The potential for enhancing innovation in the UK economy through Novel Food's (NF) is significant, as acknowledged by the government in the Pro-innovation Regulation of Technologies Review -- Life Sciences \[1\]. NF's are regulated by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the UK. The process for NFs approval demands specialised regulatory and scientific expertise, access to reliable certified analytical facilities and a clear understanding of the requirements. Building the required network is challenging especially for SMEs, who tend to have more limited resources, but also for larger enterprises venturing into the NFs application process for the first time. Consequently, the creation of a scientific dossier necessary to assess the safety of a NF correctly may take significantly longer than need be or may be of limited quality. The repercussions of not understanding the required regulatory and scientific obligations affect the overall innovation ecosystem stunting UK economic growth. To fulfil the UK's goal of becoming a global leader in innovative research design and delivery, it is essential to support food innovators on their regulatory journey for NF submissions. This project will create the **UK's first Expert Network for Novel Foods Regulatory Challenges (NFX UK)**. The main objectives of the Network will be to: * **Serve as a central hub for learning resources**, facilitating access to critical information and promoting the development of regulatory science tools. Through building the Network, we will improve access to these tools, empowering companies with a clearer understanding of the regulatory processes, data requirements, risk, and safety assessments necessary for their specific ingredient(s), ultimately enhancing the quality of dossiers. * **Foster a positive exchange with regulatory authorities**, especially the FSA, offering insights into industry challenges and emerging technologies. Informed data from horizon scanning will supplement information accessible to regulators for informed and data-driven decision-making which will enable agile and proportionate regulation in response to innovation. * **Promote connections for NF innovators** with experts and service providers in the field, including analytical and technology organisations, scale-up and manufacturing facilities, expert consultants, and research institutions all to aid NF commercialisation. NFX UK will feed into the government's aim of making the NF's process more collaborative and transparent, to provide smoother pathways for swift market entry of new technologies and products. It will engage food companies, service providers, academics, and regulators, to foster an open dialogue to advance NFs regulatory science collaboratively.

The 20th century food system relied heavily on easily accessible and refined carbohydrates high in sugar, providing abundant calories but contributing to health risks. Diets high in sugar and low in fibre are leading factors contributing to death and disability worldwide, being associated with increased risk of developing many chronic diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer. Simultaneously, traditional agricultural systems struggle with scalability issues amid growing populations and negative environmental impacts from extensive water and land use. To address these imbalances, prioritise environmental sustainability, and respond to demands from governments and consumers, the food industry must find alternatives to effectively replace sugar in foods. However, sugar is a relatively cheap and highly functional ingredient - providing not only sweetness, but also bulking, browning, texture, caramelisation, among other properties to solid foods. Alternatives are limited, as no ingredients currently available can replace sugar functionally and economically at scale. Cambridge Glycoscience (CamGlyco) has developed Sugars from Fibre (SFF), a sugar replacement derived from agricultural by-products such as corn cobs and oat hulls that can replicate the performance of sugar while improving the nutritional profile of foods by simultaneously reducing sugar and increasing dietary fibre. This collaboration between Cambridge Glycoscience Ltd and the University of Glasgow looks to develop various compositions of CamGlyco's "Sugars from Fibre" to optimise beneficial effects on gut microbiome and relevant health biomarkers _in vitro_ and _in vivo_ in human subjects. This will allow selection of an SFF composition that combines optimal performance in food matrices with physiologically beneficial effects on gut microbiome and other biomarkers of improved human health, contributing to the evidence base necessary for the regulatory approval of the ingredient in the UK and therefore in bringing this innovation to commercial reality.

Demand for more nutritious and sustainable food products has increased dramatically with growing concern for global issues related to health, climate change, and food security. However, most consumers are not prepared to compromise on taste and sensory experiences for the foods they love. As such, maintaining the quality and properties of staple foods, whilst concurrently delivering healthier and more sustainable alternatives through secure and robust supply chains, is a key challenge. Motivated by these issues, this project will bring to market an innovative new category of high-fibre, lower-calorie and more sustainable pizza bases for food service customers. Cambridge Glycoscience (CamGlyco, SME based in Cambridge) has developed a suite of healthier (lower calorie, lower carb) and more sustainable (lower emissions, lower land use) proprietary food ingredients derived from by-products of crops. Their most recent innovation, Grain & Stalk (G&S) flour, utilises both the wheat grain (typically used) and the stalk (typically wasted or under-utilised). Using their unique technologies, food output from wheat farms can be potentially doubled without growing an extra crop. CamGlyco have successfully optimised a grade of G&S flour for pasta applications, and have demonstrated excellent consumer acceptance; now they are eager to expand to other staple products. RePizza (Ashford, Kent) are established leaders in the region for developing and manufacturing high-quality artisan pizza doughs and bases for the hospitality industry. Using RePizza's expertise and facilities for industrial scale pizza manufacture and CamGlyco's expertise in new ingredient formulation, we will develop and commercialise a range of healthier (lower calorie, lower carb) and more sustainable (lower emissions, lower land use) pizza bases using under-utilised crop side streams in Kent. This novel technology will pioneer in the pizza category, an approach that has broad potential to dramatically boost the agricultural sector of the Kent and Medway area, through allowing farmers to generate revenue from their under-utilised streams, as well as contribute to the broader resiliency of the UK's food system.

The 20th century food system was built off readily accessible macronutrients, such as animal proteins and refined sugar. It provided abundant calories but led to localised nutrient excess and health issues such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. The 21st-century food system must address these imbalances while prioritising environmental sustainability. Traditional agricultural systems face scalability challenges with growing populations; already negatively impacting the environment through extensive water and land usage. They generate substantial side streams, which contain sought-after nutrients like dietary fiber and protein, but are generally underutilized or discarded. Preservation is a crucial technical challenge in creating healthy and sustainable ingredients from feedstocks, such as cereal straws and Spent Brewery Yeast (SBY). Overlooking this aspect in manufacturing can diminish customer appeal, limit commercial potential, and even lead to food waste or safety risks. While fresh, chilled, or frozen supply chains play a vital role, they are costly, logistically challenging, and energy intensive. Drying emerges as a cost-effective preservation method, though presents challenges in operation and maintenance of the quality of finished products. Some ingredients, like sugar and salt, crystallise easily when dried, while others, including lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates, demand alternative technologies. Spray drying is a valuable technique, though requires investigation for novel ingredients, especially for large-scale operation. The FutureDry project focuses on spray drying processes to deliver nutritious, well-preserved ingredients based on SBY and cereal crop-derived by-products, notably Sugars from Fiber (SFF). Building on existing collaboration between DryTec and CamGlyco, the project aims to develop a scientific understanding and model input variables versus output drying performance. Successful delivery of the project will facilitate an additional income stream for both farmers and brewers in Kent and surrounding regions, through valorisation of their by-products and further allows DryTec and CamGlyco to boost regional economic activity and create future jobs.

The potential for enhancing innovation in the UK economy through Novel Foods is significant, as acknowledged by the government in the Pro-innovation Regulation of Technologies Review -- Life Sciences. The process for Novel Foods approval in the UK demands specialised regulatory and scientific expertise, access to reliable certified analytical facilities and a clear understanding of the requirements. Building the required network is challenging especially for SMEs, who tend to have more limited resources, but also larger enterprises venturing into the Novel Foods application process for the first time. Consequently, the creation of a scientific dossier necessary to assess the safety of a Novel Food correctly may not only take significantly longer than need be but also be of limited quality. The repercussions of a deficient understanding of regulatory and scientific requirements extend beyond financial burdens, affecting the overall innovation ecosystem and potentially stunting economic growth. To fulfil the UK's goal of becoming a global leader in innovative research design and delivery, it is increasingly important to support food innovators on their regulatory journey for Novel Foods submissions. This proposal aims to develop a project for the creation of a regulatory science network to be UK's first Expert Network for Novel Foods Regulatory Challenges. The main objectives of the network will be to: * Serve as a central hub for learning resources, facilitating access to critical information, and promoting the development of regulatory science tools. Aim to improve access to these tools, empowering companies with a clearer understanding of the regulatory processes, data requirements, risk, and safety assessments necessary for their specific ingredient(s), ultimately enhancing the quality of dossiers. * Promote connections for food and ingredient innovators with experts and service providers in the field, including analytical and technology organisations, scale-up and manufacturing facilities, expert consultants, and research institutions. * Foster a positive exchange with regulatory authorities, offering insights into industry challenges, emerging technologies and conducting horizon scanning. Supplementing information accessible to regulators for informed and data-driven decision-making will enable agile and proportionate regulation in response to innovation. The network will be feeding into the government's aim of making the process more collaborative and transparent, and to provide smoother pathways for swift market entry of new technologies and products. It will engage food companies, service providers, academics, and regulators, to foster an open dialogue to advance regulatory science for Novel Foods collaboratively.

The 20th century food system was built of readily accessible carbohydrates (refined sucrose & starch, 4kcal/g). It provided abundant calories but led to localised nutrient excess and health issues such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. The 21st-­century's food system must redress this nutritional imbalance. Despite well-documented negative impacts of sugar and flour, they are cheap and highly functional ingredients, making their replacement challenging. To date, the food industry's attempts at "healthier" product reformulation have achieved only partial success. Despite being more agriculturally abundant than refined carbohydrates, fibre (0-2kcal/g), the macronutrient most lacking in Western diets, has been largely ignored. This collaboration between Cambridge Glycoscience Ltd and the University of Cambridge looks to redress this imbalance by expediting the commercialisation of CamGlyco's platform of "From Fibre" ingredients by turning agriculture's most abundant renewable resources (by-products like corn cobs, oat hulls and wheat straw) into replacements for sugar and flour / starch in food. The project outputs will provide farmers with additional income streams from underutilised plant residues, produce more food per unit of land, without concomitant increase in greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss, and give access to healthier ingredients to companies and consumers across mainstream food products; providing better food for all.

Sugar doesn't just makes food sweet, it plays many other import roles such as texture, aroma and browning. To this day, there are no ingredients that can faithfully and economically replace the properties of sugar in food. As a result, sugar is still used in high levels in most mainstream food products, such as cakes, chocolate and biscuits. Sugar consumption contributes to high blood pressure, obesity and type 2 diabetes, all high-risk factors for COVID-19, leading to an increased propensity of people with these conditions developing severe illness. Cambridge Glycoscience has developed a first of a kind plant-based, natural, lower calorie and lower glycaemic impact ingredient that can replace sugar in food in a cost competitive manner. This project with the Dupree Group at University of Cambridge will help us further improve our product making better sugars for all. This will enable manufacturers in the UK, Europe and globally to make great-tasting, nutritionally enhanced, and cleaner label products, leading to healthier populations.