GRAND OPENING OF NEW LABORATORY WORLD
Shimadzu, one of the worldwide leading manufacturers of analytical instrumentation, has created a new Laboratory World for its customers from all over Europe. The Laboratory World is located at Shimadzu’s European headquarters in Duisburg, Germany. On an area greater than 1,500 m2, testing facilities are available for Shimadzu’s entire product range – from chromatographs, spectrophotometers, TOC analyzers, mass spectrometers and balances up to material testing machines. Mass spectrometry, a technology that Shimadzu has significantly shaped in recent years, will be highlighted in its dedicated space. In addition, laboratory areas for customer applications and seminar facilities are being expanded.
www.shimadzu.eu

BALCHEM AND VAN EEGHEN TO PROMOTE VITACHOLINE^® IN EUROPEAN FOOD SUPPLEMENT MARKET
Balchem Corporation and Van Eeghen Functional Ingredients have joined forces to market VitaCholine to European supplement producers, capitalizing on the recently authorized health claims and investments in Balchem Italia, Marano, Italy.
The two companies have announced this novel strategic alliance to build on a long-standing successful distribution relationship. Van Eeghen is a family-owned company with more than three hundred fifty years’ experience in the food ingredient business. “
www.balchem.com

DSM AND SIGHT AND LIFE LAUNCH ‘VITAMINS IN MOTION’ CAMPAIGN AT INTERNATIONAL HIDDEN HUNGER CONGRESS
Experts in the fields of nutrition and development gather at the international Hidden Hunger Congress to address the global crisis of chronic micronutrient deficiencies, also known as hidden hunger. At this multi-stakeholder event, DSM and Sight and Life launched their Vitamins in Motion campaign, an initiative to raise awareness and advocate for increased access to the essential vitamins all people need to be healthy and well-nourished. Hidden hunger exists globally, in both developing and developed countries. Some two billion people worldwide cannot access or afford enough nutritious food, and therefore live with a chronic shortage of vital micronutrients. Even in the wealthiest countries, shifting patterns of diet and lifestyle are leading to poor nutrition, which is linked to rising rates of obesity and costly non-communicable diseases like diabetes, stroke and heart disease.
www.dsm.com

ISOLUTE^® MYCO SPE COLUMNS, A DEDICATED PRODUCT FOR THE EFFICIENT EXTRACTION OF MYCOTOXINS FROM FOOD MATRICES
Biotage (STO: BIOT), a leading global supplier of solutions and technology for analytical, medicinal and peptide chemistry, has announced the launch of ISOLUTE^® Myco SPE columns, a new product for the ‘catch and release’ clean up of mycotoxins from food matrices, prior to analysis by LC-MS/MS.
The ISOLUTE^® Myco sorbent is a proprietary polymeric phase (patent pending) optimized for the extraction of a broad spectrum of mycotoxins from a wide range of foodstuffs; enabling chemists to utilize a single SPE product to extract all relevant mycotoxins from an individual foodstuff. Using a single, easy to use sample preparation product, along with optimized matrix specific application notes, scientists can prepare diverse samples for analysis by LC-MS/MS.
www.biotage.com

NEWLY PUBLISHED IN OSTEOPOROSIS INTERNATIONAL: MENAQ7 PREVENTS BONE LOSS AND IMPROVES BONE IMPACT STRENGTH
NattoPharma announced the publication of a ground-breaking new study on its proprietary MenaQ7® brand of Natural Vitamin K2 standardized to MK-7 content. The MenaQ7 supplementation group significantly increased the circulating active Osteocalcin (cOC), a well-established biomarker for bone and vitamin K status. The inactive protein, Undercarboxylated Osteocalcin (ucOC), in the MenaQ7 group, decreased with 51% +/- 21 % as compared to the placebo group (+4 % +/- 49%). This is pointing to the positive MenaQ7 bone effect. After three years of supplementation, improvements in both bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) were statistically significant in the MenaQ7 group. Moreover bone strength (BS) was statistically improved, demonstrating therapeutic benefits for the MenaQ7 group as compared to the placebo group.
www.nattopharma.com

PEPTAN^® COLLAGEN PEPTIDES HEALTHY AGING POWER
Manufactured in its state-of-the-art plants in France and Brazil and marketed worldwide by Rousselot^®, Peptan^® collagen peptides open up great opportunities to the nutraceutical and nutricosmetic industries. A perfect ingredient for the healthy aging market. As the numbers of aging consumers grow, the market for products to support healthy aging and mobility is also growing in potential. Peptan collagen peptides have proven their ability to help seniors stay active and mobile. Scientific studies have demonstrated that daily intake has beneficial effects on joint and bone health. A pure protein, Peptan can also support muscle regeneration and prevent age related muscle mass, known as sarcopenia.
www.rousselot.com

SENSIENT FOOD COLORS EUROPE IS AWARDED ISO 14001
Sensient Food Colors Europe has achieved ISO 14001 certification for environmental management from the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO). This important development is a significant step in Sensient’s approach to protect natural resources in its manufacturing, logistics and administrative processes.
www.sensient-fce.com

THE EASY WAY OF WATER-SOLUBLE VITAMIN ANALYSIS WITH INNOVATIVE BIOANALYTICAL METHODS
The ifp, Institut für Produktqualität in Berlin, has developed a series of microbiological vitamin analysis products in a ready-to-use microtiter plate format. This product line is exclusively marketed by R-Biopharm AG (Darmstadt) under the trade name VitaFast .
www.r-biopharm.com

New study highlights strong anti-cancer properties of soybeans
First study to report that proteins found in soybeans, could inhibit growth of colon, liver and lung cancers, published in Food Research International



Soybean meal is a by-product following oil extraction from soybean seeds. It is rich in protein, which usually makes up around 40% of the nutritional components of the seeds and dependent on the line, and can also contain high oleic acid (a monounsaturated omega-9 fatty acid). The study looked at the role soybeans could have in the prevention of cancer. Using a variety of soybean lines which were high in oleic acid and protein, the researchers looked to monitor bioactivity between the peptides derived from the meals of soybean and various types of human cancer cells. 

The study showed that peptides derived from soybean meal significantly inhibited cell growth by 73% for colon cancer, 70% for liver cancer and 68% for lung cancer cells using human cell lines. This shows that the selected high oleic acid soybean lines could have a potential nutraceutical affect in helping to reduce the growth of several types of cancer cells.
References
"Peptides derived from high oleic acid soybean meals inhibit colon, liver and lung cancer cell growth" by Srinivas J. Rayaprolu, Navam S. Hettiarachchy, Pengyin Chen, Arvind Kannan and Andronikos Mauromostakos. (DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2012.10.021) and appears
in Food Research International published by Elsevier.

2nd BCFN yes! competition kicks off
The Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition launches the 2013 international call for projects, open to young students and researchers, to select the best food and sustainability projects 
The Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition announces the opening of the selection process for the second BCFN Young Earth Solutions! (YES!), for the best projects regarding food and sustainability. Following the success of last year’s competition involving 3,000 students around the globe, the 2013 application form is now ready for download at www.bcfnyes.com. Those eligible to participate must be university students or researchers in any department, year of study or country, and not be over 30 years of age at the end of October 2013. Applications are open to individual students or teams of a maximum of 3 members. The goal of BCFN YES! is to promote the development of specific projects to take on the most urgent issues in the field of food and sustainability. Projects will be selected by evaluating the social impact of the idea, how innovative and original it is and its feasibility. Also key is whether the solution is multi-disciplinary, an aspect BCFN considers to be the most complete and effective approach to taking on the world’s food challenges. Presentations in universities to explain BCFN YES! 2013, involving 15 universities in Italy and 20 abroad, began mid-March. Federica Marra, the 2012 winner with a project aimed at bringing food production back to urban centers by transforming abandoned buildings into areas for the sustainable production of food in cities, is currently working with the BCFN’s team of experts in the creation of a new study on food waste that will be published during the course of this year. “BCFN YES! was a tremendous opportunity,” Marra says, “and thanks to it I have had the opportunity to take part in a unique research project that mirrors my university studies and which involves a number of the leading experts in this sector. Through this innovative award, the ideas of individuals can make it to the top.” The ten best ideas will be selected as finalist projects and presented during the 5th International Forum on Food and Nutrition to take place in Milan at the end of this coming November. The winning concept will be awarded €1,000 and the opportunity to be involved in a Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition research project during the course of 2014. “BCFN YES! is the feather in the cap of Barilla Center activity because it represents an overriding desire to reach out to an ever-broader audience in order to spread knowledge and awareness and generate discussion around the issues of food and nutrition,” says Guido Barilla, President of the BCFN and Chairman of the Barilla Group. 
www.bcfnyes.com

Dna Barcoding Alone Sufficient To Detect Fraudulent Deer Products
Scientists from Hong Kong offer a robust, solid and viable molecular tools to identify deer DNA even in highly processed products
Many Europeans are fretting these days over what they eat, and whether horse meat might have adulterated their pork chops. Food fraud has been dominating headlines globally - calling for new policies in law enforcement and more robust methods for successful food identification and authentication. As companies and manufacturers resort to fraudulent practices to extract more cash from the gullible public, it is estimated that up to 7% of the consumer supply chain contains hidden ingredients (i.e. – not disclosed on the label). And while all too often policymakers seem oblivious to the problem, the growing awareness of plain criminal activity in food supply has stimulated an increase in published research on animal DNA testing, either for the identification of species or for the genetic linkage of a sample to a particular organism. 
The conventional methodologies employed for the determination of species origin in meat products have predominantly applied molecular methods of immunochemical, electrophoretic and chromatographic analysis of proteins. For those cases where reliance on morphological characteristics is impractical or impossible, scientists offer now novel techniques allowing the identification of species specific DNA sequences. Among these is a technique that relies on the much debated DNA barcoding - developed by researchers from the Government Laboratory in Hong Kong who have come up with a method that permits DNA detection of the fraudulent substitution of commercial deer products, regardless of their physical state, so that identification by morphology (form) is not required. 

Deer meat has come a long way as an alternative to pork and beef. But it has continued to catch up with consumers steadily if slowly over the last decade, mainly due to its nutritive and therapeutic values but also versatile serving methods. And while venison is low in fat and high in protein, iron, zinc, selenium, vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids - adding up to one healthy meal – in view of recent scams, it has become vital to provide tenable methods of effective deer meat verification.
The article published recently in DNA Barcodes, an open access journal by Versita, describes the protocol set up by Dr. W.M. Sin and Dr. Y.K. Tam - to examine whether DNA methods alone suffice to detect fraudulent substitution of commercial deer products or, whether any additional protocols are necessary to detect fraudulent substitution of cattle and water buffalo tendons (HK$50-80) for deer tendons (HK$280-640). The research confirmed that no other method proves as efficient and straightforward as the use of DNA barcodes, which are sufficient on their own to detect such substitution for deer in all tendon products, except for glue. Furthermore, the research findings permit DNA detection of fraudulent substitution of commercial deer products, regardless of their physical condition.
The attractiveness of this method lies in its utility. Commenting on the research, Prof. Jan Pawlowski, from the Department of Genetics & Evolution at University of Geneva, Switzerland, says: “The authors did an excellent work, offering a robust, solid and viable molecular tools to identify deer DNA even in highly processed products. This is a new example showing the importance of DNA barcoding for traceability of commercial products”.
The method may well be embraced by law enforcement authorities and forensic scientists as an inexpensive alternative that only requires standard laboratory techniques for handling DNA. The move helps to combat the widespread mislabelling of deer, which results in cheaper meat being sold as a more expensive deer variety. It also opens a prospect for more in-depth research into other food supplies, and the roll-out of new technology that would allow a systematic use of barcoding. With the new food scandals unravelling on a daily basis, DNA barcodes have a great potential to prevent and combat wildlife crime.
www.versita.com/dnabra