Scientists Develop a Food Ingredient That May Prevent Obesity

A new food additive designed to help prevent weight gain has been added to the EU Novel Food List, indicating that it is considered safe for human consumption.

Obesity rarely develops overnight. More often, it begins with a small, almost invisible energy imbalance, just a few excess calories each day that gradually accumulate into significant weight gain over the years. Researchers in the United Kingdom are now exploring whether a specially designed food ingredient could interrupt that process before it becomes difficult to reverse.

Developed by scientists at Imperial College London and SUERC, the Centre for the Isotope Sciences at the University of Glasgow, the ingredient is known as inulin propionate ester, or IPE. The dietary fiber is designed to enhance a natural effect of fiber-rich foods by stimulating appetite-regulating signals in the gut, potentially helping people feel fuller for longer and consume fewer excess calories.

IPE has now been added to the European Union’s List of Authorized Novel Foods, following a regulatory assessment of its safety for human consumption. The white powder could eventually be incorporated into familiar products such as smoothies, cereal, nutritional shots, and bread, or taken on its own as a supplement.

Rather than treating obesity after it has developed, IPE is intended as a preventive intervention. Its developers hope it could help curb the slow, persistent calorie surplus that drives long-term weight gain, offering a food-based alternative to medicines designed primarily for weight loss.

Gut signals target appetite

Professor Gary Frost, Chair in Nutrition and Dietetics at Imperial College London’s Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction, said: “A small calorie surplus each day will lead to significant weight gain over time. Even one extra kilo a year in young adults is enough to create serious weight problems by middle age. We already know that a higher fiber intake can counter this, but we also know that most people find it difficult to take in enough fiber and are falling far short of the recommended intake levels.”

The central challenge was not simply adding fiber. It was delivering the right signal to the right part of the gut. In randomized controlled trials, the scientists found that about 10 grams of IPE per day can help regulate appetite and prevent weight gain.

IPE combines inulin, a natural fiber found in chicory and onions, with propionate, a naturally occurring short-chain fatty acid. Short-chain fatty acids are produced when gut bacteria break down fiber. Propionate can activate receptors in the colon that stimulate appetite-regulating hormones, which are chemical messengers that help tell the brain the body has had enough food.

IPE was built to deliver propionate directly to those receptors in the colon, strengthening the gut’s normal bacterial fermentation process and making the fullness signal more targeted.

Professor Douglas Morrison of SUERC, University of Glasgow, said: “We have brought together two natural ingredients to stimulate appetite-regulating hormones at exactly the right site in the gut. Although GLP-1 receptor agonists have shown great results in helping people lose weight, IPE could help stop the kind of slow, steady weight gain that makes those drugs necessary.”

Approval followed years of testing

IPE began in Professor Morrison’s lab. Over the next 15 years, he worked with Professor Frost to test whether the molecule could become a practical food ingredient. That effort included a series of clinical studies published in peer-reviewed journals.

Some longer-term studies suggested that IPE may have wider effects beyond appetite, including helping preserve lean body mass, improving liver fat levels and influencing immune and metabolic health. These possible benefits still require careful study, but they helped shape the case for further development.

The regulatory path was slow. The European Food Safety Authority reviewed toxicological, nutritional, and microbiological data before issuing a positive opinion late last year. The European Commission then granted final authorization, and IPE has now been formally added to the EU List of Authorized Novel Foods.

Scaling remains the barrier

The approval shows that a university lab discovery can move toward consumer use without depending entirely on a major industry pipeline. It also shows how much patience that route requires. The European Food Safety evaluation alone took six years.

IPE is still at an early commercial stage. The researchers can currently produce only a few hundred kilograms at a time at pilot scale. To reach consumers more widely, they have launched a spinout company, Satisfed, and are seeking industrial partners that can scale production to thousands of tons.

The developers hope IPE can eventually become a low-cost dietary tool built into mainstream foods. That could be especially important in communities where the cost and availability of healthier foods contribute to unequal rates of obesity.

Professor Morrison said: “We know that there is a lot of commercial interest currently in how to engineer optimum nutrient delivery to the gut, to lead to the best possible outcomes for consumers, and we hope to capitalize on that interest.”

Professor Frost added: “IPE’s inclusion in the Novel Foods List gives people who are beginning to struggle with their weight a new way of preventing further weight gain. We look forward to seeing how it will be incorporated into different foods and eating plans.”

The work was also supported by the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, a translational research partnership between Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Imperial College London.

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