Dieta Hoodia

Seven years ago, Daryl Rees set off on an expedition to the Orange River on the fringes of the Kalahari desert to look for a spiky little plant known as the Hoodia. He had been told that it had unusual properties: when a small amount is eaten, it makes hunger pangs disappear.

Mr Rees works for Phytopharm, a British plant sciences company. He wanted to find out whether Hoodia, which had been tested on rats, could be used to help people lose weight. The biggest problem: the bitter taste. Upon trying it, he realised he would have a tough job making it palatable: "The immediate response is: oh dear!"

By late 2001, after more than two years of research, Phytopharm had devised an edible extract of Hoodia that it tested on "quite hefty souls". People who ate the extract lost one kilogram in body fat over two weeks; a placebo group gained one kilo.

Phytopharm struck a deal in 2004 with Unilever, which wanted to use Hoodia in its food products. Over the past two years the Anglo-Dutch multinational has invested millions of euros in farming more than 100 hectares of Hoodia in South Africa - even though it is still unsure whether foods based on the plant will be commercially viable.

For Unilever, the Hoodia project - which involves a £21m ($41m, €31m) investment in Phytopharm - is a significant departure from past practice. Traditionally, the company developed all its products at research sites in the UK and the Netherlands. Now, it is looking outside for ideas. "We are moving from invention to 'find and adapt' as a mantra," says Vindi Banga, head of Unilever's food business.

A similar shift is occurring throughout the food and soft drink industry as companies adapt to changing consumer needs. In the twentieth century, food manufacturers concentrated on making tasty, affordable products that were easy to store and cook. However, with obesity-related illnesses on the rise and governments limiting the sale and advertising of sugary and salty snacks to children, food and drink companies need to find a new role.

Werner Bauer, head of research and development at Nestlé, will take up the newly-created position of chief technology officer in February to oversee an acceleration of the Swiss food group's transformation into a "nutrition, health and wellness" company. "This century is clearly destined to see food playing the role of one thing that improves your quality of life before you need medication," he says.

In November Nestlé signed a five-year agreement with the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, an institute of technology, to research the relationship between nutrition and the brain. The company will invest SFr5m (£2.1m, $4.1m, €3.1m) a year in the hope of finding ways to create foods that will slow or prevent degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Other food companies are charting a similar course. In December, Kraft of the US signed an exclusive co-development agreement with XL TechGroup to get access to research into vegetable oils that attack human parasites. John Scott, chief executive of XL TechGroup, claims: "This is something that could literally change the health of the developing world."

Even companies that have traditionally not had extensive research and development facilities are investing more heavily in science. David Macnair, chief science and technology officer at Cadbury Schweppes, was hired from Campbell Soup after the confectionery and soft drinks group bought the Adams gum business in 2003. Mr Macnair said the acquisition, which brought brands such as Halls and Trident into Cadbury's fold, stimulated internal debate about the UK company's technical capabilities. "Part of that was me joining the business."

Cadbury, which is seeing sales of its Green & Black organic chocolate brand grow faster than milk chocolate, has strengthened its focus on R&D. Its spending on science and technology as a percentage of sales has doubled over the past three years and it has sought external alliances including a partnership with the National University of Singapore.

Mr Macnair says that the eagerness of the industry to pursue external relationships is relatively new. "The food industry has historically been a little bit insular," he says. "Now it's opening its mind up."

Consultants say that even when food companies have had strong research facilities, they have not always been good at translating them into new products. Richard Rawlinson, a vice-president at Booz Allen Hamilton, attributes the success of Danone, the French dairy company, to its ability to combine research with good marketing.

"Danone is the one everyone looks at as the poster child," Mr Rawlinson says, noting that the group's strong scientific links have given its product claims credibility. Actimel, a fermented dairy drink launched by Danone in the early 1990s, now has annual sales of around €840m and has spawned a host of imitators. Bill Pecoriello, analyst at Morgan Stanley, says Danone and Nestlé are ahead of their US rivals in the search for new products. "The [US] industry needs to step up its R&D," he told a beverage conference in New York recently.

Among US food and drink groups, arguably the greatest progress is being made by PepsiCo. The US group once had one of the least healthy product ranges in the industry, with most of its business generated by two of America's leading "junk food" brands: Pepsi-Cola soft drinks and Frito-Lay salty snacks.

But PepsiCo was quicker than most to identify changing consumer habits, launching a series of acquisitions and expanding into new product categories as early as the late 1990s. Nearly a decade later, research by Morgan Stanley shows that PepsiCo owns four of the seven most respected "health" brands among US consumers: Quaker cereal, Dole and Tropicana juices and Gatorade sports drink.

Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo chief executive, told a recent investor conference that health and wellness was one of the group's biggest growth opportunities. "We view health and wellness as one of those rare opportunities in business when the public good intersects with private interests," she said.

For PepsiCo, the appeal of healthier brands is not limited to their strong growth. Many of them also command a premium price. While non-carbonated drinks account for only 35 per cent of the group's US beverage volume, they generate 67 per cent of revenues.

Almost every new product showcased by PepsiCo at its recent investor conference in New York was promoted for its health benefits. The most striking of these were crisps that, it was claimed, contained the nutritional equivalent of a half-serving of fruit or vegetable.

But while fruit-flavoured crisps and vitamin-enhanced soft drinks may help offset the decline of PepsiCo's traditional businesses, the group understands it must also develop new product categories if it is not to lose ground to the likes of Nestlé and Danone. In October, the US group announced plans to build a new global research and development centre in Ireland, where it will develop functional beverages.

Antonio Lucio, PepsiCo's senior vice-president of innovation, health and wellness, says research and development is no longer a matter of choice for food and drink companies. "To paraphrase from Napoleon, 'no army or corporation will be able to stop an idea whose time has come'."