Búsqueda de nuevos ingredientes bioactivos en obesidad para el diseño de nuevos alimentos funcionales, en base a la demanda del consumidor

Technological innovation in health matters has been a widely studied field and remains a priority and ongoing focus of economic interest. Eating is one of the habits that have the greatest impact on health and the prevention of certain diseases. All of this has an increasing influence on the buying habits of consumers (Niva M., 2007, Bech-Larsen T et al., 2007, Jones PJ et al., 2007, Van Kleef E et al., 2002). An eating disorder can lead to obesity and thus the development of multiple complications associated with it. In recent years, the World Health Organization (WHO, 2014 and 2015) has been warning of a major obesity crisis in Europe. Moreover, the Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection of the European Commission has identified the critical challenges facing food security by looking at the likely evolution in the consumption of functional foods in coming decades so as to prevent a number of diseases, including obesity (European Commission, 2013). An alternative for reversing obesity trends is prevention through a healthy lifestyle and a balanced diet, combined with the consumption of certain functional foods or nutritional supplements for weight control. Selecting a new bioactive ingredient for the design of innovative products, requires to both conduct rigorous studies demonstrating the effectiveness of the compound and know the opinion of potential consumers as regards whether these products would meet their expectations. Therefore, we started by both assessing consumer demand for weight control products and analyzing some of the characteristics of currently available products. Given the results of this market research and considering that developing and launching new products is an absolute necessity for businesses, the search for new bioactive ingredients, based on scientific evidence, to enrich a food and provide it with functional properties, has been the second part of this work. To that effect, a number of compounds capable of inhibiting pancreatic lipase in vitro as well as reducing body fat in an in vivo model have been evaluated. Under test conditions, the author identified a hydrolyzed protein obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis of a cocoa product containing a functional peptide (DNYDNSAGKWWVT) capable of inhibiting pancreatic lipase and activating the metabolism of tryptophan. This hydrolyzed compound, or a peptide fraction lesser than 3.000Da containing said peptide, could be used in the design of a potential product for obesity control. The results of this research point towards the possible use of food industry by-products as a source of bioactive peptides in obesity. It also suggests the possible application of this compound for the development of innovative products that would meet market demand while following the guidelines established by European Regulation (EC) NO. 1924/2006.