Heriot-Watt spin-out Nandi in £1m healthy food project

A spin-out company from Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University is to take part in a £1 million research project tasked with reducing the fat content of food.

Heriot-Watt and spin-out Nandi Proteins will work on developing 'healthier food choices for consumers'. Picture: Contributed

Nandi Proteins, which launched in 2001 and has developed technology to use proteins in the reduction of fat, sugar and additives in foods, will work with Heriot-Watt to develop new processes and products aimed at increasing the “availability of healthier food choices for consumers”.

The project, funded by the innovation agency Innovate UK, will also receive support from Moodiesburn-based sausage skin maker Devro and Irish foods group Kerry.

Professor Stephen Euston, a food scientist at Heriot-Watt, said the university has a “strong tradition of working at the industry-academia interface and carrying out research of practical relevance to UK industry”.

He added: “We are pleased that the strong links we have built with the UK food industry, and in particular with Nandi, will be strengthened by this new collaboration.”

Nandi is a portfolio company of Edinburgh-based Frontier IP, which helps universities to commercialise their research. Frontier chief executive Neil Crabb, who chairs Nandi, said: “Our technology enables food companies to improve the nutritional profile of their products and potentially offers a solution to such an urgent requirement for our partners.”

Devro’s group head of research, Dr Gordon Paul, said the Innovate UK project would help bring new technology to market, “promoting healthier options through collaboration with academia, a local SME and a key customer in the UK”.

He added: “We look forward to supporting this important work over the next three years.”

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