£14m food centre grant hope

The facility would conduct tests into food and its health benefits and is earmarked for land off Anlaby Road, donated by Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

The centre, the first of its kind in the country, would house the recently launched Humber Obesity, Nutrition, Education and Innovation project, as well as incubator units for food businesses. Researchers will look at foods with so-called "functional" benefits like soy, which is believed to alleviate heart disease and diabetes.

Tests will be conducted for food manufacturers trying to persuade the European Food Safety Authority about the special qualities of the foods they produce.

Many thousands of "health claims" are submitted each year but only a few hundred win the authority's backing.

The head of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at the Hull York Medical School, Prof Steve Atkin, who is championing the centre, said there had been interest from major companies, like Nestle, in the project.

He said: "Fundamentally it is a collaboration between industry and the university focussed round the food centre. In order to get a food claim, you need to have the evidence.

"If you get a food claim, profitability increases considerably."

Prof Atkin said his unit was already inundated with work, and added: "We need this to allow us to provide a world class facility, to expand and deliver even more than we are doing at the moment."