With Innovate UK grant support, The Smarter Food Company will explore the feasibility of designing and developing an innovative nutritional snack bar fortified with broccoli-derived Glucoraphanin (GR), a stable precursor to sulforaphane which is known to provide a range of sustained health and wellbeing impacts including antioxidant production, inflammation reduction and improved cell repair. Although the bar will be exploited as a general functional-health product for improved nutrient consumption (including improved vegetable and fibre intake), a validated link between GR, improved glycaemic control and reducing elevated blood sugar, exhibits clear potential for our product to aid consumers with diabetes and prediabetes with simple and sustainable dietary improvements. To achieve this, The Smarter Food Company will collaborate with the Norwich University of the Arts, exploiting an extensive track record in user-centred functional food product design and the effect of communication design on human dietary behaviour to explore the required presentation and organoleptic properties that appeal to a diabetic market from multiple socio-economic and age groups, as well as the creation of different prototype bar formulations containing GR with a blend of compatible natural ingredients. The proposed bar represents the first-of-its-kind to contain GR, with exploitation at a price point to support accessibility and adherence, helping TSFC exploit a UK nutritional bar market forecast to reach $1.5bn by 2025\.

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This project will secure critical data for a dietary intervention to reduce fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels in people who are defined as being 'pre-diabetic'. A simple dietary solution of this nature has the potential to have a significant impact on the incidence of type-II diabetes (T2D), a major and growing problem in UK and throughout the world: it is estimated that there are 15m pre-diabetic people in the UK and 4m with T2D and globally over 1bn pre- diabetic and 370m diabetic. Diabetes prescriptions alone cost the NHS over £1bn every year. Therefore, this project addresses a public health issue of great importance, and for which there are large and growing market opportunities. Data from a two-year study on diet and prostate cancer with our proprietary soup product showed that individuals had a reduction in their higher-than- normal blood glucose to levels associated with good health, and remained at this lower level for the duration of the trial. This effect was achieved by consuming just one 300ml portion of soup per week, with no other changes to diet or lifestyle. Blood glucose reduction was not the primary endpoint of this study, and a larger study is needed that is specially focussed on the effect of our food product on blood glucose. The Smarter Food Company (TSFC) has been established to develop this technology and bring to market food products that will assist in the management of blood glucose. TSFC is seeking UKI2S Accelerator funding, matched by private investment, to undertake a human trial of a critical size, and design, to test the hypothesis that a single portion of soup will reduce blood glucose in pre-diabetic individuals to 'healthy' levels. The soup is manufactured from a unique and proprietary broccoli naturally bred to contain very high concentrations of glucoraphanin (VHG). This soup will be used to validate the original findings and confirm the role of glucoraphanin in delivering the desired effect. The successful outcome of the trial will lever substantial private investment to bring this product to market as well as future products. These foods will be marketed to pre-diabetics, health care professionals involved with screening, monitoring and treating T2D, diabetes charities and other relevant NGOs, the health-conscious and worried well, with an approved European Food Standards Agency (EFSA) health claim, and equivalent for other markets. The products will be sold through the major food retailers and by direct online sales.