Cargill, for instance, is looking at how it can support healthy longevity by exploring food solutions that benefit metabolic health, as well as immune health through its postbiotic offering.
Charoen Pokphand Foods (CP Foods), on the other hand, is embarking on a “food as medicine” strategy, where it has identified four pillars to drive the plan forward.
Tate & Lyle, while known for as a sugar and sweetener supplier, is delving into the fibre space, including human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs).
Senior executives from the above three companies pointed out the above during a panel discussion titled “Functional Innovation: Fuelling Healthy Longevity in Asia-Pacific” held on the last day (Nov 6) of the Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit 2025 in Singapore.
The panel discussion was moderated by Adam Lyle, executive chairman of consultancy firm Padang & Co.
He was joined by Remington Zhu, president Asia-Pacific of Tate & Lyle, Kok Wei Beh, head of R&D, Food Southeast Asia & ANZ & Asia Pacific Indulgence Category R&D Lead at Cargill, Kaly Chatakondu, global commercial director from Arborea, Dr Germaine Yong, senior scientist at A*STAR – Singapore Institute of Food & Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI) and Nalinee Robinson, head of R&D at CP Foods.
Health a powerful megatrend
Health is a powerful megatrend, which has led CP Foods, which is known for its frozen foods products, to pursue “food as medicine” as a business strategy, said Robinson.
“Health and wellness is a powerful megatrend. CPF also sees that health has growth opportunities, and so we have the strategy of food as medicines,” she said.
The company has identified four pillars as part of this strategy: functional health, reducing the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), medical food, and disease combating.
To pursue functional health, the company is looking at high protein options, fortification of vitamins, minerals and fibres in everyday diet.
To tackle NCDs risk, it is exploring the reduction of sodium, sugar, and cholesterol in its products, which she acknowledged would require “palette training to help consumers get use to healthier tastes with less intense but still palatable food”.
Combating disease, she said, was something that the company was aiming for further down the road.
“Last but least is something that I have a lot of passion for. We are exploring as we speak, to advance our research to find the innovative food solutions that can combat disease or kill disease…That is something that CPF is aiming for for the future,” she said.
Metabolic health and longevity
To support longevity, Cargill is zeroing the area of metabolic health and this is also a space where it could drive new developments through its existing portfolio.
This could be in terms of reducing sugar amount and replacing trans fats with low trans fat solutions
“Cargill has quite a wide range of products, whether it is carbohydrates, sugar reduction solutions, fats and oils. I think it is uniquely positioned in terms of looking at this area of longevity,” said Kok.
“At the moment, what we are looking at for longevity is how we can focus on metabolic health.
“There is a strong relation between sugars, high fats, to various syndromes, for example obesity, which a lot of us struggle with in terms of weight management, and type II diabetes, which is one of the key diseases in the region, and hypertension,” he said.
Fiber for not just gut health
Fibre is underrated in terms of Asian consumers awareness and Tate & Lyle sees opportunities in making functional products using fibre.
Based on the company’s survey, consumers in China consume only 10g of fiber per day – lower than the World Health Organization (WHO)’s recommendation of 25g per day.
It is not only underrated in terms of its potential health benefits – which Zhu said extended beyond gut health.
“Fibre is not only about gut health, it is also linked to heart health, brain health, cognitive health, sleep quality.
“We have done some studies which showed convincingly results that gut health is linked to brain. Providing the fibres is therefore not about gut health, but full body health,” he said.
To boost its fiber portfolio, the company acquired China-based Quantum that specializes in fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) fibers in 2022.
“We acquired a FOS/GOS companies three years ago, so now we have four out of the five fibres in our portfolio.
“Fiber mix is also interesting, for example FOS/GOS with polydextrose. A mix of fiber can generate more benefits, so we’re doing a lot of studies on that, and recently, we’re looking at HMOs,” he said.
Diet and aging: Strong window of intervention
As a research institute, A*STAR SIFBI is studying how diet could regulate the female sex hormone and biological aging.
“A lot of what women eat and how the diet interacts with their microbes play a key role in regulating a lot of the female sex hormones that are in circulation from the onset of puberty.
“For that reason, we believe that the management of biological aging processes that happen in women do have a very strong window of intervention – where we can leveraging the correct diet by microbiome interactions, to achieve the appropriate regulation of hormonal levels of metabolic health,” said Dr Yong.
So far, the institute is studying at least 18 ingredients that have either been soft earmarked or used in global women’s health supplements.
Arborea, a start-up specializing in microalgae, believes that the superfood could support longevity through its anti-inflammatory properties among others.
“Microalgae are superfoods packed with amino acids, minerals, vitamin B1, B2, B3, B12, iron, zinc, magnesium, and branched-chain amino acids,” said Chatakondu.
