Did you hear the one about the soda giant looking to develop nutritious foods?
PepsiCo announced Tuesday that it has opened a research lab at Science Park to focus on development of more healthful foods and beverages, while also underwriting a graduate fellowship at the Yale School of Medicine.
Eight full-time PepsiCo scientists will work in leased lab space at 25 Science Park, a building owned by Carter Winstanley, according to Greg Yep, global vice president for long-term research at PepsiCo.
The main businesses of Pepsi-Co, which generate $1 billion in annual retail sales, are Frito-Lay, Quaker, Pepsi-Cola, Tropicana and Gatorade.
Yep said it already has three collaborative research projects at Yale in food science.
"We are interested in the diets and nutritional needs of our customers," Yep said. He said they are making "great strides" in creating products that are affordable, healthful and enjoyable.
Specifically, they are looking for the Holy Grail of tasty food with reduced sugar, salt and fat.
The medical school admits 13 M.D.-Ph.D. dual-degree candidates in human biology and medicine each year, and PepsiCo will fund one of them, according to Yep.
The fellowship will fund work that focuses on nutritional research, such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes and obesity. The recipients will be the Yale program's faculty, based on academic performance and research interests in these areas.
Yep said the program at Science Park and the close relationship with Yale is a first for PepsiCo, although it has other research centers in the U.S. and overseas.
Asked if the fact that PepsiCo CEO and Chairwoman Indra Nooyi is a fellow on the Yale Corporation, the governing board for the university, Yep said, "It didn't hurt."
Yep said the university is only a 45-minute drive from PepsiCo's offices in Poukeepsie, N.Y., and its scientists plan to take advantage of seminars at Yale. He said, in the future, the company may expand its lab at 25 Science Park by leasing an additional floor.
The company said the lab is part of a shift by PepsiCo to improve the nutritional value of its foods, which in the past two years has added health experts to its staff.
In the last three years, Pepsi-Co has acquired companies that produce juices, dairy, hummus, nuts and seeds, adding to its main product line of soft drinks and chips.
"Ultimately, we're trying to make it easier for consumers to lead healthier lifestyles," Mehmood Khan, PepsiCo's chief scientific officer and an endocrinologist, said in a statement. To see more of New Haven Register, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.nhregister.com. Copyright (c) 2009, New Haven Register, Conn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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