The Digest
CSIRO's newsletter for the food, nutrition and health industries.
In this issue read about our gut health event held in Melbourne last week, a new book and a fantastic SME case study.
Analysing the potential health benefits of wasabi
Shima Wasabi, owned by the Tasmanian Food Co, is Australia’s largest commercial wasabi farm located in northwest Tasmania. Shima Wasabi wanted to gain a better understanding of wasabi's nutritional value, given their growing and increasingly health-conscious customer market.
CSIRO carried out in-depth nutrient analyses, focussing on three different forms of the plant: fresh wasabi stem, freeze-dried wasabi leaf powder, and freeze-dried wasabi leaf and stalk powder. Our analyses found that wasabi contains phenolic compounds and antioxidants, as well as the bioactive compound allyl isothiocyanate (AITC).
The analytical report provided to Shima Wasabi has allowed the company to better understand the unique nutritional attributes of wasabi and is supporting their push into emerging health and wellbeing markets.
The CSIRO Low-Carb Diet Quick and Easy
After years of research and clinical trials on low carb eating and its effectiveness for weight loss and the management of type 2 diabetes, we released the first CSIRO Low Carb Diet in 2017. Following the success of book one, we published book two in 2018 with 80 extra low-carb recipes.
Our third book in the series: The CSIRO Low-Carb Diet Quick and Easy, will be in stores from 24 September. In this third edition we provide an update on the science behind low-carb, including new research on the health benefits of a low carb diet coupled with exercise. Designed with a busy lifestyle in mind, the new recipes can be prepared in 30 minutes or less with under 10 ingredients. We’ve also incorporated some easy to grab and go pre-packed supermarket products into the recipes to make meal time even simpler.
Are you interested in the science behind low-carb? In the next edition of the Digest we will explore how we translated years of nutritional research from the lab to the community.
CSIRO’s SME Connect helps Australian small to medium enterprises gain a competitive advantage through research funding and support. One funding program is Innovation Connections, a free, no-obligation facilitated service to assist businesses in establishing their research needs, including having an on-site researcher work with you. David Monck is our Innovation Facilitator specialising in the Food and Agribusiness sector.
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