On Friday 6 July the Institute of Food Research, based on the Norwich Research Park, will unveil their latest investment in research equipment to keep them at the leading edge of food research. The IsoProbe mass spectrometer facility, costing £0.5M, is the first in the world of its type to be dedicated to food research.

Researcher Dr Jurian Hoogewerff said 'This type of mass spectrometer is regularly used by geologists to study rock formations, but the high precision of this new equipment is ideally suited to studying the way our body uses the minerals in our diet. For technical reasons, there have been problems with calcium analysis with other equipment, but this one filters out the interference, enabling us to study this very important component of the diet'.

Talking about how the equipment will be used, Professor Susan Fairweather-Tait, head of diet and health research at IFR, said, 'The high specification of this equipment allows us to study mineral metabolism in human volunteers using very low doses. Its first application is measuring calcium and iron absorption in projects funded by the Food Standards Agency and the European Commission. We will also be using it for a large EU project examining the effects of iron supplements in pregnancy on the absorption of other minerals.' The new facility is a unique resource on the Norwich Research Park, 'It is already attracting customers from the functional food industry who are interested in developing foods with enhanced health benefits e.g. higher calcium and iron bioavailability', added Professor Fairweather-Tait. The team will be using the new equipment to study calcium, iron, zinc and copper, and they have plans to extend the research to selenium and magnesium in the near future.

Dr Hoogewerrf is also interested in developing methods to check the source of foodstuffs. 'The mass spectrometer gives us a very accurate measurement of the minerals in foods, and this is related to the geology of the area they were grown in. Norfolk, for example, is very rich in limestone, so the spectrum given by beef reared here is very different from that reared in Scotland'.

Notes for editors:

• Professor Fairweather-Tait and Dr Hoogewerff will be available for interview on 4 and 5 July respectively.

• IFR is the UK's independent centre of basic scientific research focused on furthering the understanding of food in relation to the raw materials from which it is formed, the methods by which it is manufactured and its interactions with the human host. It is a company limited by guarantee, with charitable status, grant aided by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

• The Institute is based on the Norwich Research Park.

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