On October 23, 2014, the Alliance for Aging Research, with support from Mars, Inc., convened key stakeholders from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and other non-profit organizations, the U.S. and Canadian Governments, academia, and private industry to discuss scientific evaluation of bioactive compounds. Dr. Joanne Lupton, Distinguished Professor of Nutrition at Texas A&M University, co-chaired the meeting with Susan Peschin, President and CEO of the Alliance for Aging Research, and described the goals of the meeting as follows: (1) to identify concrete ideas for creating an evaluation process for bioactives, including intake recommendations, and (2) to address issues with and opportunities for public-private partnerships. She also shared a working definition of bioactive compounds and suggested it be used for the discussion: Bioactives, according to the working definition, are “constituents in foods or dietary supplements, other than those needed to meet basic human needs, which are responsible for changes in health status.”

The meeting included four presentations that helped frame the discussion. These presentations were on perspectives from the Subcommittee on Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs), application of the DRI paradigm to bioactives, lessons learned from research on cocoa flavanols, and development of public-private partnerships.