About Us

At Food for Health Ireland (FHI), our knowledge of food is being used to improve health and our knowledge of health is being used to improve food.

And our focus? MILK!

Milk is actually the only food ever designed by nature to be fed to mammals, so we are looking at it as the ‘perfect food’ and hope to learn everything we can from it.

Supported by Enterprise Ireland, FHI links the expertise of researchers at University College Cork, University College Dublin, Teagasc, Moorepark Food Research Centre, and University of Limerick with the marketing power of the industry partners Carbery Group, Dairygold Food Ingredients Ltd, Glanbia plc and Kerry Group plc, to develop new functional food ingredients and products.  A ‘functional food’ is one that serves a purpose beyond basic nutrition, promoting health or reducing the risk of certain diseases.

While the functional foods arena holds numerous possibilities, it also holds number of challenges, such as the continuous need for scientific substantiation, the capacity to develop/market consumer-relevant products bearing proven health claims and the funding to support the entire effort. Matching customer needs with basic scientific research is a major goal of FHI and this consortium provides the opportunity to do just that – we are harnessing Ireland’s scientific talent and marketing capability for a targeted- and industry-relevant programme.  

Through an intelligent milk mining programme and an extensive bioassay screening platform, FHI is searching for ingredients that promote infant development, help to control obesity and related diseases, boost immunity or support healthy ageing. Programmes relating to pre-commercial scale-up and formulation of foods with bioactives, help to ensure economic production and effective human delivery of milk bioactives. Importantly, the research also includes consumer studies on functional foods, which is critical for product development and successfully negotiating market opportunities.

Our Vision

To improve health, wellness and quality of life through world class innovation in food

Our Mission

To build genuine, long-term industry-academic collaborations and networking and to develop appropriate industry-focused world class capabilities and competencies so as to create profitable new business opportunities