Nutritious nibbles for China

Chinese consumers may soon be munching on snacks made from ingredients including New Zealand native plants.

The snacks, which are still in prototype stage, will be aimed at Chinese who are at risk from Type 2 diabetes. The National Science Challenge is providing $750,000 towards the project in a partnership with Nuku ki te Puku, a cluster of Ma¯ori-owned food and beverage businesses. The latter will stump up $240,000.

Dr Meika Foster, the project leader of the high-value nutrition science team, said the composition of the snacks was under wraps while trials were carried out on more than 200 Chinese in Auckland, to assess their impact.It was important that the products were backed by sound medical research. ‘‘We’re still at the product development stage but we’ve got a pretty good idea of what the ingredients will be. They will be plant-based and have a high protein and low glycaemic index,’’ Foster said.

If the snacks proved successful they would be marketed within New Zealand also, because a significant proportion of the local population had a pre-diabetic condition. ‘‘There will be a place for the products if we can show they are made using unique New Zealand ingredients and with science behind them.’’

Foster said there was a gap in the market for convenient, healthy food and a large market of more than 500 million people in Asia identified as having a pre-diabetes condition – and the numbers were rising.

Foster has a background in law but is also a nutrition researcher and dietician who has worked for Australian and New Zealand universities. She is the founder of the company Edible Research.