SINGAPORE, April 6 — From diabetic-friendly bread to cake suitable for kidney patients on haemodialysis, new food products have been developed by scientists here in recent years to make it easier for the health-conscious and those with chronic diseases to boost their nutrition.

While the products are no substitute for regular balanced meals and do not cure health problems, they offer more choices to help individuals with various health conditions meet their nutritional needs.

There is significant potential for innovation in functional food as Singaporeans are now more aware and concerned about their health and are taking a more pro-active approach to eating well, said Lau Kum Yee, Singapore Polytechnic’s course chair for its Diploma in Food Science and Technology. Functional food refers to food that has added ingredients that provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition.

Food scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) recently developed a recipe for diabetic-friendly bread by adding an antioxidant-rich plant pigment called anthocyanin, which is extracted from black rice. The scientists took an alternative approach to producing functional bread that is digested more slowly, said Dr Sui Xiaonan, a recent PhD graduate from the Food Science Technology Programme at NUS, who was part of the study. Instead of adding whole grains and fibres in bread, their study was the first to use anthocyanin to fortify a bread product to reduce its digestion rate, thereby improving blood glucose control.

The bread can also help reduce over-eating and therefore obesity, said Professor Zhou Weibiao, director of the Food Science and Technology Programme at NUS’ Faculty of Science.

“Our results demonstrate that it is indeed feasible to create functional food products through anthocyanin fortification, using bread as an example. We hope to conduct further studies to incorporate anthocyanins into other food items, such as biscuits.

“Our team is also keen to explore opportunities to work with industry partners to introduce the anthocyanin-fortified bread to the market,” said Prof Zhou.

The NUS programme has developed a variety of food ingredients with anti-diabetes, anti-ageing and other health-promoting properties in recent years.

Over at Singapore Polytechnic’s School of Chemical and Life Sciences, at least eight functional food products suitable for people with various health conditions have been developed in the past decade. They include a low-glycaemic index (GI) banana chocolate cupcake and a low-GI brownie, which are currently available at The Diabetic Shop, which has a retail outlet at Square 2 in Novena.

Dr Loke Wai Mun, a lecturer at Nanyang Polytechnic’s School of Chemical and Life Sciences, expects functional food to be the focus of the “next level of food production”, especially in Asia, due in part to the wide variety of food options and ingredients available in the region.

Fuelled by an ageing population and an increasing incidence of chronic diseases, functional food is already a multi-billion-dollar market in the Asia-Pacific, reportedly worth some US$70 billion (RM280 billion) in 2014.

According to market research firm Euromonitor International, global sales of functional food and health and wellness food products are estimated to hit US$1 trillion by next year.

Some products that can be found on supermarket shelves include low-GI bread and cereals with added fibre and omega-3s or omega-6s, eggs with added vitamins and dairy products with added probiotics and calcium. Low-GI food is generally more suitable for diabetic patients as it is digested more slowly, keeping blood sugar levels in control.

Flavours with a local spin


The demand for variety and palatability of functional food has spurred companies and researchers to tailor products to suit local taste preferences.

A Singapore Polytechnic team of students and lecturers recently developed a range of local snacks including a layered jam cake and kueh bahulu (traditional mini sponge cakes) in various flavours for patients on haemodialysis. The products are undergoing licensing.

“Haemodialysis patients need to restrict their water, sodium, potassium and phosphorus intake. After their dialysis sessions, they are given a snack that is high in protein. Both the kueh bahulu and layered cake fit the requirements. With a wider variety of snacks available, these patients now have more choices to meet their nutritional needs,” said Lau.

Other healthier versions of local fare developed by Singapore Polytechnic include kaya (egg jam) with reduced sugar, fat and cholesterol, and which has a lower GI.

Besides developing health-enhancing food products, some tertiary education institutions, such as the Centre for Functional Food and Human Nutrition at Nanyang Polytechnic, work with commercial enterprises in the area of functional food research.

Established in 2013, the centre recently collaborated with food enterprise Defu Foodstuff to examine the potential of using black garlic to maintain overall health. Dr Loke led the study to compare the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects of black garlic and white garlic supplements. Results showed while both helped to lower inflammation and oxidative stress in the body, black garlic had a higher antioxidant content.

Such research projects provide scientific evidence to validate health claims of functional food products, which would help consumers differentiate among the vast choices available in the market, said Dr Loke.

But while functional food products and ingredients may help enhance one’s health in certain ways, NUS’ Prof Zhou said they are not drugs and do not cure health problems.

“Without getting the foundations of eating well right, functional food may not provide additional benefits,” said senior dietician Fahma Sunarja of Parkway Cancer Centre at Gleneagles Hospital.

“For instance, a low-GI rice or bread is insufficient to regulate blood sugar levels if a person with diabetes does not take regular balanced meals, while plant sterols (cholesterol-lowering substances occurring in small amounts in many grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds) are unlikely to benefit a person with high cholesterol if he continues to eat a lot of high-fat meats,” she said. — TODAY