Egg based product will produce benefit to health and wellbeing

A Dutch food company is working on an egg-based product that it claims could help children perform better at school.

The research is being carried out by DSM Food Specialties, which is based in Delft. DSM is a leading supplier of speciality ingredients to the food and beverage industry. It also produces health and fitness products like PeptoPro – a drink derived from milk that is used by athletes to recover more quickly from exercise and to improve endurance. PeptoPro has been used by Dutch olympic athletes, by the Dutch football team and the Irish rugby union team. The company is now developing a product derived from eggs. The work was disclosed at the London conference of the International Egg Commission at the end of March.

Delegates at the conference heard from Dr Andre de Roos, who has worked as a scientist at DSM for 20 years. His work has involved the development of enzyme ingredients and of protein hydrolysate ingredients containing specific bio-active peptides and modified functionalities. For the layman, his work involves taking proteins and finding ways to modify them to produce benefits to health and wellbeing – benefits like improving blood pressure, helping the nervous system, the gastro intestinal system or immune system. The egg-based product he is developing is intended to improve mood and concentration.

"It will create a positive mood in someone, improve concentration and alertness, help you sleep and reduce stress," he said. "If you had taken it for breakfast this morning you would understand better what I was telling you now or you would fall asleep more smoothly, depending on what you wanted to do," he told delegates.

He said the product, which is called Pep2Balance, would improve learning in children and aid their performance at school. Pep2Balance is produced by hydrolysing egg white protein. DSM says the product is still under development and egg industry representatives at the conference listened with interest to what Dr de Roos had to say. They will be hoping that its development proves positive for the egg market.

Dr de Roos said DSM was inviting ideas from those in the egg industry for any other products that could de derived from eggs. "We are offering an egg innovation award," he said. "Anyone who feels they have a good idea should contact us and talk to us about it," said Dr de Roos, who said the ideas would be judged and ranked by an international jury. An award would be presented for the winning idea at IEC conference in Vancouver in September.

Those at the London conference heard about research at the new Egg Industry Centre established in Iowa in the United States. Dr Hongwei Xin said work at the centre included research into egg lecithin, which is used in infant formula to promote better visual and cognitive development. Research work was also being done on choline. It was known that eating eggs was an effective way of meeting an individual’s choline intake requirement. There was also research on egg white foaming and bio-active peptides. The centre is also conducting a study to compare the various methods of egg production – cage free, enriched and cage.

The Egg Industry Centre was established last year at Iowa State University. With Government funding for research reduced – particularly for egg research – a decision had been taken to streamline research. The centre at Iowa, which is the largest egg producing state in the United States with 53 million layers, is intended as a national and global centre. Dr Xin said the centre was looking to collaborate with other centres around the world to maximise resources.