We are delighted to partner with University College Dublin (UCD) and Technological University Dublin for SWEETWISE, a new initiative to address sugar reduction, led by Dr Emma Feeney, Assistant Professor at UCD and Associate Dean of Global Engagement at the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science.
SWEETWISE, which stands for Sugar and sWeetener Evaluation for Emerging Technologies With Infant food Solutions for Exposure, received €1,308,752 as part of a €37.5 million research investment programme launched by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon TD, and Minister of State with special responsibility for Research and Development Noel Grealish TD.
Over the next four years, the project will bring together expertise from human nutrition, genetics, food science and technology, dentistry and feeding behaviour. As many commercially available complementary foods (CACF) for infants in Ireland are high in free sugars, representing a significant cariogenic exposure in early life, the DDUH work package led by Dr Michael Crowe and Professor Gary Moran will focus on developing a novel in vitro cariogenicity model. This will assess whether complementary infant foods reformulated through food technology processing have reduced cariogenic potential.
The overall funding will also support four PhD students and one postdoctoral researcher, and allow the wider team to develop key sugar reduction strategies in Ireland, including: advancing our understanding of metabolic impacts of non-nutritive sweeteners as well as testing advanced technologies in non-thermal processing to determine their effect on free sugar content of children’s complementary weaning foods with a view to reformulation.
Congratulations to the team - UCD (Emma Feeney, Clare Reynolds, Tesfaye Bedane and James Lyng), Trinity College Dublin (Michael Crowe and Gary Moran), and Technological University Dublin (Liz O'Sullivan) - and looking forward to hearing the progress of this exciting project.
