Very good article off Yahoo very much worth reprint here:
Nice Article Part 1
by: e4se1 04/26/04 06:32 am
Msg: 72 of 73
Found this article doing some research tonight. Pasted the entire thing because you need to sign up in order to access the article:
Beginning Friday, Eastern will be the lone university assisting Mundelein-based FiberGel Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Circle Group Holdings Inc., in testing what may arguably wind up being the most successful fat substitute in history.
Z-Trim, a fat replacement that lowers up to 50 percent of calories and fats in foods without hindering taste or texture, has been available for consumers to purchase online since January in a powder form.
The product is one Greg Halpern, Chief Executive Officer of Circle Group Holdings, said consumers can expect in mainstream food products made by Nestle and other major food brands by summer.
"Few people know about it now, but by the end of the year everyone in America will know about it," he said.
The company purchased the patent from the United States Department of Agriculture laboratory in Peoria, where Z-Trim was developed.
From June through the end of the year, it will air $20-$30 million worth of commercials hawking the zero-calorie, corn-based substitute that increases healthy insoluble fiber when used in products, Halpern said. He said a direct response company will be responsible for all the marketing and promotions involving the product.
First-year School of Family & Consumer Sciences Chair James Painter, former assistant professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, initially became involved with FiberGel Technologies when he introduced his Nutrition Analysis Tools and System (NATS) to Halpern at a conference last June. The NATS program uses tables to analyze the nutrient content of the food people consume and is compatible with most browsers. During midsummer of last year he licensed the company with a 15-year agreement to make NATS accessible through the Z-Trim Web site (ztrim.com).
During his encounter with Halpern is when Painter became aware of Z-Trim, which at the time was in the process of being developed. In exchange for pursuing Z-Trim studies, Eastern received a financial gift from FiberGel Technologies, Painter said.
Now, Painter said, working in conjunction with food science instructor Susan Rippy, Eastern's food science class will experiment with Z-Trim by cooking with it along with recruiting consumer panels to serve as taste testers.
"I asked Susan Rippy if she would take this experiment to her classes," Painter said. "I want the faculty to be doing real world teaching. I really wanted to make a connection between Eastern and industry. We'll gather the consumer panel to gather the overall opinion (on how well it is received). It is a win-win situation."
Students will be incorporating Z-Trim into baked goods, salad dressings and the like and gradually will chart how well it performs in the various tests the class conducts.
Rippy insisted while she expects the fat substitute to help people battle obesity, they still must implement lifestyle changes.
"We will be using the gel to substitute for part of the fat in common baked products," Rippy, who with Painter has already what the testing will entail, said. "Part of our work will be to determine the acceptability of the finished product and to determine the level of replacement that will be acceptable ... It will help, but people must still incorporate a well balanced diet with variety and moderation ..."
Painter expressed confidence in Z-Trim and is hopeful it eventually become a food industry staple.
"I really like Z-Trim," he said. "It is exactly what we need in this country. It is not a magic bullet because obviously there isn't one. But it comes close to it."
