Innovation

Vitality benefits

Our innovation is increasingly focused on new products that make a positive contribution to people’s diets, for example by helping meet daily requirements for fruit and vegetables or increasing intake of fibre or other important nutrients.

Around three-quarters of the products in our foods R&D pipeline have what we call ‘vitality benefits’ – such as specific nutritional or health benefits.

In 2008, we invested more than €10 million in around 50 nutrition studies, most of them involving external partners.

Unilever collaborates with over 100 research partners, including prominent food health institutes and universities such as Tufts University (US) and the Top Institute of Food and Nutrition (Netherlands). The outcome of our research is shared as much as possible through external presentations and peer-reviewed publications.

External publications & presentations

Recent publications include a paper on the LDL-cholesterol-lowering effect of plant sterols by Isabelle Demonty et al in The Journal of Nutrition (see downloads for a pdf of the paper), and a paper entitled "Effect of plant sterols in combination with other cholesterol-lowering foods" by David Jenkins et al in Metabolism 2008. This reports on one of our international collaborations and shows that plant sterols are the major contributor to the overall lipid-lowering benefit of the so-called Portfolio Diet concept.

Unilever scientists were invited to make more than 340 presentations in 2008 at various forums. They include:

• "Weight Control: Commercial approaches and 'functional' ingredients", presented by David Mela at the Nutrition Society of Australia, Adelaide, Australia in December 2008

• An invited presentation by Annet Roodenburg on the health effects of food formulations at the Nutrition conference in Amsterdam in September 2008. The report (available as a download) shows the benefits of switching to foods with a Choices stamp

• "Maternal and Child Under-nutrition" – an international symposium organised by Unilever with Wageningen University and VLAG graduate school in the Netherlands. The event brought together more than 100 international experts from academia, and the public and private sectors to focus on affordable fortification and other nutrition issues and challenges. Saskia Osendarp presented at this symposium and talked about our collaborations and publications on iron fortification of maize flour in Kenya. More details are available in the Lancet. See "Efficacy of iron-fortified whole maize flour on iron status of schoolchildren in Kenya: a randomised controlled trial" by PEA Andang'o, SJM Osendarp, R Ayah, CE West, DL Mwaniki, CA De Wolf, R Kraaijenhagen, FJ Kok and H Verhoef in the Lancet 2007, Vol. 369, No. 9575, 1799—1806.

Innovating to widen consumer choice

Our R&D test kitchen in the Netherlands is one of our centres of culinary expertise. Its chefs create ideas for new products, recipes and product demonstrations for our Foodsolutions professional catering business, as well as providing culinary training for employees.

We aim to provide consumers with choice in terms of product varieties, such as reduced-fat and reduced-sugar versions of our ice creams, and reduced-fat versions of our margarines. We also invest in developing new products with added health and nutrition benefits.

This work is led by the Unilever Food & Health Research Institute, which employs around 450 scientific staff and collaborates with external experts on product innovation and enhancement.

Our work at the Institute is part of our wider commitment to research and development across both our Foods and Home and Personal Care categories. Around 6 000 Unilever scientists and product developers work on the discovery and development of new ingredients and processes for products that provide proven benefits in nutrition, hygiene and personal care while minimising environmental impacts. In 2008, we invested a total of €927 million in R&D, equivalent to 2.3% of sales.

Here are some examples of recent innovations:

Becel/Flora pro.activ

According to the World Health Organization, heart disease is the principal cause of premature death worldwide. Reducing cholesterol is key to minimising the risks of heart disease. Since 2003 we have worked in partnership with the World Heart Federation and national groups to promote heart health. Becel/Flora's Love your Heart campaign focuses on raising awareness and has distributed millions of heart health leaflets to consumers and health professionals. It also offers free cholesterol testing.

In 2008 in Europe, Flora/Becel pro.activ launched a spread and a fruity shot specifically developed to help manage blood pressure. Flora/Becel pro.activ Blood Pressure products are enriched with potassium. Studies show that a high potassium intake lowers blood pressure as it removes excess salt from the body, protecting it from the harmful effect of too much sodium.

Flora/Becel pro.activ was originally launched as a spread to help people reduce cholesterol levels – it is proven to lower blood cholesterol levels by 10—15%. Today Flora/Becel pro.activ Cholesterol is the leading cholesterol-lowering brand with sales of over €345 million in 2008.

Knorr Vie

People the world over do not eat enough fruit and vegetables. The World Health Organization and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization recommend a minimum intake of 400g/day, but the average is only 100g/day in developing countries and around 300g/day in the western world.

In 2005 we launched Knorr Vie in Europe, a smoothie-style shot made from concentrated vegetable and fruit juices without any additives. In a 100ml bottle, it provides half the recommended daily intake of fruit and vegetables. Knorr Vie Kids was launched in 2008 in several European countries. This product was specifically developed to meet children’s taste preferences and it received the Nutrition & Health Award in Belgium for Best Product 2008.

Ice cream

We invest around €50 million in ice cream research and development each year, and 40% of this is now devoted to opportunities in the fast-growing health and wellness sector.

Ice cream is primarily about pleasure and indulgence, but eaten sensibly it can form part of a nutritionally balanced diet. We provide a broad range of options, with light, reduced-fat and no-sugar-added versions. Many brands, such as Cornetto and Magnum, are available in snack size, too, to help with calorie control. Since 2006, most of our ice creams have been labelled with the values for eight nutrients, including energy, protein, fat and sugars.

Our Solero range products are made with fruit juice and fruit pieces and have a maximum of 99 kilocalories per product.

We have also developed non-dairy alternatives for ice cream, such as Carte d'Or Soy and AdeS ice creams.

Moo/Milk Time is a range of ices made with milk. Available in Australia, Thailand, South Africa and Europe, they provide around a third of the recommended daily intake of calcium.

Added nutrients for health

In 2007, Hindustan Lever launched Kissan Amaze in India – the first food in the country to be designed specifically to improve mental development in children. Each serving provides one-third of the nutrients children need daily for their mental development, including iron, iodine and zinc. The products also contain nutrients important for physical growth and resistance to disease. The product range includes cereal bars and milk mix powders.

Amaze was the result of four years of development, long-term clinical trials and €40 million invested in research. It was developed through collaboration between our product development teams in India and the Netherlands-based Unilever Food & Health Research Institute. We contributed to a study to define the impact of this micronutrient mix on cognition in children, published in the American Journal of Child Nutrition.

Our new low-fat spread, Rama Idea!, was launched in 14 countries in 2006. Idea! contains nutrients that support children's mental development, an issue of interest to parents everywhere.

AdeS – our soya-based drink with fruit juices – delivers 35% of the daily recommended intake of vitamins B6 and C, magnesium and calcium. AdeS provides the goodness of soya in a 'great tasting' range of flavours.

Our iodine fortified Annapurna salt has been helping combat iodine deficiency since 1997. Iodine deficiency can contribute towards serious conditions such as mental retardation, low IQ and goitre, and cause still births and congenital abnormalities. Annapurna iodised salt is now available in India, Ghana, Nigeria and Malawi.