Sainsbury’s Bank goes touchy-feely

Hard on the heel of its acquisition of Interface, the UK’s specialist interactive kiosk supplier, digital retail display firm Retec is to supply Sainsbury’s Bank with in-store touch and plasma screens to provide customer information in more than 50 stores.

This will help boost the retail digital communications market, which Retec Interface reckons will grow 56% in the next three years.

The firm has technology deals with IBM and BT, and customers include Tesco, L’Oreal and Safeway.

Tomatoes may prevent AIDS
Selenium to stiffen staff of life
Slick blood trick from tomatoes
Parabens-free cosmetic range relaunched
Tasty healthy snacks drive food innovation
Cake range catches up

Tomatoes may prevent AIDS

Siberian scientists are working on a genetically modified tomato that may vaccinate people against the HIV/AIDS virus. The research is part of the ISTC Partner Project #2176, which is funded by the US Department of Agriculture’s Research Service. So far the team has managed to introduce a HIV antigen protein gene into tomatoes. The researchers, led by Dr Sergey Shchelkunov at SRC of Virology and Biotechnology "Vector", hope to produce an edible vaccine against HIV/AIDS.

A functional vaccine from their work is still to be tested, but the researchers were able to insert a gene from HIV into the chromosome of tomato plants. They were also able to show that the corresponding protein product from the HIV gene was expressed in different parts of the transgenic tomato plant, including ripe fruit. And, because this is a vaccine based on a single protein from HIV, there is no risk of acquiring an HIV infection from eating the fruit.

Tomatoes were chosen over tobacco, potatoes and bananas, all of which have been used to produce vaccines, because they can grow in many different climate zones and conditions, and the fruit eaten fresh.

First grown in test tubes, they were moved to special greenhouses where the transgenic tomato plants grew normally. Scientists used polymerase chain reaction technology and other techniques to confirm the presence of the HIV gene in the transgenic plants, especially in the ripe fruit. By growing a second generation, the researchers were able to show the new plants inherited the HIV gene and antigen protein.

The work is still years from a commercial product, but the results offer hope for cheap widespread edible vaccines against HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and other dread diseases.

Selenium to stiffen staff of life

A consortium of researchers, farmers and a major baker plan to fill the shelves with loaves of selenium-enriched bread that boost men’s health.

Selenium is important to male fertility and to prevent prostate cancer. It also helps prevent cardiovascular disease, stimulates immune function, suppresses inflammatory conditions, and even aids brain function and development.

Selenium levels in the UK diet have plummeted in recent years. People normally derive their selenium from bread made from wheat, which takes up the mineral from the soil. But UK soils have little selenium. As the proportion of homegrown grain used in British bread has increased, so the average selenium intake in the UK has dropped. Currently the average intake of selenium in Britain stands at just 39 microgrammes a day per person, but the UK’s Food Standards Agency recommends an intake of 60 to 75 microgrammes.

Researchers at University of Warwick’s horticultural research arm have found that selenium-enriched fertiliser can quadruple the mineral’s uptake in grains. The consortium of researchers, farmers, a fertiliser manufacturer and a major UK baker is now preparing a commercial launch of selenium-enriched breads.

The researchers have also tested enhanced selenium uptake in soya, onions, cabbage and potatoes, and may form parallel consortia with growers of these products if there is interest.

Slick blood trick from tomatoes

CardioFlow, a tomato extract proven to make human blood more “slippery”, goes on sale next spring as part of a juice drink.

Provexis and Nutrinnovator, the manufacturers, are using a patented tomato extract discovered by Aberdeen’s Rowett Research Institute. 

CardioFlow works by reducing the “stickiness” of blood platelets. This stops them from self-aggregating and possibly causing a fatal internal blood clot or thrombus.

Provexis chief executive Dr Stephen Franklin says the lycopene-free water soluble CardioFlow, which was four years in development and testing, offers similar benefits to aspirin without the taste and side effects.

The drink will be available in the UK in late spring 2005, and the makers plan to launch in the US and Japan later.

Parabens-free cosmetic range relaunched

Usana Health Sciences has relaunched its Sensé line of skin and personal care product line, now formulated with new preserving technology based on botanicals, antioxidants and other active ingredients to keep products fresh. The parabens-free line has the same two-year shelf life as the earlier range. Sense is the first major skin care line in the world to implement this new scientific advancement.

Usana founder and chairman Myron Wentz claims the preservative technology “will change skin care as we know it. The cosmetic industry has been trying to discover a way to preserve products without parabens for years. Sensé has raised the bar for cosmetic companies around the world."

Tasty healthy snacks drive food innovation

Convenience and Snacking, Health and Well-being, and Pleasure and Indulgence drive almost all new product launches in the UK, says research firm Leatherhead Food International.

An analysis of LFI’s Product Sight database showed that, of the 4,323 products launched between January 2003 and June 2004, 97% fall into at least one of the three themes, and many overlapped into two or even all three.

The most important was Pleasure and Indulgence, with 2,945 products, but this was inflated by entire product categories, such as alcoholic beverages and confectionery. Specific flavours and added ingredients were often used to add value to products, while ethnic recipes stayed popular.

Some 2,536 launches were Convenience and Snacking lines, which includes single-serve packs, mini versions of established products, and quick-cook or microwaveable lines.

Meanwhile, 1,154 products were Health and Wellbeing lines, with important concepts here being low and light (including the new generation of low carb products) and organic and natural products.

There were some 2,120 cross-over products and 304 had elements of all three. Just 112 mainstream staple foods could not be sorted into one of the three core themes.

LFI says the basic themes are unchanged since the 1980s, but Health and Wellbeing could become more important as the links between health and diet become more widely recognised and understood by consumers.

Cake range catches up

Manor Bakeries’ line of Cadbury Cakes has caught up with the global image makeover that Cadbury underwent last year with a new range of packaging and point of presence materials from design house Coutts UK.

The new materials stress the new logo, the Cadbury purple and the swirl on products such as Refresher and Irresistibles.