More than 3 billion people are affected by micronutrient deficiencies, and one-third of the world's population suffers from anemia and zinc deficiency, particularly in developing countries. Mineral absorption is crucial for nutrient uptake, preventing deficiencies, maintaining mineral balance, supporting growth and development, and enhancing overall health. Inadequate mineral intake and absorption can lead to deficiencies; for example, a lack of iron may cause iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia. Phytic acid is a naturally occurring compound found in many plant-based foods which serves as the primary way phosphorus is stored in plant tissues, especially in grains, seeds, nuts, and legumes. Phytic acid has anti-nutrient properties which inhibit the absorption of certain minerals in the body. Consumption of foods high in phytic acid binds minerals such as Iron, Zinc, Calcium, and Magnesium in the digestive tract, thereby making them less available for absorption by the body. Phytase is an enzyme that improves mineral absorption from phytic acid-rich foods such as whole grains, pulses, (soy) beans, maize, etc.). Phytase treatment can enhance mineral bioavailability (e.g., iron, zinc, calcium) by reducing the phytic acid content in foods, and as such helps prevent mineral deficiencies and associated health problems. While already widely used in animal feed to enhance phosphorus utilization, emerging research explores the application of phytase to improve mineral absorption in humans, especially in phytic acid-rich diets.

0:00 all right we had said one minute after the hour  we start so that's now um I'm very thrilled to  

0:06 welcome you um to this exciting event on  unpacking the power of fight days um we  

0:12 have quite a packed agenda for the next hour uh  we're going to have four presentations from very  

0:18 distinguished speakers who have spent years  if not Decades of their life working on fight   days um and then a panel discussion with the um  four experts as well um I'm a Lucie Klarsfeld,  

0:30 I'm the managing director of Hystra, um an  inclusive business strategy consulting firm U that  

0:37 has worked in nutrition for the past decade um  looking at different business models that can help   solve malnutrition issues in developing markets  and I'm very excited um to be the moderator for  

0:47 the panel later today um without further Ado I'll  pass it straight on to um Matthew Freeman who is  

0:54 the executive director of stronger foundations  for Nutrition a global philanthropic community  

1:00 working together to help malnutrition um for  opening remarks and I Just Want to Thank The  

1:05 Bill Gates Foundation and the site in life and  sight and life for organizing this webinar over  

1:12 to you Matt thank you very much Lucy statistics  can be overwhelming numbers blend together and  

1:21 lose their meaning so I will only give you  three to remember today 3 billion 13 one  

1:31 three billion the number of people around  the world that are micronutrient deficient   in essential nutrients like iron and zinc which  promote good health onethird the percentage of the  

1:42 food system contri contributions to greenhouse gas  emissions one malnutrition is projected to be the  

1:51 number one cause of death due to climate change  these numbers are connected animal sourced foods  

1:59 are the easiest way for the body to get essential  nutrients animal production is also the greatest  

2:06 driver of Food Systems emissions cutting down  on animal production in order to meet climate  

2:13 goals can drive micronutrient deficiencies  up particularly given that climate change is  

2:19 making all food more scarce and less nutritious  clearly scaling up plant-based diets must be an  

2:27 essential part of the climate solution but how  can we do that while also closing the nutrient  

2:34 Gap much of the conversation on Food Systems  focuses on scaling up sustainable production  

2:40 preventing loss and improving the nutritional  profile of foods today we look at a different  

2:47 angle a concept which I find fascinating  called anti-nutrients anti-nutrients like  

2:53 phytic acid keep our body from absorbing the  nutrients in plants which we desperately need  

3:00 anti-nutrient it sounds like a super villain in  an action movie today we're going to introduce  

3:08 you to a superhero vase that just might be able  to help save us I'm now pleased to introduce our  

3:16 first superhero sidekick banca Kumari manager  for food and aggra business at site and life  

3:23 Foundation to begin our super story over to you  prianka thanks Matt hi everyone good morning and  

3:33 good afternoon in next few minutes I'll walk you  through the challenges of ftic asset and explore  

3:38 FES as a potential solution next slide please  next slide let's start with a basic question what  

3:49 does the world eat what we consume falls into two  categories first is Staples which mainly include  

3:57 grains and pulses and second others constituting  animal products fats Etc globally 49% of daily  

4:05 calories come from it Staples in subsaharan and  Africa it is 80% and in South and Southeast Asia  

4:12 around 70% next slide with business as usual the  share of the Staples is expected to is expected to  

4:21 rise especially in low and middle income countries  with subsaharan Africa seeing the highest growth  

4:28 this is driven by rising in income cultural  shift and growth of plant-based Food Market  

4:33 next slide now the question which comes to mind  is apart from affordability and accessibility what  

4:40 attracts consumers towards Staples the answer  lies in perception consumers see Staples as a  

4:47 food which is healthy a source of energy and full  of nutrients next slide however many don't know  

4:56 that the Staples contain anti-nutrients which can  hinder nutrient absorption does the consumers get  

5:02 less than expected from their diet today our  focus is on phytic acid. Phytic acid acts like  

5:11 a magnate binding to essential nutrients such  as amino acids and minerals forming insoluble  

5:16 compounds that the body can't absorb this results  in wasting of nutrients and reduced benefits from  

5:22 food ftic acid is particularly concerning because  it remains effective in a wide PH range including  

5:29 low intes stal pH making it a significant  challenge for human nutrition next slide  

5:36 this situation bursens by climate change Studies  have proved that Rising temperatures increase ftic  

5:42 acid and decrease nutrients in Staples this  could lead to a mineral and protein loss of  

5:48 3 to 177% next slide additionally climate change  along with factors like supply chain disruptions  

5:56 and geopolitical conflicts is driving food  inflation over the past 3 years inflation  

6:02 has made healthy diets unaffordable for over a  third of the global population next slide so to  

6:10 summarize Rising plant B based diets combined with  higher ftic acid levels declining nutrient content  

6:17 and escalating inflation can increase mineral and  protein deficiencies especially in low and middle-  

6:23 income countries this could lead to an additional  122 million people being protein def deficient  

6:29 and 175 million suffering from zinc deficiency  by 2050 next slide this calls for an urgent need  

6:39 of solutions to improve plant-based diet  nutrition one such solution is FAS next

6:46 slide FAS is an enzyme that breaks down ftic acid  freeing amino acids and minerals making them more  

6:58 available for absorption by the body it acts on  both added minerals and those naturally inherent  

7:04 in plant-based diets making nutrients more  available to improve nutrient intake next slide  

7:12 now let's look at its benefit fitas is backed by  over 20 human studies demonstrating two to five  

7:18 times increase in iron and zinc absorption over 30  studies proving up to 99% ftic acid reduction and  

7:26 up to twofold Improvement in protein solubility  due to FES addition recent sensory Studies have  

7:32 also revealed enhanced texture and Aroma in  plant proteins treated with FES in the next  

7:38 session Professor Diego will provide further  insights into these studies in addition to the  

7:43 benefits FES is compatible with a wide range of  packaged Foods particularly in emerging economies  

7:49 where cereal and legume based foods are growing  offering significant Market potential thus FAS is  

7:56 a proven cost effective climate friendly solution  with huge Market next slide despite the benefits  

8:04 and Market potential fighs is in early stages  of adoption for human nutrition however it is  

8:11 already a $600 million Market in animal feed so  to integrate FES into food applications we can  

8:18 learn from its advancement in feed industry  lastly I would like to end with a thought to  

8:24 fully unlock F's potential for human use we need  collaboration to advance product development and  

8:31 conduct further studies particularly on its  impact on protein digestibility thank you very  

8:37 much for listening now I now I'll hand it over  to Professor Diego for the session on scientific

8:42 evidence thank you very much Priyanka and  also from my side welcome everybody and I  

8:53 have a good day uh I'm going to talk as  introduced by prianka about the human  

8:59 studies that investigated phyas and phytic  acid and its effect on on BI availability and  

9:06 digestibility uh next slide please as prianka  has brilliantly introduced uh the reasons for  

9:16 iron and zinc deficiency worldwide are related  to the Low by availability uh mainly and also  

9:23 to the low iron and zinc content sometimes of  Highly refined serial based diet um phytic acid  

9:32 is highly negatively charged and can bind  avidly throughout all the pH uh range that  

9:39 is physiological with iron zinc but also with  proteins uh and carbohydrate forming insoluble  

9:45 complexes that are very hard to absorb  by humans and single stomach animals next

9:52 slide um ftic acid is bound to phosphorus and is  the the main phosphor store of the plant and as  

10:05 for stores in in seeds and legumes they are  colocalized uh uh with minerals so iron and  

10:14 zinc are often colocalized uh with phytic acid in  the grains and you see this in this micrograph uh  

10:22 where a wheat grain is represented and you can see  uh the content of phosphorus so ftic acid and the  

10:29 con in green and the content of of iron in red and  the really colocalized that means that by Milling  

10:36 it will be very hard to separate the minerals from  the phytic acid also it's important to realize  

10:44 that uh the ftic acid content of a whole wheat  grain is around th000 milligrams per kilogram  

10:51 whereas here we're talking about Trace Elements  which are present in milligrams amount so phytic  

10:56 acid is in terms of concentration is overwhelming  the concentration of Trace elements next slide um  

11:06 bi availability is a key determinant for iron  and zinc requirements in nutrition and here I   copied tables from the wh that highlight that we  have a three to four fold higher requirement of  

11:20 iron and zinc uh when a low by availability from  the diet is present and you can see that in the  

11:26 upper table for iron going from 5.9 milligrams  per day at 15% by availability to 17.8% at 5% by  

11:37 availability next slide I would like to present  you two simple studies that were been conducted  

11:46 looking at the direct addition of Fes to a test  meal uh this study was conducted using stable iron  

11:54 Isotopes this is considered the golden standard  for bioavailability and absorp option studies  

12:00 in humans FAS was from aspergilus neiger it's  active at low ph and also ph5 the subjects were  

12:09 generally iron status repleted so we don't expect  a very very high absorption because they are iron  

12:15 repleted this is natural but this um they were  fed a maze meal uh which contained uh iron and  

12:25 when this maze meal also contained fase which was  added almost as a supplement in a micronutrient  

12:32 sache called sprinkles um this uh strongly  enhanced Iron by availability in both iron  

12:40 compounds that were added to the maze meal showing  that fight is at the point of addition can be very  

12:46 effective I want to show you a second study that  is a randomized controls trial conducted in school  

12:54 children in South Africa this is uh the golden  stand methodology to assess efficacy over long  

13:03 term of a of a food or a micronutrient supplement  but also pharmaceutical compound for example this  

13:10 is the methodology is what mostly accepted and  here in this study which lasted 23 weeks uh in  

13:19 children which were had higher prevalence of iron  and zinc deficiency we can see that in in in the  

13:27 intervention in the first in the first bar in  the graph we have a stark uh decrease in the  

13:34 prevalence of zinc deficiency and in the third bar  we have a very strong decrease in iron deficiency  

13:43 uh iron absorption over the trial was estimated to  be around 7 to 8% which is uh not bad considering  

13:51 these children were later also repleted so they  naturally will have absorbed less and there was  

13:56 also a marginal effect on anthropometry in  the treatment groups in these children next

14:02 slide so FES is a natural enzyme that  is present in plants and can be made  

14:12 also in in in bacteria and fungi and um  has been um has been classified to to  

14:20 not represent any Hazard to Health by the FAO  who expert committee on food additives which  

14:29 didn't Define and allow daily intake and they  also defined some use cases such as in dietary  

14:35 and food supplements in beverages in flour and  breakfast cereals but also in uh in fortified  

14:43 Blended Foods uh it's also an approved food uh  food additive by the Codex elementarius next

14:51 Slide the the the evidence is quite overwhelming  we have a lot of studies showing uh what I shown  

15:01 before so the an increase in Iron Zin by  availability when phytic acid is reduced  

15:06 in foods but also when we add FAS um on iron and  zinc that this is the strongest evidence we have  

15:14 some suggestive evidence also on calcium uh that  calcium might be have a slightly higher absorption  

15:22 uh when ftic acid is reduced but calcium is  dependent on other nutrients rather than only  

15:28 fight ftic acid um and there are really no human  studies on protein digestibility so that's maybe  

15:35 an open question and an urgent question to be  solved but there are suggestions from animal   studies that ftic acid degradation could uh  enhance protein digestability as well next

15:47 slide so to conclude FAS is a very effective well  proven in enhancing iron and zinc absorption at  

15:55 point of consumption it's also effic in  decreasing iron def efficiency and Zig   deficiency uh it has a detectable effect in  marginally increasing calcium absorption and  

16:05 there are suggestive effects for animal invitro  studies for increasing protein digestibility next

16:10 slide uh there certainly a potential for  these enzymes to be specifically adapted  

16:17 to food processing operations um and uh in food  processing fighted removal can also have techn  

16:25 functional benefits such as changing gel in  forming and texture properties it certainly  

16:31 has a role to play in enhancing iron and zinc  by availability for a healthy and safer uh iron  

16:36 supplementation and more sustainable diets and  with that I I would like to give the word uh

16:45 to Mike bford from Ab Vista U for some  application experiences thank you very  

16:55 much for your attention thank you Diego um what  I would like to show in my my presentation is  

17:03 the application experiences in the animal feed  industry has already been pointed out we've been   using fases for more than 30 years now and  uh there's some some interesting aspects to  

17:13 discuss okay can have the next slide please and  then I I work with the industry in in the animal  

17:20 feed industry so clearly I have a a competing  interest here if I can go to uh the next slide

17:25 please okay so the agenda is uh F's action is  relevant to animal response and I want to just  

17:35 discuss dose response relationships and then look  at what I'm calling superdosing so the evidence in  

17:41animals now is pointing to uh really considering  much higher doses than we've been using in the  

17:46past so we go to the first next slide sorry this  shows a typical fight a dose response curve with  

17:54 the uh units per kilogram of feed now this could  be pigs or chickens so monogastric animals that  

18:00 we're feeding them to and then on the y axis  is the available phosphorous Matrix now what   does that mean it means how much phosphorus  are we releasing for the animal um what this  

18:11 is telling you is that the phosphates there's six  phosphates on ftic acid are being released as we  

18:16 add more and more phas and as has been mentioned  before these phosphates are chating minerals uh  

18:23 and as we add more and more Fighters you can see  the relationship is log linear in other words it's   not a linear response it's it's decaying as you  add more and more phas the incremental response is  

18:32 reduced now why is that partly because as you add  FAS you're reducing the amount of substrate left  

18:39 and there's a relationship between how much fitas  fate is there and how fast the phase works but  

18:45 also it's got to do with the way fate is broken  down so if I can see the next slide please uh  

18:52 yeah thank you so this is on the top left you can  see the uh the anost ring with six phosphat and  

18:59 the arrow points at where the phyas enzyme attacks  the phosphate and releases it so the first action  

19:06 is to attack ip6 take off the phosphate which  is green and release it and produce ip5 ip5 on  

19:17 the right hand side of that that reaction is then  attacked by the same phas and another phosphate  

19:22 is released to make ip4 and ip4 and so on all the  way down to ip1 now the important thing thing that  

19:29 we've recognized in animal nutrition now is that  if you take a typical corn soy diet which contains  

19:36 about 1% phytic acid or. 24% phosphate because  there's inol and phosphate in that molecule of  

19:43 phytic acid you can see that bar graph on  the right hand side that phosphorus release  

19:49 is related not exactly the way it is the way we  see that as you take ip5 to ip4 you're releasing  

19:55 0.04% phosphorus and so on why is it of Interest  well remember that was a cur linear uh graph in  

20:02 the previous slide IP six is an easy substrate for  fight ip5 is a very easy substrate for fases but  

20:11 then ip4 3 2 are much more difficult uh substrates  for the Fate FAS to break down which means that  

20:20 the reaction rate slows so we're very quick to get  to ip4 and then we slow down dramatically as we  

20:26 try to get to ip1 and that last molecule ip1 in OS  monophosphate that is broken down in the duodenum  

20:34 and dunum by alkaline phosphatases so that  describes our understanding why are we interested  

20:40 in the different IPS if I can have the next slide  please it's because people F focus on ip6 or  

20:49 phasin but actually phases start producing those  lower Esters and they are not innocuous so if this  

20:56 is a simple correlation analysis is between the  concentrations of ip3 and ip4 with digestability  

21:04 of different nutrients so the nutrient ilal am or  energy uh you can see the more ip3 that's present  

21:12 the poorer the energy digestability in that diet  with the correlation coefficient of 084 which is  

21:18 quite high and highly very very significant  but of interest to this discussion ilal  

21:24nitrogen digestability or protein digestability  is negatively correlated with P3 and sodium and  

21:30 you can see that IL ip4 is negative related with  magnesium and ion digestability which fits well  

21:37 with this discussion here so when we talk about  improving digestibility of nutrients we've got   to think of not about not just getting rid of ip6  but also getting rid of Ip 543 and possibly two  

21:49 we're not 100% sure yet I want to show to on the  next slide uh this is to show you just how high a  

21:59 dose of phyas we need to go to in order to remove  F phytic acid and its lower Esters so on the x  

22:08 axis just look at the negative control ignore the  two right hand side graphs we can talk about them  

22:13 if it comes into the discussion but what we've  measured here is the concentration in the ilium of  

22:19 ip6 or phytic acid in the negative control you can  see it's almost 60,000 and then the the orange bar  

22:28 is the sum of Ip 6543 and two so the lowest is  down to ip2 and you can see uh that the difference  

22:37 between the two is not very great that's because  most of the diet you can see um that the the  

22:44 presence of the Esters is ip6 there very little  5432 as we had 500 units of Fes you can see you  

22:52 degrade the total amount of ip6 to about 50% but  we've increased the contribution of the lower s  

22:59 and as we had more and more fight days you can  see at 13 a half thousand units we pretty much   reduced it to zero and certainly almost to zero  with 40,500 now the point I'd make 500 units is  

23:10 where the industry standard is and was we're  moving to much higher levels now to get the  

23:15 benefits which we're now seeing when we go to  much higher levels that is because the lower  

23:21 Esters still have an a negative influence on  particularly on protein digestability and the   other element I'm going to talk very briefly on is  inositol which is the gray bars here and you can  

23:31 see significantly increased levels of inositol are  present ready for absorption as you go to at the  

23:38 moment what we would call ridiculously high doses  of phas so FAS dose is not optimized even in the  

23:43 animal industry we could feed more if it was just  cheaper or more effective next slide please this  

23:51 is very brief this is amino acid digestability uh  on the x axis you can see the numbers going from  

23:57 0.9 to to 1.2 what this is is the digestability  of amino acids uh when we fed different levels  

24:04 of phyas uh the one represents the digestability  of the diet with no phyas added but you can see  

24:11 if you take for example methine which is the  amino acid at the bottom of that graph as we  

24:18 added the blue bar at 500 units we've got about a  1% Improvement in methine digestability as you go  

24:23 to higher and higher levels you can see that amino  acid digestability increases proportionately and  

24:29 often in animal studies we're using low levels  of fas and there is this uh feeling that amino  

24:36 acid digestibility effects on are equivocal but  it's probably because we're not using enough  

24:42 to get significant changes that we can detect  significantly okay next slide please very briefly  

24:50 in in ost's release if we get to really high  levels of phyas this is really interesting from   our Viewpoint in the animal feed industry because  it's an insulin atics it actually AIDS in insulin  

25:00 activity and it's also a precursor for second  messengers ip3 ip4 ip5 which is from a metabolism  

25:07 Viewpoint very interesting and ip5 is actually  involved in oxygen transfer from hemoglobin so  

25:14 very interesting in terms of um reducing oxygen  oxygenation problems okay next slide please I  

25:22 think I'm on that so summary fat is never fully  degraded to an osle the lower Esters are not inoc  

25:29 values ACR from higher doses of phyas from mineral  energy and amino acid release but also production  

25:34 of an ostl and the response is log linear so the  optimum conversion from ip6 through the lower SAS  

25:40 to an Noel is never actually achieved next slide  please thank you uh and with that I'll introduce  

25:48 on the next slide uh Micah Bruins from DSN who's  going to talk about fitas in food supplements yes  

25:58 thank you so much uh and um first of all I  would like to make a statement of conflict  

26:05 of interest in the next slide yes I'm employed by  DSM fish which is a A supplier of Food Solutions  

26:17 including enzymes to the food industry so  it's a an obvious conflict of interest and  

26:23 then today uh I would like to introduce to you  the topic of fight day and also uh as you can  

26:30 see in the next slide that um how it works the  mode of actions but also uh the potential use  

26:39 of the enzyme in different formats and  I will give you a very short regulatory

26:44 overview um to start with how can the enzyme  work is actually two basic ways it can act uh  

26:55 the enzyme can already Act in the food uh by  degrading the phytic acid or it can act in the  

27:03 ingredients that go into the food or into to  the recipe and then it's called Uh processing  

27:10 eight the other way the enzyme can act is uh in  the GI tract so in the stomach but also in the  

27:18 small intestine uh then it's called an ingredient  a functional ingredient or an active ingredient  

27:26 and those two you have to keep in mind because  for regulatory this uh makes a difference um I  

27:33 also would like to repeat what prunka already  said the enzyme can act both on the minerals  

27:40 that are intrinsically present in the cereals  or the legumes or it helps to make the minerals  

27:49 uh that are added to the food more bioavailable  so it has a dual mode of action then in the next  

27:58 I show you a few examples of how the enzyme  can be applied first of all you could think  

28:04 of using it in voluntary fortified Foods or um  even a plant-based foods that are not fortified  

28:12 to make minerals more available um and you could  think for instance of plant-based meat alternative  

28:20 plant-based dairy or a bread uh the flat breads  like tortillas you also have por GES for instance  

28:29 why you could use it and condiments uh in certain  foods it probably will not act as a processing  

28:36 eight for instance condiments but then it would  act rather in the GI tract second of all and that  

28:42 has probably the largest rich is if you could  use the enzyme in large scale fortified foods  

28:49 to improve the the mineral status and you could  think for instance of flowers oils or Buon cubes  

28:58 and uh in certain cases it cannot act as  a processing eight already in the food but  

29:05 then you could consider more a heat stable enzyme  that acts in the stomach so um both options are  

29:13 possible the the easiest option probably is that  you include the enzyme to get into nutritional  

29:22 powders micronutrient powders or lipid based paste  type of food that you add to a Meal which is high  

29:31 in ftic acid uh and another option is including  it into cereals that are used for porridges for  

29:38 instance for young children and a last of all um  I don't see it on the market yet a lot you could  

29:46 think of using the enzyme uh as a supplement for  those who are consuming a high plant-based diets  

29:54 of vegetarians or vegans so in the next slide I  will give you a very short overview of the two  

30:03 ways you can use the enzyme and the first is as  I already mentioned to use as a processing Aid or  

30:10 additive that means that you need to inactivated  in the food at the end of the process and it needs  

30:18 to be inactive so uh denature it and it can be  inactivated for instance through a heating step in  

30:26 the process so baking of bread or anything alike  that also means because it's no longer there you  

30:32 don't need to declare it on the label but that  also means you cannot make a claim on the enzyme  

30:39 because you don't have it in your product anymore  um but you could probably consider because you  

30:47 made the minerals uh more available you could  consider making claim on the more bi available  

30:54 minerals then use as an functional ingredient  that's registration wise uh slightly more work  

31:04 but um it's can be very uh it can have a high  potential because it acts in the GI tract it  

31:10 allows you to add it to more foods but it needs  to be declared on the label as an ingredient but  

31:17 it also allows to make a claim on the enzyme and  its benefits probably in certain countries based  

31:23 on the science that is behind and Diego already  elaborated on that so then last of all I would  

31:31 like to give you a very Topline overview of the  countries where the enzyme is cleared uh for  

31:39 the use as a processing Aid in green um and also  where the enzyme is uh registered for the use as  

31:47 a processing Aid and for the use in supplements so  the use to act in the stomach and the the GI tract  

31:56 I would like to make a small note on countries  like uh a few countries in Africa where um a codex  

32:05 is used um there there you have also sometimes  the possibility to use it as a processing Aid  

32:12 because codex refers to the enzyme for the use uh  in food but also for uh Foods intended for older  

32:21 infants and young children and that um so far is  my presentation and I would like then to hand it

32:30 over thanks a lot um M um and thanks to all the  panelists we will now move to the um section of  

32:41 um the panel discussion um and we'll try  to focus on what this can mean for solving  

32:48 malnutrition issues especially in low and middle  income markets um so Diego um you presented the  

32:55 scientific studies of fight ISU in humans um and  explained a bit how the emerging uh research is  

33:01 showing the potential of innovation via  FES how significant of a role um do you   expect fighters to play in addressing nutritional  deficiencies specifically in low and middle income

33:11 markets thank you Lucy for for the question I  think it already plays a certain role in uh in  

33:22 nutritional supplements and food delivered in uh  by the world food program in emergencies where it  

33:30 is partly added to to to certain specialized  Foods uh it certainly doesn't hasn't reached  

33:36 as prianka has highlighted hasn't reached its  its potential it's not uh used widely uh yet I  

33:46 think the concept of bioavailability itself  so the ability to absorb nutrients from if  

33:52 when they are present is also not very present  yet uh I think regulatory bodies have a certain  

34:01 are knowledgeable about this I think it's it's  uh uh it's there in in the Codex and in many

34:12 legislative uh laws U by availability is  present so there is a certain a of this  

34:21 and but I think the the concept of ftic acid  and fight is not not very present yet yet um  

34:29 unfortunately um so I think webinars like this  are are important to raise the awareness uh of  

34:39 this issue and the importance to counteract  antinutrients uh with FAS but also with other  

34:45 means I think there were questions on the  chat um and the advantage of fas is that  

34:51 it it is effective for many nutrients for iron  zinc and potentially also proteins and calcium  

34:58 whereas if you add ascorbic acid or vitamin C  it this is very effective for iron but probably  

35:03 doesn't have much effect on zinc absorption for  examp thank you um for this um and by the way if  

35:12 any of you wants to answer the question in the  chat because we'll definitely have only limited   time at the end um feel free to answer in writing  um so Dr M um going back to you you shared some  

35:24 experience um with fight isues in micronutrient  powders in LNS some plane based Alternatives um  

35:31 where do you see um like which one do you see  as potential uh good applications for FES and  

35:37 why specifically in um these low and middle income  markets yeah actually I see potential for all of  

35:44 them but probably the I think the the easiest to  implement are the the sashet and the powder that  

35:52 you add to food uh that's really lwh hanging fruit  I think as a pro processing Aid it's that that  

35:59 requires a bit more work um on the manufacturing  side to understand the process but I think it's  

36:05 also having a high potential if you include it  in uh staple foods that are consumed by large  

36:12 part of the population like uh bread type of foods  flowers uh condiments yes well thank you so yeah  

36:24 lot lots of opportunities um and as you showed  on the map only few uh that are fully taken um  

36:30 advantage of at this stage um so let's talk a bit  about the role of regulation in this uh panage  

36:37 thanks for joining us um you're an industry  expert in B2B nutrition at site and life with  

36:42 more than 20 years experience um in topics around  Business Development uh Innovation and strategic  

36:48 planning around nutrition um so specifically um  you have some experience with the recent changes  

36:56 in the regulation in India um the food and safety  standards of India approved the use of Fes in food  

37:02 products and nutriceutical for fate reduction in  October 2022 um it had been used before that in  

37:11 animal feed for decades um but it so how did the  fssi um basically manage to get it approved for  

37:20 human use what was the process for your question  Lucy FSS stands for the Indian food regulatory  

37:28 Authority food safety standard authority of India  the presence of phate which is ftic acid is in  

37:36 food is a significant nutritional issue adding FAS  which is an enzyme in the food that enhances the  

37:44 release of essential micronutrients especially the  iron calcium zinc and magnesium and that helps in  

37:51 terms of the absorption of these nutrients overall  from from a nutritional perspective fight is uh by  

38:01 global regulatory authorities as well has been  declared as a grass status generally regarded  

38:06 as a safe and studies uh in different parts of  the world have shown especially in the animal  

38:15 nutrition uh there is a growing acceptance however  for human consumption also there have been several  

38:22 studies that are being carried out and uh as far  as the safety is concerned there is no significant  

38:28 safety concerns that have been notified when used  within approved limits so that's the take that the  

38:38 authority has considered and based on that fssa  has approved it as a processing a in October

38:45 22 thank you um did any of the work done in  the animal feed uh part help as well yeah so  

38:57 uh fssi predominantly monitors only the food and  beverage industry so as far as the reference uh in  

39:05 uh are considered is mainly the Codex and several  human studies that are being carried out as I  

39:12 mentioned about the grass status for this fight is  uh the risk has already been considered and uh for  

39:20 the dosage guidelines in fact uh fssi recommends  it as GMP good Manufacturing practices so from a  

39:29 food company perspective as mik mentioned there is  small amount of R&D that needs to be carried out  

39:37 individually by a food producer for a specific  format of food when they would like to enrich  

39:43 it with the F and okay thank you for that so  moving on to maybe the more kind of commercial  

39:51 and marketing angle um for this um Amy you're our  last speaker um you're the and founder of good  

39:58 fight uh and before that you've spent close to 20  years working on nutrition and preventative health  

40:04 including doing a lot of research on fight a and  its ability to um neutralize the antinutrient  

40:10 fight a um can you please explain a bit um what  you've seen in terms of marketing um FES products  

40:18 fight supplements in your case um what are the  kind of arguments that resonate well with the  

40:24 with your I mean I don't know if I should call  them p patients or clients um and uh yeah what  

40:30 what have you seen work in terms of the effect and  in terms of the marketing messages that you convey  

40:36 thank you Lucy um yeah so we have been in the  market since 2019 as a supplement um my research  

40:44 began in HIV and malaria because um I uh ip6 is  required for HIV assembly so that was where my  

40:53 research started in 2008 with the Canadian trials  Network um and in malaria where uh giving iron is  

41:01 at times contraindicated because it increases your  susceptibility to malaria fites is an alternative  

41:08 that can be used in those situations so we came to  Market in 2019 um it has been a heavy lift to to  

41:16 educate consumers about micronutrients about what  fites is um and ultimately uh what's happened is  

41:25 that because of the results that people have seen  it's really spread quite easily through Word of  

41:31 Mouth um we have done marketing we're a startup  organization but um we've had pretty incredible  

41:38 results in a number of chronic conditions  um and obviously in iron deficiency and

41:44 Immunity thank you um and are there in terms of  how you propose your product Are there specific  

41:52 messages that you uh provide spec specific um  aspects that have been helpful to maybe bring  

41:58 in the first um the first patients do you know  from which communities these first patients came  

42:05 yeah so in terms of the the autoimmune conditions  that that again that sort of spread um organically  

42:12 through people that we're seeing results in those  conditions um multiple sclerosis inflammatory  

42:18 bowel disease very significant results there  um um but essentially the way that we try to  

42:25 explain it is um just that that phate binds  to all of the micronutrients and makes them  

42:32 unavailable for the body to absorb and that  FES then breaks that down so that the body  

42:38 is able to absorb it um the research dating back  to Dr Harland and Dr overly years ago shows that  

42:46 um phate also complexes the endogenous pool  of zinc in the body and so um like Mike was  

42:52 saying it's important to see and to use higher  doses of fase um to be able to liberate that

42:59 zinc thank you um we have quite a few questions in  the chat and in the Q&A um asked around the market  

43:09 size of currently of fight days um for human  consumption in Africa as well as the relative  

43:15 cost compared to adding more iron or adding more  zinc into Foods um I don't know if M this is a  

43:22 question you would like to take um putting you a  bit on the spot here yeah the market size I find  

43:29 difficult to answer I don't don't maybe pretty  the the the cost I can commment um of adding the  

43:36 enzyme versus um what you would need to add uh  if you would fortify uh it depends really it's  

43:43 Case by case but what we have done we have done  some modeling and calculations um but it's true  

43:51 you add a little bit of cost by adding the enzyme  but you add only few microgram but because you add  

43:58 this enzyme you also need to add less of your  fortificant so in the end you can reduce the  

44:04 amount of iron zinc calcium Etc that you um  fortify your food with uh and that also has  

44:12 some benefits because we know that adding a lot of  iron especially the one that ises not absorbed may  

44:17 have adverse effects on your uh microbiome  um so it can be definitely cost effective

44:29 thank you uh PR prianka or pank on  from the site and life side um I I  

44:34 think prianka mentioned earlier that the  current market was about 600 million for   fight in animal feet but do you have any  data points on the human consumption side  

44:45 uh Lucy so in human nutrition fight days  is uh fight days consumption is at very  

44:51 nent stage of there are only few selected  products that to in high income countries

44:59 yeah but but there is potential of f  days addition in more than 45 product formats um thank you there's been quite a few  questions also on the additional and um Amy  

45:13 you actually started alluding to that on the  additional benefits that Fighters can have um  

45:19 some people are asking for example about some  anti-cancer properties um there were um some  

45:25 questions also yeah on other um benefits Beyond  just uh improving the kind of micronutrient status  

45:34 um any observations U maybe from others than  Amy on this panel on the additional benefits  

45:40 that um this D FES can have yeah I'm just  sorry see I was just typing an answer to  

45:48 that in in in animals what we're finding is  very high levels of fighter so I understand   the question is basically ftic acid is is is is  implicated to have anti-cancer effects but what  

45:58 we found with animals is you feed very very high  levels of phyas what you do is you break it down   to an nool in the gut the anost is absorbed and  then it's re phosphorated proportionately to the  

46:10 the the the serum levels of anol that you've  deliv so as long as there's enough an ool and  

46:15 phosphate the animal actually rebuilds back in  chickens ip5 which is very important for oxygen  

46:22 transfer so ironically the higher level of phas  the higher the levels of I in the body that's one  

46:28 of the um the findings from Samy Dre's lab in  Arkansas and a few groups also now working in  

46:34 in in Europe right any additional points from  anyone on the panel on the on the benefits of

46:44 by if not um maybe um going back to to you  m on the other advantages now looking at the  

46:56 at the Planet as well um how do you see fight  contributing potentially to climate resilient  

47:02 Food Systems in low and middle- income markets  yeah that is a I think a good question because  

47:09 I think with um the growing population and what  what we also see with the climate change is that  

47:14 um we we need to shift more towards sustainable  and also very nutrient dense foods and especially  

47:22 plant-based Foods H so if we can unlock the the  the the mic nutrients especially the minerals  

47:29 in those crops I think that that yeah brings  great potential especially because we see now  

47:36 um uh more Reliance on those uh on figh Rich uh  crops and on top you also see that the climate  

47:45 has an impact on Mineral and protein content um  and you see a trend of lowering uh of iron and  

47:54 zinc and also protein in crops so if we can use  the enzyme as part of a bigger solution to make  

48:01 the minerals more bioavailable I think it's um  a way to move and shift more towards plant thank  

48:08 you um very clear um is there um and maybe going  back then to to you Diego um you you mentioned a  

48:20 bit that uh yeah fight was just beginning  to be known um do you see any strategies  

48:27 to bring the awareness Gap so not at the  consumer side that Amy alluded to but on   the policy maker side what what is required  to BR the awareness Gap given on all these

48:36 advantages I think on the regulatory side  uh highlighting the the health benefits is  

48:46 certainly Paramount that is the most important  argument um I think other other arguments are  

48:55 are have been alluded also in the chat a little  bit I mean uh can we not ferment Foods uh and  

49:02 use the per potential of um of fermentation  uh that is certainly possible uh It Is by by  

49:13 definition though fermentation or or some of the  traditional fermentation approaches are not really  

49:18 standardized and that's where uh this this maybe  could also be used as an argument uh with with  

49:27 regulatory bodies that we are actually making  the traditional more resilient and we renew the  

49:35 tradition in a way that makes it more accessible  and easier to use um uh by adding the the actual  

49:45 important ingredient of the fermentation that  reduces ftic acid so Bridging the Gap is also  

49:53 rediscovering Traditions maybe this is more of a  political rediscovering Traditions with a with a  

49:59 modern touch and this this could be attractive  maybe uh argument for consumers but also most  

50:07 also for regulatory bodies um thank you pank is  that an argument that has been used in India or  

50:16 that you know that the government has been maybe  particularly sensitive to the Reviving tradition  

50:23 argument so from a pro procing perspective as  go rightly said fermentation or the conventional  

50:32 processing techniques has always been uh on the  Forefront in terms of you know promoting the best  

50:39 practices uh uh cooking best cooking practices  however as we see the emerging Trend as far as  

50:47 the convenience foods are concerned especially the  plant-based diets now there is a need uh because  

50:54 what we see here is uh the presence of ftic acid  which is a major antinutrient the only solution  

51:03 so far available is the enzyme f is there have  been other ingredients like prebiotics or like  

51:10 as the we goad about vitamin C but that can only  help in terms of a single mineral absorption not  

51:19 the complete absorption of calcium magnesium  zinc and so that way fssi has concern about  

51:28 the uh fortification in general fssi promotes very  heavily in India the last fill food fortification  

51:36 programs in fact India has been in Forefront  in terms of getting the guidelines ready for  

51:44 all these stles including wheat or rice milk oil  and salt so that way fssi is considering uh one  

51:53 of the Prime Minister objective here is the en M  anemia free India so iron deficiency anemia is on  

52:03 the top of the government uh looking at that you  know all the Consolidated efforts are striving  

52:11 towards making fortification more accessible  and affordable and fight itself in terms of you  

52:20 know meeting the agenda what government has okay  um so beyond the like the uh progresses on the  

52:32 regulation side is the government um and the fssi  specifically um doing anything to promote these  

52:38 Innovations and ensure further bioavailability of  the micronutrients in food yes so uh as far as the  

52:46 fortification is concerned uh there have been very  clear guidelines in India uh what sort of uh what  

52:56 salt form of iron or calcium or magnesium to be  used in all these staples so it has been very well  

53:04 stated and there is a scientific panel who does  review of all these and they only recommend the  

53:12 uh the the levels of fortification along with the  form of the nutrient that is to be used however as  

53:20 we see uh iron especially uh the absorption has  very uh significant concern uh especially in the  

53:31 Fortified Staples like the Fortified rice where  the iron is dosed as feric pyrophosphate which is  

53:38 the insoluble form of iron and because of it  insolubility it is uh not absorbed and hence  

53:48 there are different techniques like micronization  or encapsulation that is being practiced however f  

53:55 is that way comes out to be a very simple solution  and uh that's the uniqueness that perhaps you  

54:03 know can be uh you know promoted or discussed or  advocated amongst the food industry thank you P  

54:13 dieo you had your hand up yeah just to highlight  the the opportunity to use fight in the food  

54:20 industry there's certain production processes that  that would be quite suitable I think to the use of  

54:27 fas integrating fases obviously not every every  single production process but wet processes or um  

54:36 the production of plant-based protein concentrates  that are mostly a wet process um could be could be  

54:43 really considered uh and we we we saw that these  products have have are actually very rich in ftic  

54:50 acid because the the process doesn't really reduce  it automatically um thank you um Amy before going  

55:01 to you just one more question on the technical  side because they've been quite a few questions   in the chat on the technicalities of using uh  fight that you started answering Diego um but  

55:11 um there were a few questions on how stable it is  when used in food fortification so I don't know  

55:17 who wants to take that one and then Amy over to  you well currently oh maybe M oh you start first  

55:27 I get to it the the fight is currently they are  not they will not survive pasturization or high  

55:34 temperature shorttime uh treatment so they're they  heat label so they will it's an enzyme uh there is  

55:43 obviously research in this area to create a heat  stable or heat Stabler Fighters formulations and  

55:49 maybe M knows more about this yeah M and then  Amy and then we'll close the panel yeah correct  

55:55 and and you have to make sure it acts at the  optimum temperature um so yeah knowledge around  

56:03 the the Optimal Performance with the humidity  and the moisture and uh the water content and  

56:11 the temperature is very important to understand  how it can act optimally thanks Michael Amy over  

56:18 to you I just wanted to emphasize um the response  that we've heard from customers um and how quick  

56:26 this enzyme works so we often hear from customers  that within the first few days of taking the  

56:32 enzyme their energy goes up significantly um  and then in some of those chronic conditions the  

56:38 response is typically within a week or two so this  this is a very very powerful enzyme um and we've  

56:43 had a lot of customer feedback and testimonials  so um we are doing research retrospective and  

56:49 prospective studies um and if anyone is interested  in collaborating on that research i' I'd be very  

56:55 open to discussing that but but the response has  been pretty pretty incredible so I just wanted to   highlight that and maybe a question then because  you like the kind of supplement representative  

57:05 on the panel how did how do you deal with the um  stability issue is that an issue for supplements  

57:10 as well or not so much it is um so we have to  be very careful and we've put a lot of research 

57:16 and development into our product um so we have  uh the product that's available in in capsule  

57:23 form um which it rather than adding it into food  where heat becomes an issue people can just take  

57:29 it in a capsule form thank you very much um the  panel was fascinating with the the questions in  

57:37 the chat I think we could have gone on for four  hours um but we do have to close I'll pass it   on uh back to Matt for closing remarks thank  you so much Lucie and to all of our speakers  

57:48 for a very rich set of presentations there was so  much great information shared and I'll do my very  

57:53 best to summarize briefly. Phytate is a super villain  stealing our nutrients and phytase can fight back.  

58:01 Phytase has already been used for over 30 years  in the animal feed industry and we now have more   than 20 human studies completed showing that it is  both impactful and that there are no significant  

58:11 safety concerns this is a critical Innovation  because nearly 50% of all Global calories are  

58:18 coming from Staples which are high in fate and  Rising temperatures are only increasing phytic  

58:24 acid further consumers see these staples as  healthy and full of nutrients when in fact the  

58:29 anti-nutrients are getting in the way. Phytase can  mitigate this for example increasing iron and zinc  

58:36 absorption by two to five times and phytase can  degrade phytic acid within the food itself as a  

58:42 processing Aid as well as in the stomach and small  intestine as a functional ingredient. Phytase has  

58:48 been approved as a food additive by the Codex  elementarius and is cleared as a processing  

58:53 Aid in several markets. It's compatible with a  wide range of fortified staples, packaged foods  

59:00 and condiments and specialized nutrition products  and can be added with relatively small amounts of  

59:05 R&D needed, although Innovation is still required  on heat stability. Because it reduces the amount  

59:12 of fortificant needed in food it can be quite  cost effective and it also reduces the negative  

59:17 effect of over fortification on things  like the health of microbiome. Higher doses  

59:23 of phytase are even more effective and if costs  can be brought down, we can have either even   greater effects. We need to create awareness,  generate demand and further innovate on cost  

59:34  effective applications so that the solutions are  scalable, and all of this of course requires more   investment. So please join us, you too can be a  superhero in the fight against anti-nutrients  

 

59:45 for healthy people on a healthy planet. Thank you  so much again to everyone for joining us today.