Contribute to people’s well-being by offering products that meet specific dietary needs.
Current changes in lifestyles and consumption behavior are fairly drastic and certain cases
may call for nutritionally planned diets. For many people it is not always possible to eat the
recommended amounts of certain foods that are perishable and not always readily available
such as fresh fish, vegetables and fruit, or often require preparation times that do not fit in with daily life.
THE ALIXIR PRODUCT RANGE
The Alixir product range has been created for consumers who wish to maintain or enrich the nutritional content of their daily diet. These are specially formulated functional products designed to provide benefits that exceed normal daily requirements. The Alixir range provides a number of benefits across a wide range of products that supplement the normal diet. These benefits are communicated through “health claims”: they help control cholesterol, improve intestinal function, help slow down cellular ageing fighting off excess free radicals and help to boost the immune system. For each nutritional benefit we offer products to suit different needs (such as drinks, biscuits, crackers, cereal bars). This applies to everyday products and those that meet specific dietary needs.
PRODUCTS FOR SPECIFIC DIETARY NEEDS
We already offer products with specific nutritional characteristics:
• the wholewheat pasta range that is rich in fiber;
• the Orizzonti range offering the flavor and nutrition of pulses and cereals;
• the high protein content Pasta Plus range with Omega-3;
• the Mulino Bianco Liberi per Natura bakery range with reduced fat, sugar and salt content;
• the Mulino Bianco Grancereale range, rich in fibers and different types of wholegrain cereals;
• the Wasa crispbread range, rich in fibers and wholegrain cereals.
We have launched 49 new high cereal and wholewheat products across these ranges in recent years including 8 in 2008. The link between wholegrain cereal consumption and the prevention of widespread chronic diseases is widely recognized at epidemiological levels (Jacobs and others, 2007; Sahyoun and others, 2006; Jensen and others, 2004).
All international guidelines recommend an increase in the consumption of wholegrain products. We have decided to expand our range of these products in order to offer our customers a wider choice.
NUTRITION ADVISORY BOARD
We rely on the advice of a group of experts in identifying which health and wellbeing strategies to adopt: the Nutrition Advisory Board. The Board has the purpose of identifying emerging trends helping us to anticipate people’s needs. Moreover, it keeps us up to date on nutritional scientific progress, latest studies and important discoveries.
NUTRITION NETWORK
In order to obtain direct scientific evidence of the metabolic impact of our products, we
collaborate with universities and research centers both at home and abroad. Clinical trials are carried out with many of these on existing products and in the planning stage of new ones.
In the last three years our efforts were concentrated on the Alixir product range and we invested Euro 4.6 million on nutrition worldwide. We carried out more than 60 new experimental studies and nutritional investigations to consolidate the scientific evidence already acquired, explore the preservation of nutrients using new manufacturing technology and check the recipes of products in the pipeline.
Functional foods are not our only innovative aim. Research was carried out in 2008 on
wholewheat versions of bakery and pasta products to assess their health benefits and a
significant drop in total cholesterol and LDL levels in healthy subjects was noted after a three week diet based on wholewheat products.
PUBLICATIONS AND CONVENTIONS
Much of our research work is published in internationally recognized scientific journals and is available to the public (Jenkins and others, 2008; Candela and others, 2008; Mengheri and others 2008). We are increasingly committed to attending events aimed at sharing scientific knowledge, firstly to communicate our projects and initiatives, and also through sponsorships.
These have included national conventions held by the Italian Enterprise of Human Nutrition and a series of meetings regarding children’s nutrition. Our researchers actively participate in the work of ILSI (International Life Science Institute), which brings together leading worldwide enterprises and academia and independent experts for the precompetitive scientific comparison of issues relating to nutrition and food safety.
We also take part in:
• the Italian platform of the European project “Food for Life”, in which the priority areas of research and investment in various sectors of the agro-food industry are defined in conjunction with government bodies;
• the EU financed European project “Healthgrain”, in which for the first time all of the constituent nutritional components of the most important cereals, their effect on people and the possibility of applying them in a nutritional context, have been studied on such a wide scale. This project is being undertaken thanks to the joint work of prestigious European research centers and Barilla’s skill in transforming cereals to food products.