Why did you decide to participate in this project?
As sugar reduction strategies are becoming more of a global focal point, sweetener use can be a valuable tool in this strategy. However, many questions exists around the use of sweeteners. We chose to participate in Project SWEET in order to collaborate and share our knowledge and expertise with global experts to address knowledge gaps and further investigate sweeteners to evaluate the various benefits they can provide.
What do you aim to achieve through the project?
High quality research and novel findings from collaborations that provide strong evidence for the benefits of sweeteners to promote their use.
Tell us something about your role in SWEET.
I lead WP1, Innovation and Production where we will produce comprehensive databases of sweeteners that will collect and compare health, technological and sweetness data. We also will generate the criteria to select the sweeteners as well as prepare the food and beverages that will contain the sweeteners for acute and long term the clinical trials.
What are going to be the most exciting project challenges in your view? Leveraging information from the databases and working with our partners to design novel and innovative sweetener blends and incorporating them into foods. Also understanding the benefits that the sweeteners can provide in the clinical trials.
What can we expect to see in the first 6 months, first year?
In the first 6 months, we will have objective criteria to select the sweeteners and sweetener blends to use for the project, as well as a toxicological assessment. Within the first year, we will have a collection of data for the databases and also beverages designed with sweeteners for the acute clinical trials.
Corey E. Scott, PhD
Principal Nutrition Scientist, Cargill
Corey Scott is a Principal Nutrition Scientist with Cargill in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he leads global research on the health effects of carbohydrates and sweeteners. With Project Sweet, he is a member of Work Package 1-Innovation and Production which will provide comprehensive databases on sweeteners and prepare foods and beverages with sweeteners for the acute and longer term clinical trials. He holds a Doctorate degree in Food Science and Nutrition from The Ohio State University, a Master’s degree in Chemistry from North Carolina A&T State University and a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.