Liverpool scientist gets approval for food patent

by Adam Rombel, Journal Staff


02/06/04: LIVERPOOL — Dhyaneshwar (Danny) B. Chawan, Ph.D., a 30-year, veteran food-industry scientist has nine patents to his credit, but his latest may be the most timely and promising yet.

On Jan. 5, Chawan received patent approval from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a technology that processes cereal-grain-based foods, which results in the human body digesting them at a slower rate, thus decreasing blood sugar, carbohydrate, and caloric intake by up to 40 percent. The process cuts the absorption of processed complex carbohydrates in snack foods, breads, pastas, and other foods.

The invention, which Chawan has worked on for three years, is aimed at helping people who have type-2 diabetes, are on diets requiring them to monitor and limit strictly their sugar intake, or just want to take some pounds off, says Chawan, owner and president of Srim Enterprises, a food consulting and research firm he runs from his Liverpool home.

Type-2 diabetes, also called non-insulin-dependent diabetes or adult-onset diabetes, may account for about 90 percent of the roughly 20 million cases of diabetes in the United States. It’s closely associated with being obese or overweight, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). About 31 percent of U.S. adults are obese and another 33 percent are overweight, according to the CDC. A CDC study published in the January issue of Obesity Research magazine estimated that obesity cost the United States $75 billion in 2003, with taxpayers picking up half the tab.

To be sure, the 63-year-old Chawan, a former head of research and development at Borden Foods, expects it could be years before his patented food processing technology comes to market.

“Unless it goes to market, it’s no good to me,” he says.

But Chawan has taken steps to help make that happen. He has an agreement with Nashville–based startup Heartland Health Solutions to market products made by his processing technique. The company is run by Chawan’s son Ajay Chawan, a June 2003 graduate of the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University.

While at Northwestern, the younger Chawan and four student colleagues and partners won a $250,000 offer of funding for Heartland Health Solutions by taking third place in a business-plan contest hosted by New York City venture-capital firm, Carrot Capital LLC. More than 2,600 business students at 175 colleges and universities entered the competition.

In a 2003 article on the Kellogg School of Management Web site, Ajay Chawan said his father’s invention could be implemented, with little to no investment, into any of the food processing methods currently used in the U.S. The younger Chawan said, “When you think about the marketing opportunities, they’re enormous.”

Danny Chawan says the next steps in bringing his patent to market are: conducting more testing on his process method to confirm his results, further refining the business plan Heartland Health put together, and most importantly, finding outside investors. Ajay Chawan couldn’t be reached for comment by deadline.

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com

© 2004 The Central New York Business Journal