predigest the
potentially allergenic milk
protein ß-lactoglobulin, giving
a hypoallergenic infant
formula that strongly reduces
allergy development.
New infant formulas also aim
to approach ever more closely
the composition and
functionality of human milk
in essential amino and fatty
acids, as well as in other key
nutrients like minerals and
oligoelements.
10
Sitting in her ground floor of macro- and micronutrients.
office at the Nestlé Research One example is protein
Center, Marie-Claire Fichot quality. Cow’s milk has a low
speaks softly, and carefully level of one of the amino
weighs each remark. But as acids essential for babies so,
research coordinator for infant to have enough of this
products, she also speaks essential component, the total
passionately about the level of cow’s milk protein
challenges infant nutrition would have to be increased
creates for her and her teams in formulas. By research on
of scientists. the fractionation of cow’s
“Breast milk is the gold milk, we were able to develop
Thr
standard, breast is always new formulations that better
200
Arg Cys best. We still don’t know all match both the protein quality
150
the benefits it provides. and quantity of breast milk.
His
100
Met
All the time we discover new “We also have to get ever
50 molecules that we have to closer to the physiological
Lys 0 Ile
understand. But that’s biology. functionality of breast milk.
As soon as you improve the This is another challenge!
analytic tools you discover To prove the benefits of our
Trp Leu new molecules. innovative concepts, clinical
“There are three key areas trials are systematically
Phe Val for our work today. The first carried out with the target
Tyr
alpha- LA en riche d 1. 8 g/10 0 kcal
is prevention of allergy. population showing, for
Breastmil k 1. 6 g/10 0 kcal Nestlé was the first company example, protection against
to have a hypoallergenic infections or prevention of
(Top) ß-lactoglobulin, one of the formula. This is important allergy. These and other
main allergens in cow’s milk because, we are seeing a benefits of breast milk are
(Above) Comparative amino acid steady rise in allergies all over our targets.”
profiles: human milk (red dots) the world. The second area
and infant formula (blue dots) is probiotics. We still have
a lot of work to do in order
to better understand the role
of gut flora for the baby.
The third area is growth and
weight management.
“Breast milk is an excellent
reference point for us and so
we try to equal its nutritional
functionality in our work.
The first challenge is to try to
copy breast milk composition.
New molecules are regularly
identified in breast milk and
this implies new research to
see how infant products can
match this composition.
This is sometimes difficult.
“Cow’s milk, which is the
basis of most infant formulas,
displays a different balance
“Infant formulas must work
towards the highest standard
breast milk“ Marie-Claire Fichot
Infant Nutrition Coordinator

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The research behind
a passion for chocolate
Chocolate has a long-standing
reputation as a source of
pleasure and well-being.
The pleasure of chocolate
comes partly from the rich
flavour and smooth texture.
The fresh cocoa bean is bland.
Flavour and aroma are
developed by fermenting and
roasting to create a flavour
matrix of over 300 compounds.
Chocolate is not as bad
as some people think. Eaten
in moderation, the fat in
chocolate, although it is
saturated, neither raises nor
lowers our blood cholesterol.
Chocolate also supplies
polyphenols, powerful anti-
oxidants with a significant
cardio-protector effect.
Polyphenols prevent LDL
oxidation and, as such, can
limit cellular cholesterol levels.
They are efficiently absorbed
into the body after eating
chocolate.
12
Different crystalline structures
of the fat in chocolate
Emma Pickford started
working for Nestlé six years
ago as a nutritionist dealing
with chocolate, biscuit and
sugar confectionary in York.
When she joined the Nestlé
Research Center slightly over
two years ago, chocolate
remained key to her interest.
“I eat chocolate every single
day,” she says.
“Chocolate is a uniquely
attractive substance that has
an almost universal appeal.
It is frequently reported to
be one of the most craved
foods in the western world
and there are many theories
as to why. The most plausible
explanation lies in its sensory
characteristics.
“A unique combination of
the complex aroma, the rich
taste and the smooth texture,
along with a fat that melts
close to body temperature
makes it unlike any other food.
“Chocolate is very
interesting from a scientific
point of view. You’re mixing
very basic ingredients
together and yet you come up
with this extraordinary food.
It’s perceived as this
‘unhealthy’ food that tastes
really good. But we can show
that in moderation, there
can be real nutritional value.
“The potential health
benefits of chocolate are due
to the naturally occurring
flavonoids, or antioxidants,
that it contains. If you think
of life and health as a battle
against being attacked by
oxygen and becoming rancid,
cocoa flavonoids have the
potential to interfere with
disease processes that
naturally occur in the body as
we get older, helping to reduce
damaging effects of oxygen
that our cells experience.
“Cocoa flavonoids are
thought to be particularly
useful in protecting our body
during the steps that lead up
to heart disease. They have
been shown to have an
antioxidant activity in reducing
the tendency for LDL (bad)
cholesterol to oxidize. This is
one of the first events that
might lead to a plaque forming
in the wall of an artery.
Flavonoids from cocoa also
help to reduce the activity
of platelets (blood cells) and
decrease the likelihood that
they ’clump’ together in blood
vessels.
“You could have a relatively
small serving of dark chocolate
and it would provide you with
quite a significant serving
of antioxidants. But we would
never recommend that you
get your antioxidants just from
chocolate. It can be one of
the sources, however.
“From a nutritional point
of view, chocolate, like every
other food, is neither good nor
bad per se. When consumed
as part of a varied, balanced
diet, it can be both a source
of nutrients, including cocoa
antioxidants, and a source
of pleasure due to its unique
sensory characteristics.”
“The potential health benefits
of chocolate are due to the
naturally occuring antioxidants
that it contains“ Emma Pickford
Nutritionist-R&D Communication

13
Towards a personal nutrition
The exciting new frontier of nutrition research involves
the investigation of how a person’s specific genome
affects food choice and the exact interaction of a food
or ingredient at the individual level

14
Consumer health benefit areas
Research on nutrition as a means to
achieve health and wellness focuses
on six consumer health benefit areas:
1. Research covers the processes of
growth and development throughout
life, especially in early infancy and
childhood. It looks beyond the balance
of essential nutrients in infant formulas
and complementary foods to optimising
all aspects of food components, from
composition to structure and function.
2. Work at Nestlé is discovering how
food components, like probiotic bacteria,
protect the digestive system against
pathogenic infections, support the
functions of the immune system, and
contribute to protecting consumers
against food allergies.
3. Other research focuses on the intestine
itself to help understand how foods can
impart freedom from gastrointestinal
discomfort and pain, including stomach
ulcers. Gastric infections affect some
70% of the world’s population and work
at the Nestlé Research Center has found
food ingredients that can help improve
this major health problem. Research
is also seeking to prevent the problems
of colic pains suffered by a large number
of infants.
4. Researchers are investigating foods
for performance and beauty. Research
is identifying value-added ingredients
and foods to promote skin quality
and enhance performance of active
consumers in sports and recreation.
5. Nestlé scientists are studying weight
control to help understand and improve
the mechanisms of weight management
and prevent the health problems that
result as a consequence of excess weight.
This research area is developing new
weight management solutions in the
shape of ingredients and food products.
6. Eating a balanced and nutritious diet
is important at every stage of life, but
particularly during ageing. So the final
area of concentration for Nestlé research
in nutrition and health is the increasing
elderly population of the world.
15
Research is providing the knowledge So the question regarding food and
needed for the elderly to achieve and health is: what is the influence of these
find the same delight in their lives as individual genetics on individual food
when they were young. needs? Are some consumers genetically
predisposed to develop diabetes, or high
Managing molecules blood pressure, or become obese?
What are the natural molecules present How much in both the positive and
in foods or food ingredients that can negative impacts of foods and
provide these benefits through a specific ingredients on health is genetically the
physiological action? Once scientists can same for all consumers, and how much
identify these molecules, how can we is individual? And if we can find out,
maximise their effect by ensuring that how can we use this? In the biological
they reach the target tissues in the body mechanisms of life, genes encode
and are not simply eliminated through proteins and proteins modify metabolites.
the digestive system? Presenting active Studies on individual metabolite profiles
molecules in an appropriate bioavailable are revealing “early warning” metabolic
form is a question of being able to control signals that predict whether the individual
the physical environment of the molecule consumer is at high risk or low risk of
throughout the operations of food developing a specific food-related
processing, in the food itself and in the complaint later in life.
digestive system, until it reaches its point This presents the possibility to offer
of entry into the body. This research on consumers personalised dietary advice
what are called nutrient delivery systems and food products years before any
is as much a key to the development symptoms appear, to offset the risk for
of products with specific claims as is the as long as possible.
discovery of the active principle.
Individualised nutrition
In scientific research, certain key
discoveries so change the world that
things are never the same again.
One such discovery came 50 years ago,
when James Watson and Francis Crick
revealed the secret of the double helix
structure of DNA.
Both food and its consumer are
biological in nature. Research on DNA
through molecular biology and genetics,
has revolutionised biology, changing
it from a static, descriptive science to
a dynamic, interactive science. This opens
up vast, new frontiers for research on
how the personal DNA gene pool of
a given consumer may affect food choice
and the precise interaction of a food or
ingredient at the individual level.
The world’s population today is the
progeny of multiple cross-cultural
relationships dating back to ancestral
times and mixing genes in successive
generations.
Foods that are
more than foods
In the area of health and
wellness, two worlds
converge: foods and
medicines. Food is a source
of pleasure as well as the
fuel for physical activity. But
today’s consumer is more
aware of the ability of foods
to maintain health and
improve recovery. Hence the
concept of performance
foods or functional foods
which, through the presence
of physiologically active
components, provide a
specific health or wellness
benefit over and above that
expected from consuming
the nutrients present in
a normal diet.
The health benefits of
plants and yoghurts are well
known, so performance foods
are not new. What is new is
that research in nutrition
has begun to look beyond
the presence or absence of
nutrients as such, and to
explore the physiological
functions of many food
components coming from
plants and micro-organisms,
as well as from animal
products like milk. Discoveries
by Nestlé’s nutritionists are
already leading to a new
generation of products with
clinically proven health claims
based on specific bioactive
ingredients.
16
T-helper 1 T-helper 2 Food chemist Bruce German necessary for human growth
came to the Nestlé Research and survival are known.
Center on sabbatical from his Now nutrition research is
professorship at University of turning to understand the
California Davis. Although he various effects of the other
retains his academic post in compounds in foods and how
California, what attracted him they can procure health
Probiotic to the NRC was the challenge benefits. The task of
of shifting nutritional research understanding the health
to the goal of maintaining effects of these non-essential
health and preventing disease. compounds is more complex
“The science of disease is and the science needs to be
comparatively easy at least even more rigorous but results
strategically. You have are already emerging that are
something wrong and the leading to foods with added
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goal is to find it. When you health value.
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do find what is wrong , the “Nutrition will use genomic
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task is to solve it, and the technologies as a knowledge
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stem cell
pharmaceutical industry has base, but that can’t be
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been successful with the enough. I have the same
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model of developing drugs as genome from the day I’m born
common myeloid common lyphoid
progenitor progenitor cures for diagnosed diseases. to the day I die, but that
ells
“Maintaining health, and doesn’t mean I should eat the
ma
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preventing disease however, same throughout my life.
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is a different problem. Understanding metabolism
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Staying healthy means getting should provide better answers
everything right, and if you for guiding diets for the
(Top) Probiotic lactic acid bacteria decide to change one factor to different stages of life and for
reduces incidence of allergy reduce the risk of one disease, different people.
(Above) Different cell types of the you run the risk of making “Ultimately we can
immune system something else worse. personalise foods for health
So neither the problems nor and with foods we have an
the solutions are simple. advantage over drugs, we can
You have to have a very deft also personalise for taste.
approach of looking at all Nestlé will be able to build
aspects of health at the same foods that are simultaneously
time. Furthermore, even when delicious just for me and
we think we have identified healthy just for me.”
a metabolic problem in an
individual that could
eventually lead to disease,
since people are not all the
same, the solutions to
metabolic problems won’t all
be the same.
“Nutrition research created
one of the great bodies of
scientific knowledge by
studying the essential
nutrients and as a result,
all the molecules that are
“Ultimately we can personalise
foods for health and also personalise
for taste“ Bruce German Senior
Scientific Advisor

17
Tackling obesity
and diabetes
Weight gain occurs when
energy intake exceeds energy
used. The human genome has
not changed since Palaeolithic
times. But our environment
and lifestyle have: in general
we eat more food and engage
in less physical activity.
Weight loss improves insulin
resistance as well as blood
pressure and blood lipids.
Low fat diets should reduce
weight, but not if the lower “fat
energy” is compensated by
higher “carbohydrate energy”.
Most weight loss programmes
are disappointing, especially
long term, partly because
lifelong compliance to lifestyle
and diet changes is difficult.
This is where Nestlé can help
consumers take control of their
body weight by making tasty
foods the weight-controlling
choices.
The Nestlé Research Center
is investigating new weight
management solutions.
The work includes human
studies to show the efficacy
of ingredients or products,
as well as a new and important
aspect of obesity research
today, namely to understand
how nutrients affect body
tissues through the regulation
of genes, proteins and
metabolites.
18
(Top) Human immortalised
adipocyte
(Above) Adipocyte dedifferentiation
Hilary Green earned her PhD
in metabolic physiology and
then built a career in clinical
nutrition and the impact of
nutrition on human health.
Hilary joined Nestlé in 2002.
Since then she has worked on
bone health and plant sterols
for cholesterol lowering,
and is now the Product Area
Coordinator for Performance
Nutrition and NRC Coordinator
for Weight Management.
“We’re working on
understanding the genetic
and metabolic differences
between individuals and how
food choices affect them.
Today we can get a single
measure of blood cholesterol,
but that doesn’t explain how
everyone will respond to
a diet or food that is intended
to reduce blood cholesterol.
It would be good to get
instead a metabolic,
biochemical signature that
provides a pattern, rather than
a single indicator, in order
to help consumers choose
a diet appropriate to their
metabolic needs.
“One of our research goals
is to understand body fat.
We believe this holds the key
to understanding body weight
control. Not all fat is the same.
The fat under a baby’s skin is
healthy. But the fat around the
abdomen of adults is far from
healthy. People with excess
abdominal fat are at increased
risk of diabetes, high blood
cholesterol, high blood
pressure and the blocked
coronary arteries that lead to
coronary heart disease.
“We want to understand
what makes the fat under the
skin so different from the fat
around the internal organs
and abdomen, and how diet
influences the way in which
people accumulate excess fat.
For this, we have analysed fat
samples from obese women
entering the Lausanne
University Teaching Hospital
(CHUV) for surgical treatment
of their obesity. We have
discovered which genes are
switched on or off in each
type of fat. We now know that
over 6,000 genes are
differently expressed in the
two types of fat.
“And importantly, many of
these differences help to
explain why the fat around the
internal organs and abdomen
is associated with chronic
metabolic diseases.
“All of this work isn’t just
about weight control. It’s also
about a healthy diet. We should
be very concerned about
preventing weight gain as well
as encouraging weight loss
in people who are overweight.
Enhancing satiety can help
people to feel better while
eating less. Foods that give
a slower rise in blood glucose
should make you feel satiated
for longer. Perhaps we can
do that through novel fibres
in foods.”
“Not all body fat is the same“
Hilary Green Weight
Management Coordinator

19
Beauty from inside
Nutrients from food build
and maintain all body tissues,
including the skin. The classical
approach to skin beauty
products – dating to well before
Cleopatra bathed in asses’
milk – has been through
ointments, creams and oils
carrying active ingredients,
massaged into the skin.
The union between Nestlé,
bringing expertise in nutrition,
and L’Oréal, bringing expertise
in skin care, has led to an
exciting alternative: eating your
way to skin and hair beauty
through active ingredients
in food supplements. The first
result of this joint venture is
Innéov’s Fermeté, a product
that restores skin elasticity
in aging. The loss of elasticity
results in wrinkles and other
skin effects. Inneov Fermeté
contains Lacto-lycopene®.
Lycopene is a naturally
occurring molecule found in
tomatoes. In its pure form,
it crystallises and is insoluble
so, if ingested, it passes
through the digestive system
without being absorbed.
But Nestlé scientists found
a way to ensure its absorption:
disperse lycopene as
individual molecules on dried
milk particles. This ensures
a high efficiency of absorption
and allows the lycopene to
reach the skin from the inside.
20
(Top) Young skin structure
(Above) Aged skin structure
The stylish Isabelle Bureau-
Franz is the Nestlé Research
Coordinator for Innéov, the
joint venture between Nestlé
and L’Oréal. In addition to the
usual challenge of bringing
together scientific innovation
and business requirements,
her task also demands knitting
together the research of
nutrition scientists at Nestlé
with the skin and hair
biologists at L’Oréal.
“The Nestlé-L’Oréal joint
venture has been operating
for two years and we already
have two products in the
market, but the science started
even earlier. It takes at
least three years of science
to launch a nutritional
supplement with proven
skin or hair benefits.
“There is a lot of work
needed to understand the
difference between a nutrient
and an ingredient and what
happens to that nutrient in the
body. L’Oréal was very used
to studying what happens
when something is applied
to the skin or hair, but when
you take something orally
it’s very different.
“One of the key problems
we looked at was that,
with ageing, and around
menopause, the skin becomes
drier, thinner, less dense and
less tight. It’s about skin
health and beauty, not
pathologies, which are the
province of drugs. That’s
what led to our first product,
Innéov Fermeté. We knew
that lycopene is a powerful
antioxidant and had been
shown to have beneficial
effects in helping to prevent
degenerative diseases linked
to the ageing process.
In the form of lactolycopene,
and associated with
isoflavones and vitamin C at
nutritional doses, it has been
shown to have a beneficial
effect on the skin. Isoflavones
are also natural substances,
known as phytohormones
because of their structural
analogies with estrogens.
They are mainly extracted
from soy.
“In skin models, L’Oréal
scientists have shown
that this original nutrient
combination leads to
a significant increase of
hyaluronic acid and collagen
synthesis, which are both key
parameters involved in skin
firmness and density.
“In postmenopausal women,
daily oral administration of
this nutrient combination
modifies the skin physiology,
giving an anti-ageing benefit
starting after three months.
This evolution is significantly
demonstrated by skin
biophysical evaluation, and
also by the women’s self-
assessment.
“Skin density, measured
by ultrasound scanning,
is significantly better in women
taking the lactolycopene/
isoflavone/vitamin C nutrient
in a pill form compared to
a placebo; the visco-elasticity
properties of the skin are
improved. In addition, after
six months of taking the
product, skin replicas show
that the redensifying effect
in the subcutaneous layer
translates into a smoothing
effect at the skin surface.”
“We are pioneers in the
development of nutricosmetics”
Isabelle Bureau-Franz Research
Coordinator for Innéov

21
Why we choose our foods
Food choice is personal, influenced by tradition and culture,
but also by our personal database of food-related smells,
tastes, textures, sounds and colours, built from the earliest
moments of life

22
Mechanisms of food choice
Concentrating on health benefits does
not mean that Nestlé Research is less
active in the more traditional areas of the
sensory properties of foods, such as
flavour, texture and appearance. The final
product for the consumer is a food or
a drink and no food product, however
nutritious, has been successful unless
it tastes good and looks good. Behind the
health benefits, the sensorial aspects of
food determine specific food choices.
So research addresses the question of what
are the physiological and psychological
mechanisms underlying food choice.
Sensory experiences begin early in life.
Even in-utero, babies are reported to hear
sounds and to “taste” certain foods eaten
by the mother and transmitted through
the placenta. In the first few weeks of life,
young babies generally like sweet tastes.
But they have much less ability to detect
bitter taste than they will have a few
years later. In young children, all five
senses develop. Colours and shapes of
foods begin to be interesting, as well as
how they taste and smell, and how
smooth or rough they feel in the hand
and in the mouth. Then the conscious
recognition of the sounds foods make
starts to develop. Sounds created in the
mouth go directly to the ear from the
buccal cavity: the crispness of a fresh
apple, the crunchiness of a Smartie,
the silence of a yoghurt.
During these early years, all children
build up a personal database of food-
related smells, tastes, textures, sounds
and colours which they carry through
into later life, adding new data to their
own individual sensory memory as the
menu becomes more varied and they live
new sensory experiences. But most
important for this discussion, they learn
to say “yes” or “no” when presented
with certain foods and may often say
“no” to foods they have never seen before.
This is the beginning of food choice,
and more nuanced food preferences
where an individual says, “I like all of these
foods, but this one is my favourite.”
23
When confronted with a new food,
specific molecules and structures it
contains send a myriad of signals to the
brain which compares them with what is
already registered in the personal sensory
database, and the brain immediately
analyses this mass of information to
decide “I like it” or “I don’t like it”. This is
surely one of the marvels of life.
Food choice is personal, influenced by
external impulses linked to tradition and
culture. Cross-cultural curiosity may
influence food choice through the desire
to try new tastes and culinary experiences,
or may exclude novelty to stay with
what is familiar. Tastes, smells and
appearances are key to accepting a food
or not. Further, the sensation of satiety
determines how much of the food will be
eaten. Research on satiety and on how
the signals of having eaten enough are
triggered will help us better to understand
and react to the epidemic of obesity.
Earlier generations, which did not
have today’s sophisticated tests for food
safety, depended on using natural
biosensors – the receptors involved in
the five senses of taste, smell, touch,
sight and hearing – to decide whether
a food was safe or not. The senses were
a matter of survival. Bitter and sour tastes
cause aversive, avoidance reactions.
Bitter, in particular, is a warning signal:
don’t eat this. Today, this particular aspect
of survival has become the responsibility
of the food industry, through the
guarantee of safe foods, and Nestlé
embraces this as a principle.
Capturing the captivating
aroma of coffee
Rich aroma and flavour are
essential to the pleasure of
drinking a good cup of coffee.
Flavour research has shown
the extreme complexity and
sensitivity of coffee aroma,
which is made up of more
than 1,000 individual
substances. The aroma is at
its most complete and best
immediately after the coffee
is roasted. Continuous R&D
activity since the 1940s
has aimed at optimising all
the various steps in Nescafé
production to maximise
conservation of both aroma
and taste.
The quality of a cup of coffee
actually starts at the plantation.
Thorough understanding
of the various steps that lead
from the coffee bean to the
final beverage is essential
to preserve optimally all the
richness. Together with
modern analytical techniques
combining sensory and
instrumental measurements,
this in-depth understanding
ensures that today’s Nescafé
gives the full pleasure of
a freshly brewed cup of roast
and ground coffee.
Nestlé R&D has also created
Nespresso, which offers
sophistication and elegance
as well as a range of delicate
flavours and aromas for the
connoisseur.
24
Different coffee blends and roasting
conditions give specific aroma
landscapes.
(Top) Nespresso Capriccio
(Above) Nespresso Arpeggio
When we interview Johannes
le Coutre he expresses vivid
enthusiasm for the emerging
field of flavour perception on
the molecular level. Le Coutre
joined Nestlé Research Center
in 2000 from his position
as a biophysicist/biochemist
research associate at the
University of California
Los Angeles (UCLA). Taste
receptors had recently been
discovered, and Nestlé
recruited le Coutre to lead
their efforts in the field.
“For the detection of aroma,
volatile odorants are captured
by the mucus covering the
olfactory epithelium in the nose.
Subsequently the volatiles
bind to specific receptors in
the microvilli of olfactory
receptor neurons to initiate
a complex signal transduction
chain, which eventually
results in neural stimulation.
To decipher complex aromas,
the nose has hundreds of
different olfactory receptors,
which are able to detect a wide
range of molecules. After
stimulation of the receptors
in the nose a complex odour
map is generated in cortical
brain areas to unleash the
perception of aroma to our
conscious mind.
“Taste and olfactory
receptors are like locks, and
the taste molecule is the key
that unlocks them. Moreover,
via the retronasal pathway we
always stimulate our olfactory
system when eating food.
Therefore, if you block your
sense of smell with a nose-
clip, you can’t distinguish
between apple and onion
gratings in your mouth.
So when we say flavour, we
really mean taste and aroma.
“Flavour detection requires,
in addition, the gustatory
system in the mouth. Tasting,
in contrast to olfaction, is
categorised into five different
basic modalities: sweet, salty,
sour, bitter and umami (the
savoury taste of monosodium
glutamate). Within the taste
buds, specialised cells that
often express only one
specific receptor type to bind
a certain ligand, convert
stimulation into a neural signal.
“Today we know that
specialised cortical centers in
the brain integrate gustatory,
olfactory and even irritant and
auditory inputs to generate
multi-dimensional perceptions
of flavour.
“There’s still so much we
don’t understand, however.
Taste receptors have been
discovered throughout the
gastrointestinal tract, for
instance. What are they doing?
And the next challenge for
us is appetite and perception
physiology. What are the
molecular signals for appetite
and satiety? We hope to find
the parameters that control
food uptake. Food/consumer
interaction is so complex.
It operates on molecular,
psychological, sensorial and
social levels.”
“The use of molecular and
cellular life sciences will help
us to build novel pathways to
pleasure“ Johannes le Coutre
Leader of Appetite & Perception
Physiology Group

25
A new direction for food research
How do you keep a biscuit crisp, cappuccino foamy or create
the unctuous texture of ice cream? The new combination
science approach to food research helps provide the answers

26
A new challenge for food research
While nutrition research investigates
what happens to food in the body once
it is consumed, food research looks at the
product on the plate. Nestlé’s products
must deliver the pleasure of sensory
enjoyment and the health and wellness
benefits of nutrition at the same time.
For decades, food research was a so-
called separation science, concentrating
on isolating, identifying and cataloguing
the large numbers of individual molecules
found in foods and ingredients. But when
a consumer eats a food product, he or
she consumes a food system generated
by the interactions at a molecular level of
the many components present. Any good
food is much more than the simple sum
of its parts.
For Nestlé to manufacture the “good
foods” that give “good life”, Nestlé’s food
scientists have to understand and make
use of these interactions. Food research
has shifted from an analytical separation
science to a combination science,
assembling the natural building blocks
of foods: air, water, proteins, lipids,
carbohydrates, fibres, minerals, trace
elements, vitamins and other bioactive
ingredients, using molecular architecture
to generate improved or new food or
ingredient structures and functionalities.
An example of structural engineering
in foods is provided by the new Nestlé
Foam Booster, which generates the
foam that crowns the new Cappuccino
products. The components are basic food
materials that are well known in the
food industry; the secret lies in how they
are combined and processed.
Building food structures demands
knowledge of food materials, particle
physics, colloidal and nano-systems.
But it also requires an understanding
of what happens to these food materials
during mechanical processing like
beating or grinding and biological
processing like fermentation using yeasts,
moulds and bacteria.
Getting structures right is as much a key
to good sensory properties as is the
27
nature of the ingredients chosen, and
depends on precise processing conditions.
Typical problems include: how to keep
a wafer or biscuit crisp, how to generate
the unctuous texture of ice cream,
or how to make sure the consumer gets
the full benefit of a particular flavour.
But problems also extend to how to make
sure that powdered products reconstitute
easily in water, run freely in dispensing
machines and do not give lumps during
storage. And since foods are materials
of biological origin, bio-guided processes
will have a major impact in developing
softer technologies.
In the context of health benefits linked
to specific bioactive ingredients, food
structures have two major roles. The first
is in stabilising sensitive ingredients to
ensure that they retain their physiological
effect when incorporated into foods.
This may be by micro-encapsulation,
which isolates them from the food matrix
but makes them available to the body
once the food is consumed. The second
is in ensuring that active ingredients
reach the target tissues, and this may
mean protecting the ingredient from
stomach acidity so that it is released only
in the intestine.
These technologies approach those
used in the pharmaceutical industry, but
in Nestlé the protecting materials used
are all of food origin. Examples are casein
micelles from milk, and maltodextrins
which are polysaccharides from plants.
Exploring the wonders
of food structures
Nestlé has a long history of
studying food structures at
a macromolecular level, and of
using the knowledge to direct
food product development.
Proteins, carbohydrates and
fats, with air and water, are
the main building blocks of
food structures. Various three-
dimensional combinations
give different food textures,
like the crispness of fresh
baked wafer, the smoothness
of an ice cream, the
sponginess of bread, the
firmness of cappuccino foam,
or the crunchiness of roasted
nuts. In fact, the structure
largely defines the product,
including its appearance,
its texture, its flavour and its
nutrient availability in the
digestive system.
In designing food
manufacturing processes,
Nestlé scientists and
technologists must ask four
main questions regarding
food structure. How do we
make it? How do we keep it?
How does it break down
when consumed? And, for
powdered products like
instant coffee or milk
powders, how easy is it to
reconstitute? Food structure
is crucial to the performance
of a food or drink. Getting it
right is one of Nestlé’s secrets
in superior product quality.
28
(Top) Lycopene cristals from
tomatoes
(Above) Hexosom particles made
out of monoglycerides
Heribert Watzke is irrepressible.
In the midst of explaining
some scientific point, he can’t
restrain himself from springing
over to his computer to show
a graphic animation of
molecular structures in
cappuccino foam. He insists
on doodling diagrams to
explain the direction of food
science research. He joined
the Nestlé Research Center
eleven years ago, from an
academic career as a colloid
scientist at the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology (ETH).
He was brought in to
understand food from
a structural point of view.
He now calls himself
a nanoscientist.
“I’m very interested in
extending the functionality
of food. You eat food because
you’re hungry or you like
something. But food can
have many more functions
and fulfil more needs. It can
be for feeling good or for
performance.
“The difficulty with food
is that we’re always doing
something new, but it has
to be the same. We’re
understandably very
traditional about how we
view our food.
“Classical food research
was product centred and
commodity driven. The goal
was for the product to match
expectations. We’re moving,
however, to a world where
food research is consumer
centred and consumer benefit
driven. We start with delight,
health and performance and
our understanding of what
creates that, and then we
derive a product that delivers
those benefits.
“But this isn’t easy.
Nutritionists have a whole
catalogue of molecules that
they know work, but the
difficulty is finding a way to
make them bioavailable in
a food product. It also involves
processes. How can you
optimise production processes
so you don’t lose, for example,
vitamins?
“I’m very excited now about
what nanotechnology and
nanoscience means for food.
Nanotech offers us the
promise of enabling health
effects through controlled
bioavailability, and better
understanding of raw
materials as bionano-
technological systems.
“But you can’t make
a simple technology transfer
with food. What Intel is doing
with nanotech, for example,
just doesn’t transfer to food.
I’m convinced that with
food you can find out more
about nanotech than from
semiconductors. After all,
nature is the ultimate
nanotechnologist.”
“With food you can find out
more about nanotech than
from semiconductors”
Heribert Watzke Head of
Food Science Department

29
Quality from farm to fork
Ensuring global quality and safety in the almost unimaginable
complexity of the food chain requires regular development
of new analytical methods and safety evaluation through risk
assessment

30
Research on food quality and safety What determines food quality?
Increasing globalisation in the food trade, All Nestlé research activities target food
greater consumer expectations for variety quality in its broadest sense, including
and availability of foods, a growing its social and sensory qualities, and
demand for convenient, fresh and healthy nutritional value. In the specific
products with a longer shelf-life, and the terminology of the Nestlé Research
desire for traceability all contribute to the Center, specialists in food quality address
need for constantly adapting approaches the basic qualitative and quantitative
to assure global quality and safety. The questions regarding the composition and
result is a totally integrated “farm to fork” origins of raw materials, ingredients
approach, operating all along the food and finished products. The research
supply chain. involved leads to precise and reproducible
The food chain covers a field of activity analytical methods for quality control
almost unimaginable in its complexity. that are sent out to Nestlé’s regional
It starts with the seed the farmer plants, laboratories and factories worldwide.
and goes through cultivating, harvesting, Any finished product has many quality
processing, preservation, packaging, specifications, technical and sensory,
transport, storage and sale, to cooking that define its density, colour, sweetness,
and final consumption. The food chain shelf-life and nutrient composition,
can involve many partners and be among other aspects. The analytical
affected by external elements like the methods developed in the Nestlé
weather, as well as by farming, trade and Research Center provide factories with
industrial practices. But most specific the tools to check that they are meeting
problems are the same wherever the these specifications in day-to-day
location or whatever the environment. production in order to meet consumer
The differences are a question of degree satisfaction and safety every day.
rather than substance.
To emphasise the importance attached
to this activity, a quarter of the staff of
the Nestlé Research Center is involved at
the heart of Nestlé’s worldwide quality
and safety network. This provides a
center of scientific competencies, with
close links to markets. The Nestlé
Research Center works in two main
areas: development of analytical methods
and safety evaluation by risk assessment.
In addition to longer-term projects, the
Center is geared up to react instantly
when safety issues arise – in a factory
or through a public food scare – as an
integral part of the company’s
commitment to the Nestlé Seal of Quality
found on all Nestlé products. The Seal
of Quality guarantees the compliance of
Nestlé products to both safety and quality
standards, and represents a true bond
of trust between the company and its
consumers.

31
Measuring quality
Analytical methods impact
on much more than the
finished product. They start
on the farm or plantation by
identifying the origins of raw
materials, allowing for
traceability. When Nestlé
buys raw materials – fruits,
vegetables, cereals, spices,
meat, fish – the supplier
guarantees that these
conform to a predefined set
of quality specifications.
Even for regular and trusted
suppliers, all raw materials
entering any factory are tested
with standard procedures
to confirm that quality
specifications are met.
External factors like storage
or transport conditions,
or human errors like sending
the wrong material can
influence quality on reception,
so nothing is left to chance.
The second question for
raw materials and ingredients
is authenticity. How can
Nestlé be sure that an olive oil
used as an ingredient is really
a cold-pressed extra-virgin
quality, or that a vanilla
flavouring is 100% natural?
Food quality research
provides the answers through
precise analytical methods
that mean Nestlé can
guarantee the quality of all
finished products and the
compositional information
presented on the label.
32
(Top) Electrophoresis gel of the
proteins from lecithin
(Above) Chromatogram to identify
and quantify sugars in soluble coffee
When Fabiola Dionisi was
doing the research for her PhD
in food chemistry, she spent
six months working at Nestlé
Research Center. Now, after
ten years at NRC, she is in
charge of a research group
for quality and safety.
“We have to look at quality
from the field to the consumer.
Along the whole production
chain a global approach
for ingredient management
is required. This approach
considers the variability and
stability of an ingredient
starting from its manufacturing
at supplier level, during
processing, transport and
storage of the finished product
until consumer consumption.
A special focus is to be given
to the ingredients stated on
the label, to functional claims
and Branded Active Benefits.
“For those ingredients,
a strict quality assurance
system has to be in place
to guarantee consistency
between declared and real
content in the product.
Nestlé Research Center
contributes to this global
approach with an in-depth
knowledge of the ingredients.
This includes knowledge on
the sources of ingredients and
their authenticity and natural
variability, and also takes into
account ingredient stability
before, during and after food
manufacturing.
“This knowledge is
completed by the development
of appropriate analytical
methods to characterise and
measure ingredients in the
raw materials and finished
products.
“Another prime consideration
for us is authenticity. This is
very tricky. Authenticity is
about adulteration. We look
for specific markers that
identify the adulterant.
But it’s rare for the marker to
be specific to the adulterant.
It’s like solving a complex
puzzle. You have to put
together the whole picture
to arrive at an answer.
“The problem of how to
ensure food authenticity can
be tackled by applying
accurate specifications for
raw materials and selecting
suppliers that have a Quality
Assurance System in place.
Compliance with specification
is assured by regular audits
of suppliers, certificates of
analysis and periodic
analytical checks. Hence it
is necessary to identify and
anticipate emerging
authenticity issues, to confirm
authenticity of potentially
adulterated products,
to develop methods adapted
to solve new problems and
to organise or perform
analytical surveys of sensitive
raw materials.
“Looking at quality from
‘farm to fork’ becomes more
and more key for Nestlé with
functional ingredients.
We have to devise ways to
ensure that an ingredient has
the right activity and doesn’t
degrade in production and
that it doesn’t degrade to the
end of shelf life.”
“It’s like solving a complex puzzle.
You have to put together the whole
picture to arrive at an answer“
Fabiola Dionisi Leader of Ingredients
& Authenticity Group

33
Building food safety in from the start
Our food is safer today than ever before, but it also faces
far greater scrutiny. Research must go beyond guaranteeing
safe food products and anticipate new and future safety
concerns that may affect our food

34
Consumers expect safe foods
Food has never been as safe as it is today,
but it has also never been so carefully
scrutinised by consumers and regulatory
agencies. Nestlé Research must not only
have the necessary systems in place to
guarantee safe food products but, more
and more, must anticipate new and future
safety concerns that may affect our food.
Safety must be built into any new ingredient,
product or process right from the start.
The World Health Organisation defines
food safety as the assurance that food will
not cause harm to the consumer when
it is prepared and/or eaten according to
its intended use.
Food safety is itself an element of food
quality. It concerns micro-organisms,
contaminants, allergens, substances
occurring naturally in foods, or generated
in processing and/or storage, or coming
from packaging materials. Legal norms
define the maximum admitted amounts
of such substances in a finished product
to comply with public health and hygiene
standards. Further to this, food safety
research in Nestlé sets internal norms.
Food safety research is a different type
of science to nutrition. Its task is global
and preventive. When it does the job well,
its actions remain invisible and unseen.
It only becomes visible when a safety
issue surfaces. It is globally driven by the
demands of legislation but, beyond this,
Nestlé assumes the ethical responsibility
of applying new knowledge on food
safety even if this goes beyond the pure
legal requirements.
Managing risk
The major problems of food safety involve
micro-organisms, mainly pathogenic
bacteria like Salmonella, Listeria and
E. coli. Analytical methods are required
to detect harmful micro-organisms.
But safety and quality considerations also
enter into the design of manufacturing
lines in the factories, to minimise risk of
bacterial infestation in the process by
identifying the critical points where this
may occur.
35
Other potential hazards come from
environmental contamination, such as
lead from car exhausts deposited on
crops, as well as agricultural chemicals
like herbicides and pesticides or
veterinary drugs. Laboratory methods of
analysis are being miniaturised so that
technicians can use hand-held measuring
devices out in the field to measure
specific contaminants directly on crops
before they are harvested.
Food processing conditions may result
in creating substances that represent a
health risk. By far the majority of changes
in the food occurring during processing –
in a factory as well as in the home kitchen
– are not only harmless, but significantly
increase safety and lead to flavour and
aroma development. But can we be sure
that everything is safe? So this question
is also addressed in food safety research.
Then, there is the safety of new
ingredients. These are subjected to a
battery of tests, and results are submitted
for approval to national and international
food safety authorities before they are used.
No food raw material was ever put on
earth specifically for human consumption.
Natural does not necessarily mean good.
In fact, some natural components in
raw materials are toxic, like the ergot
alkaloids on grain crops or aflatoxins on
peanuts. Methods must be sensitive
enough to detect these in small
quantities on raw materials entering the
factory and in the product because,
unlike living micro-organisms, they are
not all destroyed by processing. Some
of them can, however, be removed by
processing, like cyanogens in the manioc
used to manufacture tapioca.
Safety assessment involves a two-
pronged approach. First, determine the
level at which a substance is toxic.
Then, measure the level of the same
substance in a food. If this is sufficiently
less than the limit for toxicity, the food
is safe because the potential toxin is
present at levels too low to cause harm.
As already stated by Paracelsus “It’s the
dose that makes the poison.”
Bacteriophages as a tool
in food safety
Many bacteria have been used
since ancient times to process
and preserve foods, like the
traditional Lactobacillus
bulgaricus bacteria used in the
Balkans to produce yoghurts
with a reputation for longevity.
Or more recently, the probiotic
lactic acid bacteria discovered
by Nestlé scientists and used in
LC1 fermented milk products,
with a proven health benefit.
However, others are
responsible for food spoilage
or in some cases illness. One
of the key questions for food
safety research in Nestlé is,
“How can we destroy the
pathogenic bacteria in foods,
mainly Listeria, Salmonella
and Escherichia coli, to be
able to guarantee the safety
and keeping quality of Nestlé
products?” Most industrial
processes used to date
depend on heat treatment,
and follow on from
pasteurisation developed at
the end of the 19th century.
But, heat treatments kill the
good bacteria as well as the
bad. So Nestlé food safety
microbiologists are
investigating new methods
to get the best of both worlds,
by selectively destroying the
pathogens while preserving
the health benefits offered by
the good bacteria in Nestlé
products.
36
(Top) Isolated bacteriophages
(Above) Cell attacked by
bacteriophages, results in cell lysis
Following her Master’s used. They are not something
Degree in Microbiology and we create; they are already in
Cellular Biology from Lyon nature and we can use them.
University, France, Catherine “They are natural predators
Boissin has spent the past of bacteria, and each is
14 years in the Nestlé specific for a particular species
Research Center, working in of bacteria. This opens
quality and safety aspects of up new possibilities in food
antimicrobial components. processing, for example,
Although she speaks in using a mixture of
eloquently about her work, bacteriophages targeted to
it becomes evident that the simultaneously deactivate the
more interesting part of undesired Listeria, Salmonella
her day has been interrupted and E. coli.
by our questions. When we “This breakthrough means
leave, she is going to test that pathogenic bacteria
a new cocktail of bacterio- can be eliminated, even in
phages, which looks very products containing healthy,
promising. functional bacteria like
“In some respects, the probiotics. Further, it may
science of bacteriophages is offer the means to use milder
very old. They were first found processing conditions in the
in the 19th century, and we’ve drive for products with
long been aware that they can a more natural freshness.”
exist in dairies. But there they
are bad: they destroy the
lactic acid bacteria needed
for yoghurt fermentation.
“But research in
bacteriophages stopped
because it was far easier to
use antibiotics. Now, because
of rising antibiotic resistance,
it’s important to look for
alternatives. Our colleagues
here at Nestlé Research
Center started work on the
positive side of bacteriophages
about ten years ago, looking
at them as a treatment
against E. coli.
“Two years ago we started
to wonder whether we could
use bacteriophages to
eliminate pathogens. Could
we selectively kill pathogenic
bacteria while leaving the
good bacteria used for their
functionality unharmed?
Bacteriophages are harmless
to humans and are already
“Nature’s own bacteria killers
fight for safety” Catherine Boissin
Research Scientist, Microbiological
Safety Group

37
38
Foods for
the future

Food trends evolve continually. Yet despite intriguing futuristic

concepts and changes in consumer behaviour, the fundamentals
of nutrition do not change.
Each Nestlé food product starts with raw materials, including
coffee, cocoa, milk, soybeans and grain. Nestlé has accumulated
an extensive body of knowledge about the treatment and uses
of each raw material, and how to transform these into attractive
and healthful products, corresponding to consumer expectations.
In the future, consumers can expect more products that make
positive contributions to their health. This does not mean,
however, that food is going to be turned into medicine. Nestlé’s
first probiotic products have already shown that good health
and good taste can go hand in hand.
Future products – the fruits of today’s R&D – are expected to
help prevent diabetes, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and
excess weight. Even brain function will in future be supported
by foods, as our knowledge of the connection between diet and
mental activity becomes clearer. There are many ideas about
future foods and each may have merit. What does seem certain is
that future foods will be designed increasingly to reflect lifestyle
and a search for health and wellness on the part of consumers.
In Nestlé’s drive to meet consumer needs for safe, tasty,
nutritious, convenient and affordable food products, advances
in genome research, giving detailed molecular knowledge
of how foods work in the body, are expected to bring unique
opportunities to improve food performance. Yesterday’s foods
were primarily designed to correct nutrient deficiencies.
Tomorrow’s foods will be targeted to prevent health problems
arising before symptoms show, and to offer the benefit
of a more personalised nutrition for the individual consumer.
Convenience, availability, ease of preparation, low-cost,
variety, freshness, enhanced properties of flavour, taste, aroma
and texture will all play a role. The ultimate achievement will
perhaps be when each individual eats or drinks food and
beverages specifically tailored to fit his or her needs, desires
and expectations.

39
Writing and editing
Nestlé Research Center,
Communication Group
with Ian Horman,
Visualising Complexity,
Blonay, Switzerland
and Lance Knobel, London,
United Kingdom

Concept and design

Nestec Ltd., Marketing
Communications, Corporate Identity
and Design with messi & schmidt,
Lausanne, Switzerland

Illustrations
Russell Cobb, London,
United Kingdom

Photography
Markus Bühler-Rasom, Zurich,
Switzerland

Printing
Entreprise d’arts graphiques
Jean Genoud S.A.,
Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland

Cover picture
Sculpture Fleurs d’argile, at the
entrance of NRC, created by the
artist Edouard Chapallaz in 1986

© October 2004,
Nestlé Research Center,
Communication Group

Nestec Ltd.
Vers-chez-les-Blanc
1000 Lausanne 26
Switzerland

www.research.nestle.com