New product opportunities with weight control health benefits

Background:

The weight management/weight loss industry is a significant commercial food market at around $17b/y. Increasing obesity is also a significant cost to the Australian health care system.

Dairy Australia investment has led to the discovery of a dairy stream that has demonstrated through in-vitro and animal models weight loss potential. This IP has been patented. We continue to drive towards commercialisation with an Australian dairy processing partner to reap benefits for the industry.

Project objective:

Short term - develop a successful commercialisation outcome for the IP identified in Dairy Australia funded research in weight management.

Long term - develop a plan for further investment in this area based on the learnings from the earlier investment.

Project scope:

The project's scope encompasses dairy derived products that offer high margin opportunities in the area of weight control. The bio-discovery component of this project has been completed.

The current scope therefore includes identification of the active dairy components right through to commercialisation efforts starting with IP already developed in this area.

Outcomes/benefits:

Develop high margin product opportunities for dairy components in weight control.

The short term outcome is for commercial uptake of the IP developed from previous DA research. Throughout 2011 commercial interests will be encouraged to evaluate the opportunity.

If any commercial evaluation looks promising then further development would be anticipated to be governed by the commercial party, which hopefully would be during 2012. The insight gained will provide the bases for a plan undertaken during 2012 for any further investment decisions in the area of weight control.

More information:

For more information, contact Ian Mitchell, Dairy Australia Nutrition Bioscience Manager.