The Impact of Food Bioactives on Health

“Infogest” (Improving Health Properties of Food by Sharing our Knowledge on the Digestive Process) is an EU COST action/network in the domain of Food and Agriculture that will last for 4 years from April 4, 2011. Infogest aims at building an open international network of institutes undertaking multidisciplinary basic research on food digestion gathering scientists from different origins (food scientists, gut physiologists, nutritionists…). The network gathers 70 partners from academia, corresponding to a total of 29 countries. The three main scientific goals are: Identify the beneficial food components released in the gut during digestion; Support the effect of beneficial food components on human health; Promote harmonization of currently used digestion models Infogest meetings highlighted the need for a publication that would provide researchers with an insight into the advantages and disadvantages associated with the use of respective in vitro and ex vivo assays to evaluate the effects of foods and food bioactives on health. Such assays are particularly important in situations where a large number of foods/bioactives need to be screened rapidly and in a cost effective manner in order to ultimately identify lead foods/bioactives that can be the subject of in vivo assays. The book is an asset to researchers wishing to study the health benefits of their foods and food bioactives of interest and highlights which in vitro/ex vivo assays are of greatest relevance to their goals, what sort of outputs/data can be generated and, as noted above, highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the various assays. It is also an important resource for undergraduate students in the ‘food and health’ arena.

This book describes in vitro and ex vivo models that can be employed to investigate effects of digested food products on the GIT, or specific components thereof. Many such models exist and include, for example, those used to study digestion and fermentation in the small and large intestine, to investigate absorption (e.g. Ussing chamber, epithelial cell systems), and to research the immune and enteroendocrine responses (e.g. macrophages, dendritic cells, co-cultures). In each case, these respective assays and models are discussed, and tips and tricks concerning their proper use are given. The Impact of Food Bioactives on Health: In Vitro and Ex Vivo Models is an asset to researchers wishing to study the health benefits of their foods and food bioactives of interest. The book highlights which in vitro/ex vivo assays are of greatest relevance to their goals, what sort of outputs/data can be generated, and highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the various assays. It is also an important resource for under-graduate students in the ‘food and health’ arena.