Foodomics...?

I attended – and chaired a session – at a meeting of scientists in Cambridge yesterday to discuss 'Foodomics? Why we eat, What we eat and What’s Next on the Menu'.  It was a fascinating day, starting with an overview from Susan Jebb from the MRC Human Nutrition Research, who argued that the big issue in food is obesity. She pointed out that in evolutionary terms, we have been more concerned with hunger than satiety and that our response to the former is much greater than to the latter. Somehow we can always fit in that extra portion!

We then heard about the important role of genetics in diet-related diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.  For some individuals, there is clearly a strong genetic component which increases the risk or susceptibility of these diseases. 

Then we moved on to the fascinating topic of human behaviour and three stimulating talks reminded us, through archaeological and social anthropological information, of the complex social, cultural and religious context within which food is consumed. As natural scientists, we do need to remember that food is not consumed in the laboratory!  And as I have noted before, the Agency is currently recruiting social scientists.

The afternoon kicked off with some of the important public health work under way on iron deficiency and gene-nutrient interactions in cancer prevention. The European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC) study aims to investigate individual cancer risk by following half a million people for dietary habits and cancer risk.  These large-scale prospective studies are an important means of obtaining robust information on the impact of various dietary components on health.

In the final session, we looked forward to the influence of new technological developments on the food we consume.  We held a horizon-scanning event internally in the Agency last week so this was of considerable interest.  While we cannot predict the future, what we do know is that the pace of change is increasing and it is essential that we are able to respond flexibly to these changes.  One change that would be very welcome is a vaccine for campylobacter in poultry (there already is a vaccine for salmonella, which has no doubt played an important part in reducing the incidence of infection).  Duncan Maskell's work on genomics of foodborne pathogens may help in our aims to reduce campylobacter in poultry.